|  By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Jun 5, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT  |

TO commemorate the 20th anniversary of the UTeach programme, ExxonMobil has provided a grant of more than $275,000 to DonorsChoose.org that will provide each public school UTeach alumnus with funding for classroom projects.

The UTeach programme is an innovative, university-based teacher preparation initiative that has significantly increased the number of qualified science, technology, engineering and math, STEM, teachers in United States of America secondary schools.

Ben Soraci, general manager of public and government affairs for ExxonMobil and president of the ExxonMobil Foundation, said, “UTeach has dramatically reshaped STEM teaching and learning across the nation, one community at a time. We applaud UTeach alumni for their dedication and work to help students develop critical science and math skills to thrive in tomorrow’s careers.”

Together with the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the DonorsChoose.org initiative is providing each public school UTeach alumnus, nearly 2,000 teachers in 38 states and the District of Columbia, with a $150 gift to purchase classroom supplies and materials. Research shows that teachers who are knowledgeable about their content area are better able to teach and inspire students, particularly in STEM subjects.

The U.S., however, has long struggled to recruit and retain qualified STEM teachers in K-12 classrooms. UTeach addresses this challenge by allowing college students majoring in math, science or computer science to earn both their STEM degree and teaching certification in just four years, often with the benefit of free or reduced tuition.

With the support of ExxonMobil and other donors, and through organisations such as the National Math and Science Initiative, UTeach programmes now reach about 6,900 college students from 45 partner universities in 21 states and the District of Columbia. By 2020, 8,000 UTeach graduates will have taught more than four million students nationwide.

Over the past 16 years, ExxonMobil has contributed more than $1.2 billion for education programmes around the world, which includes support for high-quality math and science educators through grants to Teach for America, Teach for All, the National Science Teachers Association, the Data Quality Campaign, among others. In 2007, ExxonMobil was one of the founding sponsors of the National Math and Science Initiative, which helps expand the UTeach program nationally.

Originally developed in 1997 at the University of Texas at Austin, UTeach is an innovative, university-based teacher preparation program working to prepare STEM teachers for secondary schools in the U.S. The program represents a unique collaboration between colleges of education and science and combines rigorous STEM degrees with secondary teaching certification without adding time or cost to four-year degrees.

The UTeach Institute was established in 2006 both to support expansion of UTeach to universities across the United States and to lead efforts toward continuous improvement of the UTeach model. UTeach Institute supports a national community that improves STEM education by increasing the number of high quality teachers and improving access to inquiry-based curriculum.

With a nationally scalable programme for universities, UTeach is producing a rapidly growing number of teachers who are educating tomorrow’s scientists and engineers to play a vital role in America’s economic growth.

ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, uses technology and innovation to help meet the world’s growing energy needs.

ExxonMobil holds an industry-leading inventory of resources, is one of the largest refiners and marketers of petroleum products and its chemical company is one of the largest in the world.