OREANDA-NEWS. September 11, 2012. Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (NYSE: CVX) announced the expansion of its Fuel Your School program to nine communities this fall from two communities in 2011, reported the press-centre of Chevron.  

Fuel Your School will provide useful funding for eligible classroom projects developed by public school teachers and posted to DonorsChoose.org in the following communities:

Alameda and Contra Costa counties, California
Orange County, California
Kern County, California
Sacramento County, California
St. Tammany, Orleans and Plaquemines parishes, Louisiana
Jackson County, Mississippi
Multnomah County, Oregon
Harris County, Texas
Salt Lake and Davis counties, Utah

Chevron will donate USD 1 for every eight gallon or larger fill up from Oct. 1 to Oct. 31 at participating Chevron and Texaco stations in those communities, up to a total contribution of nearly USD 5 million.

"Educating today's students remains critical to our country's future, but America's schools face significant challenges and have fallen behind in science, technology, engineering and math," said Dale Walsh, president of Chevron Americas Products. "Fuel Your School provides teachers with essential tools and resources that help students learn, explore and get excited about STEM education to help prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow."

The program is an innovative collaboration with DonorsChoose.org, an online charity to help students in need. All year, public school teachers across the U.S. post classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org, ranging from pencils to microscope slides and even live tarantulas for use with biology lessons.

"Teachers spend more than USD 350 of their own money every year on materials for their students," said Charles Best, CEO of DonorsChoose.org. "Our site enables public school teachers to post projects for funding from their community and companies like Chevron who want to improve students' education."

The lack of adequate school funding across the nation has become so dire that some teachers do not have basic supplies to help students complete their classroom assignments. During the last school year, public school teachers shared more than 100,000 requests on the DonorsChoose.org website. One of those requests came from Ms. Lim-Breitbart, who teaches high school physics at Aspire California College Preparatory Academy in Berkeley, Calif., but lacked the resources to provide students with hands-on scientific activities. With the help of the Fuel Your School program, she and her students received digital thermometers and hot plates to use during physics lessons.

"[The] donation helped change our classroom from 'getting by' to 'doing real science' this year," said Lim-Breitbart. Students now believe that "science is a real option for them in the future."

Chevron partners with local communities, governments and non-profit organizations to increase learning opportunities for students and support the social and economic vitality of communities where the company has significant business operations. Chevron has contributed nearly USD 100 million for education in the U.S. over the past three years.

Since its inception in 2010, Fuel Your School has funded more than 3,000 classroom projects at nearly 600 schools, and the program has grown each year to support students in additional communities. Public school teachers and other educators are invited to post eligible projects starting on September 1 to www.DonorsChoose.org, 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 in each city by visiting www.FuelYourSchool.com. Donations earned through Fuel Your School will be used to fund eligible classroom projects from Oct. 2 through Nov. 30, 2012, or until funds generated by this program have been exhausted by eligible projects. Consumers and Chevron employees may also independently fund classroom projects on the DonorsChoose.org website by making separate, individual donations.