MEDIA RESOURCES

DALLAS, Texas (SMU) – ExxonMobil is contributing more than $1.8 million in departmental grants to 102 colleges and universities to assist these institutions with the extra funding needed for academic programs. SMU will receive $9,000 from ExxonMobil as part of this program. The Cox School of Business receives $6,000 of the grant.

Selected academic departments can use the grants for various educational purposes. Past grants have supported scholarships, field trips, visiting speakers, equipment purchases, student and faculty travel to professional meetings, and other academic projects. ExxonMobil awards these grants to schools that offer degrees in educational fields from which the company recruits employees. The Cox School plans to use the $6,000 grant for student scholarships.

“ExxonMobil has a long history of supporting higher education, especially in the areas where our company recruits future employees,” said Sharyl Hackett, ExxonMobil Campus Relations and Diversity Manager. “With these departmental grants, our support is specifically directed to those university departments that are educating the highly-qualified graduates that ExxonMobil needs.”

The amount of each grant is based on many factors, including the number of ExxonMobil employees from a particular school and ExxonMobil’s recruiting success at the school over the past five years.