Dominion Foundation Awards $200,000 To Eight Ohio Colleges

CLEVELAND, Sept. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Eight Ohio institutions will receive a combined $200,000 in Dominion Foundation Higher Education Grants for 2014. The grants focus on programs that help prepare students for technical positions in Ohio's growing energy production and other industries.

The Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dominion Resources, Dominion East Ohio's parent company, is dedicated to improving the physical, social and economic well being of the communities served by Dominion companies. Dominion and the Foundation annually award more than $20 million to causes that protect the environment, promote education and help meet basic human needs.  

"Ohio industries require an increasing number of well-trained candidates to meet the demand for skilled employees, said Scott Miller, Dominion East Ohio Vice President and General Manager. "Ohio's colleges, universities and technical schools, are helping to train this new generation of workers, and Dominion is committed to supporting these educational efforts."

Dominion Foundation Ohio Higher Education Partnership Grant recipients are:

• Zane State College, Zanesville, received $37,000 to support its Maintenance Education for Midstream Oil and Gas Industry Workers project. The program provides realistic, hands-on training for prospective employees in gathering, processing and transporting Ohio's shale energy resources to market.
• Marietta College received $30,000 for its student and staff-driven energy efficiency improvements project. The college's Energy Systems program incorporates the study of increased use energy efficiency and alternative energy sources, including installation of solar panels on campus buildings to generate 36.5 megawatt hours of electricity annually.
• Kent State University at Stark, in North Canton, received $28,000 for its Campus to Career: From the Liberal Arts to the Energy Sector program. The school installed a vertical axis wind turbine to generate electricity for its new sciences building, while incorporating aspects of the turbine into biology, education, geography, mathematics, physics and psychology courses.
• The University of Akron Foundation received $25,000 to buy new corrosion laboratory equipment to provide hand-on training for students in the school's Corrosion Engineering Technology program. Program students will use the equipment to learn, firsthand, about corrosion testing applications.
• Belmont College, St. Clairsville, received $20,000 to expand its Instrumentation and Control Lab. The laboratory and associated equipment will help train students to install, calibrate, maintain and repair prospective energy industry-related equipment in the field, service centers and factories.
• Cuyahoga Community College Foundation, Cleveland, received $20,000 for lab equipment needed to train students for jobs in industrial welding and other advanced manufacturing career fields.
• Malone University, Canton, received $20,000 for its Learning of Earth's Absolute Potential (LEAP) program. LEAP involves training undergraduate science students to receive hands-on training in environmental sciences and to then serve as guest instructors in Canton City Schools.
• Stark State College Foundation, North Canton, received $20,000 to purchase multi-frequency line electronic equipment and associated flags to train students in conducting state-mandated pre-excavation utility facility location and marking. The school will provide the training at its new satellite facility in downtown Canton.

The Ohio Higher Education Grants are part of $1.3 million in grants the Dominion Foundation is awarding this year to colleges and primary and secondary schools in states where the company does business: Ohio, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 23,600 megawatts of generation, 10,900 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline, and 6,400 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion operates one of the nation's largest natural gas storage systems with 947 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves utility and retail energy customers in 10 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's website at www.dom.com.

SOURCE Dominion East Ohio