Quality Education

When I was first asked to blog about the most valuable part of the Amgen Scholars Program for me this past summer, I had no idea how to respond. How could I choose from the many great opportunities I had been given? Maybe I should talk about being able to experience life as a graduate student working full time in a lab.

On a surprisingly sunny Sunday afternoon, 21 students from 17 different countries all arrived in Cambridge. Each of us came from a unique background, armed with distinctive outlooks on life, but we all shared the same unequivocal curiosity and passion that science demands. The earlier arrivals amongst us (including me) formed a welcome party for those yet to come, taking the time to introduce ourselves.

Katherine Gertz, a fourth-grade science teacher at E. K. Key Elementary in Sulphur, Louisiana, was selected to be a 2017 CITGO Nautilus Ambassador. In August, she joined fellow Ambassadors aboard Exploration Vessel Nautilus to study the central California coast alongside scientists and engineers as part of the Ocean Exploration Trust’s (OET) Community STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Program.

In partnership with Jumpstart’s annual Read for the Record® campaign, CITGO Petroleum Corporation is participating in a day-long celebration across 12 states on October 19 to spread the joy of reading and help achieve a new reading record.

They have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed at meeting the skills demands of a changing world.

On October 11, Tetra Tech joins organizations around the world in celebrating the role of girls and women in building a better world.
The United Nations’ International Day of the Girl Child has focused the world’s attention on “the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights. […] Girls have the potential to change the world—both as the empowered girls of today and as tomorrow’s workers, mothers, entrepreneurs, mentors, household heads, and political leaders.”

That shipping container behind the Cyrus E. Dallin Elementary school isn’t from the remnants of a local building project; it’s a moving science lab. The Curiosity Cube, created by life science company MilliporeSigma, features hands-on science experiments geared towards getting kids interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Many corporate citizenship programs involve initiatives that reflect immediate problems (such as apprenticeship programs to fill near-term openings), the nature of their company (such as financial literacy), or local community needs (arts, athletics, etc.). In addition, though, some business leaders and corporations are addressing a social goal that is outside their business expertise and far beyond next year’s workforce projections. They are also taking a set of actions that tap into the whole array of corporate assets to solve a pressing problem.

Costa Cruises and Shakira's Foundation Pies Descalzos partner on a new campaign called “Building Happiness” for the construction of a school in Colombia. It will help over 1300 families and children in Colombia by providing access to quality education.

When Grayson Fast, a student at Horizon Middle School in Aurora, CO, first started working on a school project aimed at designing an artificial limb for a local military veteran, she knew it would have a significant impact on the recipient’s life – but she didn’t realize it would gain national attention and alter the future of custom prosthetics for people with disabilities.