CHARLESTON, W.Va. (submitted) — Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin today announced Southwestern Energy will donate $250,000 to each of the college foundations at Pierpont Community and Technical College and West Virginia Northern Community College. The money will support scholarships for students specializing in the Petroleum Technology programs at both campuses.
“Southwestern Energy is one of the Mountain State’s newest investors and has embraced our goal of strengthening West Virginia’s workforce. We appreciate their investments in not only our state and our people, but also in our communities and our classrooms,” Gov. Tomblin said. “On behalf of students and families across the Mountain State, I’d like to thank Southwestern for this generous contribution, which will help to prepare our students to be valuable members of our workforce now and for years to come.”
Bill Way, president and chief operating officer of Southwestern Energy, joined Gov. Tomblin today at the Wheeling Rotary Club meeting to make the announcement.
“Training our local workforce is vital, and so we are happy to make these gifts,” Way said. “The schools have built strong petroleum technology programs and so it makes sense to be financially supportive but more than that, to hire the graduates. We have just hired three of the graduates and six student interns from the program, who join the more than 100 West Virginians we have hired since late December.”
In October 2014, Southwestern Energy announced an investment of more than $5 billion to acquire Chesapeake Energy’s Marcellus and Utica shale properties in West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. Since then, the company has announced plans to invest an additional $20 billion and hire hundreds of West Virginia workers.