Marathon Petroleum: Marathon Petroleum helps advance STEM education in Salt Lake City

Marathon Petroleum’s Salt Lake City refinery is partnering with the Salt Lake City School District and Salt Lake Education Foundation to better prepare students for future workforce opportunities through the inception of the Utah STEM Ecosystem Community of Practice.

A $47,000 grant from Marathon Petroleum will fund the STEM Ecosystem Design Studio – the first step of the Utah STEM Ecosystem. Members of the Salt Lake City refinery’s Women’s Employee Network (W.E.N) recently presented the check to the Foundation.

The design studio will bring together a collaboration of community stakeholders that will work with national STEM Ecosystem Community of Practice leadership to assess current Utah STEM education offerings and opportunities and identify gaps in education, training, support, and workforce preparation. The Design Studio will create recommendations for the Community of Practice, which will then define future steps, actions, and goals of the program.

“From engineers to pipefitters, chemists to accountants, IT specialists to welders, Marathon Petroleum’s success relies on our ability to recruit and retain employees with exceptional skills-based experience,” said Grisel Ortiz Morales, Refining Engineer and W.E.N co-lead at the Salt Lake City refinery. “These funds are a direct investment in Utah’s students, and we’re proud to be able to help make a positive impact for the next generation STEM workforce.”

This grant furthers Marathon Petroleum Salt Lake City refinery’s longstanding partnership with Salt Lake City School District and Salt Lake Education Foundation. Over the past six years, the company has contributed approximately $300,000 to these organizations to fund STEM initiatives, including a multi-team robotics program, teacher overtime for math tutoring, and the creation of a full year engineering program to prepare students for success at the university level.