Chevron’s Fuel Your School Program Launches in Orange County
Collaboration with DonorsChoose.org will help generate up to $1 million for local public school teachers and students
BREA, CALIF., Sept. 10, 2013 – Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (NYSE: CVX) today announced the launch of its Fuel Your School program in Orange County. This year, the program will expand to 14 U.S. communities from nine communities in 2012, helping to provide educators with the classroom supplies they need to engage and positively impact the lives of students.
Last year, Chevron helped fund projects in 316 public schools in Orange County. This year, Chevron will contribute $1 to help fund eligible classroom projects when consumers purchase 8 or more gallons of fuel from Oct. 1 to Oct. 31 at participating Chevron and Texaco stations, up to a total contribution of $1 million in Orange County alone.
“Chevron is again looking forward to supporting local classrooms with our Fuel Your School program,” said Hector Infante, Policy, Government and Public Affairs Manager for Chevron in Orange County. “We know how key a quality education is to success in the modern economy. With Fuel Your School, Chevron can help equip public schools with engaging classroom resources needed.”
In the U.S., Fuel Your School is an innovative collaboration between Chevron and DonorsChoose.org, an online organization dedicated to helping students in need. The program was driven by the lack of adequate public school funding, which has left some teachers without basic supplies to help students complete their classroom assignments.
“Last year, the average public school teacher spent approximately $485 of their own money on school supplies, instructional materials and other classroom materials needed for student learning,” said Charles Best, CEO of DonorsChoose.org. “By using our website, combined with Chevron’s community relationships and retail network, we can expand the Fuel Your School program to support more schools, empower more teachers and improve more students’ education.”
All year, public school teachers post classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org, ranging from pencils to microscope slides and even live tarantulas for use with biology lessons. One of those requests came from Jenny Kung, a teacher at El Modena High School, in Orange, Calif., who lacked the resources to expose students to vivid, hands-on scientific environments. With the help of the Fuel Your School program, she and her students received hands-on genetics activity kits which aid in lessons on DNA and genetics, allowing her students to take on the role of actual scientists.
“The science inquiry and laboratory materials that the Fuel Your School program helped fund enable my high school biology students to connect genetics to real-world applications and be able to collaborate with each other,” Kung said. “These hands-on activities encourage students to use higher-level thinking skills that will be important to helping them succeed in the real world.”
Since its inception in 2010, Fuel Your School has helped fund 8,915 classroom projects at 1,924 schools. The program has grown each year to support students in various communities where Chevron has business operations and has reached 899,180 students. Chevron also supports similar marketer co-funded programs in Ector County, Texas and Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake and Mendocino counties (North Coast), California, as well as similar international programs in Canada, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Johor and Kedah, Malaysia.
Public school teachers and other educators in Orange County are invited to post eligible project requests at www.DonorsChoose.org beginning Sept. 1, 2013 for possible funding as part of the Fuel Your School program.
Consumers can track the classroom projects in need of funding and see how much money is being earned for public schools by visiting www.FuelYourSchool.com. Donations earned through Fuel Your School will be used to help fund eligible classroom projects from Oct. 2 through Nov. 30, 2013, or until funds generated by this program have been exhausted by eligible projects. Anyone, including consumers and Chevron employees, may also independently fund classroom projects on the DonorsChoose.org website by making separate, individual donations.
About Chevron
Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. The company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including biofuels. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.
About DonorsChoose.org
Founded in 2000, DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need. Public school teachers from every corner of America post requests, and individuals can give directly to the ones that inspire them. To date, 250,000 public and charter school teachers have used DonorsChoose.org to secure $184 million in books, art supplies, technology, and other resources that their students need to learn.
Visit www.donorschoose.org/intro to hear Oprah Winfrey and Stephen Colbert tell the DonorsChoose.org story.
# # #
