Marathon Petroleum Company’s (MPC) Louisiana Refining Division (LRD) sponsors many education initiatives in the community. We have a genuine desire to see St. John Parish students not only succeed, but excel in education.

Education is our first priority in community outreach, and we have created many initiatives to help students in the Parish.

We’ve previously partnered with a foundation to place 37 Interactive Smart Boards in classrooms throughout St. John Parish.

Each smart board that goes into classrooms increases academic achievement by 17-29 percent, and that’s measureable success. We’ve also partnered with St. John Parish School Board, St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office and the River Region Chamber of Commerce to bring back the Honor Roll Round Up and also recognize all of the Students, Principals and Teachers of the Year.

The LRD donates $15,000 annually to our four adopted schools: East St. John Elementary, Garyville Mt. Airy Magnet, East St. John High School and South Central Louisiana Technical College.

Through this program, we have won awards for Bringing Science to Life Program, educating third and fourth grade students through simple science experiments and providing mentors throughout the year. We also donated $1,000 to the 16 remaining kindergarten through twelfth grade public and private schools in the parish.

This school year, we provided 550 school supply kits for students needing assistance. We will partner with St. John Parish Government and Blessed to be a Blessing non-profit this year to provide health screenings in addition to supplies.

Each year, we sponsor Teach for America Corps teachers who are placed within the Parish by subsidizing a portion of their salary. Teach for America’s goal is to eradicate educational inequality.

After looking at all these programs and more over this past school year, I’m inspired by the amount of time that our employees and community have put into making this school year a success.

Good luck to all students taking exams over the next few weeks. While school is about to take a break for the summer, remember that learning doesn’t have to take time off.

Keith Hightower is the Human Resources Manager for Marathon Petroleum’s Garyville Refinery. He can be reached at thightower@marathonpetroleum.com.