2025 Valero Report on Guiding Principles - Flipbook - Page 44
Education and Workforce Development:
Facilitating Educational Opportunities
Fueling Education: Valero’s 2024 Back-toSchool Initiatives
Recognizing that educational opportunities are a path
to success, Valero has partnered with several agencies
committed to ensuring that children and adults have the
knowledge, skills, training and resources to help them thrive.
Team Valero played a key role in supporting
back-to-school events. These initiatives served
as vital platforms for our communities, schools
and organizations to come together in support of
students by ensuring more than 23,000 students
had backpacks and the supplies needed for a
successful school year.
Texas City, Texas – Made possible in part by a
$187,000 contribution by Valero, a new glass distillation
unit offers hands-on training to more than 600 process
technology (PTECH) students at the College of the Mainland.
San Antonio, Texas – Valero
helped launch a new,
immersive four-week summer
science program called the
“Valero Young Scientist Program”
with Texas Biomedical Research
Institute. Nearly 40 high school
juniors and seniors were accepted
into the program where they
worked alongside and learned
from instructors, graduate
students and postdoctoral fellows.
Ardmore, Oklahoma – Valero provided $150,000 for athletic
昀椀eld improvements for the Oklahoma School for the Deaf,
which is the only school in Oklahoma for deaf and hardof-hearing children. In addition to those improvements, the
funding also went to create a Special Olympics area for
current and future students.
Port Arthur, Texas – Valero teamed up with United Way
of Mid & South Jefferson County to purchase a book
vending machine for DeQueen Elementary School. The book
vending machine is free to students and promotes early
language and literacy skills, and students get a special gold
coin when they meet reading goals.
Port Arthur, Texas – More than 70 volunteers
participated in the Annual Kids Fest to provide
supplies to 874 students.
Houston, Texas – Valero volunteers distributed 180
backpacks to local students.
Corpus Christi, Texas – A team of 38 Valero
volunteers handed out backpacks.
Texas City, Texas – Valero distributed 400
backpacks.
Three Rivers, Texas – Valero donated backpacks for
students and provided reusable water bottles.
St. Charles Parish, Louisiana – Valero contributed
$10,000 to Ethel Schoeffner Elementary and Hahnville
High School, and also donated backpacks and
supply kits. With donations from United Way, 500
students were provided with school essentials at the
“Be a Blessing Backpack Extravaganza."
Wilmington, California – Valero's back-to-school
efforts reached across seven schools, distributing
backpacks and school supplies to more than 50
students from each school.
Ardmore, Oklahoma – Ardmore's Literacy Day
back-to-school event reached 650 participants,
including 358 school-aged children who received
backpacks 昀椀lled with supplies and meals.
Pembroke, U.K. – Valero’s 206 volunteers led two
projects to support local students. A hygiene drive
provided 200 hygiene packs for three Pembroke
schools. And a back-to-school drive provided
school supplies to students.
Charles City, Iowa – Valero volunteers distributed
350 pairs of shoes for students during the National
Night Out shoe drive.
Bloomingburg, Ohio – School supplies were
collected and distributed to various school districts
in the area.
44
Valero Ethanol Plants held a book drive challenge
and collected more than 1,900 books for schools
and agencies in their communities. As the winner
of the drive, the Valero Bluffton Plant donated
additional funds to Kate’s Kart, a nonpro昀椀t agency
that gifts new books to hospitalized children and
their families.
