Employee
Special thanks to Beaumont employee volunteers for success
During the spring we featured a story in The Exemplar about ExxonMobil volunteers partnering with teachers at Martin Luther King middle school in an effort to tutor students in math and science. The goal is to prepare students for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam they were scheduled to take at the end of the school year. The initiative stemmed from the on-going tutoring program ExxonMobil employees initiated at Charlton-Pollard elementary in 2011. The Black Employee Success Team (BEST) organization at ExxonMobil identified an opportunity to help raise test scores on standardized math and science exams by initiating tutoring sessions.
The scores are back and 18 out of the 19 students who participated in the tutoring program passed the STAAR test in math. Jordan Cole was one of several volunteers to participate in the program. “I am encouraged by the work of BEST and other Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) in the community. If we work together we have a tremendous opportunity to leverage our strengths to build strong relationships with the schools in our community,” says Cole.
Pictured from Left to Right: Lauren Cagley, Jordan Cole, Erika Anderson, and Karen Adams volunteered to tutor students at MLK middle school.
Community
Amelia Elementary students get a chance to see science in action
“Wow! That’s so cool,” says fifth grader Aiden Cooper as he and his classmates at Amelia Elementary school witness the wonders of static electricity. Standing inside a science museum on wheels, the students were excited to experience the hands-on exhibits teaching them about energy, space, weather, biotechnology, and aerodynamics. The trailer is organized by the Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering (TAME) and staffed by community volunteers. “Seeing the kids enthusiastic and interested to learn about what we were explaining to them made all the difference for me as a volunteer,” says Isaac Jones. Jones works as an engineer at ExxonMobil and was one of thirteen volunteers from the Global Organization for the Advancement of Latinos (GOAL) to participate in the event. Erika Arango also works with ExxonMobil and is a GOAL member. She volunteered to speak with students about solar flares as part of the space exhibit. “When you see their eyes light up you know that they’ve grasped what you just explained. It was
rewarding to see one student make the connection between solar flares and cellular disruptions during our presentation,” says Erika Arango. About 460 second-grade to fifth-grade students participated in the event during the three days the exhibit was at Amelia Elementary. “I think it’s a great opportunity to help build student’s interest in science and let them know about STEM-related fields at an early age. I was glad to see other ExxonMobil employees supporting this event,” says Jones.
Fifth-grader at Amelia Elementary
observes slides under a microscope inside the TAME trailer exhibit.
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