Chevron and Mississippi State University’s Bagley College of Engineering have partnered in a new educational program designed to help increase the number of minority and female students who pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (S.T.E.M.) educational opportunities.
Known as CREATE, which stands for Chevron’s Reaching Excellence, Accelerating diversity & inclusion and Transforming Engineers, the innovative and comprehensive program will also help develop a pathway for a well-educated, diverse student population to ultimately enter the professional engineering workforce. The program is part of Chevron’s ongoing support for S.T.E.M. education in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and university partnership programs.
“Chevron has a longtime partnership with Mississippi State’s world-class engineering program. Collaboration with MSU on the CREATE program will allow us to pool our resources and offer more opportunities for students in Mississippi — our future engineers,” said Jay Pryor, vice president of Corporate Business Development and Chevron’s executive sponsor of the MSU partnership. “By bringing the outreach and recruiting down to the K-12 level, it will help build exposure for MSU’s engineering program and stimulate a broader interest in S.T.E.M.”
CREATE encompasses five main areas of emphasis: K-12 outreach, scholarships, transfer students, mentoring and professional development, and recruiting. The program provides funding for summer engineering camps for elementary, middle and high school students, as well as university scholarships for students at MSU’s main Starkville campus and the MSU Engineering on the Coast program at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gautier.
CREATE also supports the Chevron Engineering Transfer Program, which helps minority engineering students who transfer into MSU Bagley College of Engineering, while also funding mentoring programs and engineering student organizations. The program strengthens Mississippi State’s engineering student recruitment efforts.
“We are grateful to Chevron for their support of our students, faculty and staff,” said Jason Keith, dean of the Bagley College of Engineering. “Increasing both the quality and diversity of the students within our college is extremely important to us and the CREATE program will go a long way towards helping us reach those goals. The program will also support engineers as they transition into the workforce, which will be a tremendous benefit to the state of Mississippi as a whole.”
Chevron officials presented a check for $400,000 during a recent visit to the Mississippi State campus. As part of its commitment to supporting engineering education, Chevron also made a $300,000 donation to help grow the Engineering on the Coast program in 2015. The partnership between Mississippi State and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College allows students to receive a bachelor’s degree in electrical or mechanical engineering from MSU without leaving the Gulf Coast. Overall, Chevron has invested more than $ 4 million at Mississippi State since 2007.
