Community Foundation and Southwestern Energy boost local STEM education with $13k grants

OHIO COUNTY, W.Va. — Local educators received grants Wednesday that would allow them to have more STEM opportunities in the classroom.

The Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley has been in a partnership with Southwestern Energy to support science, technology, engineering, and math education since 2018. The goal is to inspire Ohio Valley students to enter into STEM-based careers.

"They like to give back to the community where they're producing and this is one way that they do that by giving back to the educators in our area to equip students in the classroom with additional stem materials to enter those fields that Southwestern might be interested in hiring later on,” CFOV Program Officer Debbie Stanton said.

This year, 14 K-12 public school educators from Brooke, Ohio, Marshall and Wetzel counties were awarded over $13,000 for classroom STEM projects.

"It's just a great opportunity to give back to the communities that we operate, live, work, and play in,” Southwestern Energy Community Relations Manager Stephanie Pauluda said. “These teachers do such a tremendous job and are really the backbone of our communities, so we are just so excited to give back and give them an opportunity to do additional projects in their classrooms and not have to take it out of their own pocket."

Teachers who received the grants had the chance to meet with each other in Wheeling and discuss what their unique projects entailed.

Edna Taylor, first grade teacher at Center McMechen Elementary applied and won the grant which she plans to use on creating more hands-on activities for her students. She wants to get them off the tablets and present a more interactive learning approach.

"This gives them a chance to be creative, be imaginative, learn to work with someone else, and learn from mistakes,” Taylor said.