Building Skills for High-Demand Jobs

Twenty-Five Elementary, Middle and High Schools to Implement Innovative Project-based STEM Programs in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO (May 15, 2018) – Schools in the greater San Antonio area will soon have additional resources to help prepare youth for the jobs of tomorrow. Toyota USA Foundation, together with Project Lead The Way (PLTW), awarded $400,000 in grants to provide curriculum and teacher professional development focused on computer science, engineering, and biomedical science.

Twenty-five elementary, middle and high schools from Harlandale ISD, Lytle ISD, San Antonio ISD, Somerset ISD and Southside ISD, among others, received awards. The schools join 115 schools throughout the United States in receiving Toyota USA Foundation-funded grants to implement PLTW curriculum.

“Our aim is to help students develop critical thinking, problem solving and team building skills through hands-on learning experiences,” said Kevin Voelkel, Senior Vice President at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas, Inc., speaking at Southwest Independent School District, part of 2018 Advanced Manufacturing Career Pathways/AMT Program Conference.

Last year Toyota USA Foundation awarded Southwest Independent School District a $1.7 million grant to equip classrooms with robotics, conveyors and other technologies, enhancing the district’s programs through "smart" classrooms, labs and specialized program spaces at the Southwest Legacy High School. The school opened last August and CAST STEM programming is slated to open at the campus in August.

“These investments are part of our overall effort to inspire, motivate and develop students, and equip their teachers with resources and tools to help students succeed,” added Voelkel.

“The growing partnership and continued support extended to San Antonio students from Toyota is powerful and will create life-changing opportunities for our students and the workforce,” said Dr. Lloyd Verstuyft, superintendent of Southwest ISD. “Creating partnerships between industry and education has never been more important. Providing students rigorous real-world education opportunities allows them to become tremendously more engaged in their learning experience and exposes our students to the vast array of potential possibilities in their future.

“Toyota is among a growing sector of industry that gets it,” Verstuyft continued. “The future workforce is currently sitting in our classrooms and the more we work in collaboration the more we contribute to a better tomorrow for our youth. Working in concert is what our students and communities need us to do and that is happening at an ever-increasing pace in San Antonio. Thank you, Toyota!”

Schools awarded today include:

Charlotte ISD
- Charlotte Middle
- Charlotte Elementary
Harlandale ISD
- Collier Elementary
- E H Gilbert Elementary
- Morrill Elementary
- Rayburn Elementary
- Stonewall-Flanders Elementary
- V M Adams Elementary
- Vestal Elementary
- Wright Elementary
- Harlandale High School
- McCollum High School
Judson Independent School District
- Karen Wagner High School
Lytle ISD
- Lytle Elementary
- Lytle Primary School
- Lytle High School
San Antonio ISD
- Sam Houston High School
School of Excellence in Education
- Dr. David C. Walker Intermediate
- Dr. Harmon W. Kelley Elementary
Somerset ISD
- Somerset High School
Southside ISD
- Freedom Elementary
- Julius L. Matthey Middle School
- Southside High School
Southwest ISD
- CAST STEM High School
- Southwest Legacy High School

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About Project Lead The Way (PLTW)
PLTW is a nonprofit organization that provides a transformative learning experience for K-12 students and teachers across the U.S. PLTW empowers students to develop in-demand, transportable knowledge and skills through pathways in computer science, engineering, and biomedical science. PLTW’s teacher training and resources support teachers as they engage their students in real-world learning. More than 10,500 elementary, middle, and high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia offer PLTW programs. For more information on Project Lead The Way, visit pltw.org.

About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 36 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 47,000 people (more than 37,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold more than 2.7 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2017 – and about 87 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 15 years are still on the road today.

Toyota partners with community, civic, academic, and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We share company resources and extensive know-how to support non-profits to help expand their ability to assist more people move more places. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.

The Toyota USA Foundation is a charitable endowment created to support education programs serving kindergarten through 12^th-grade students and their teachers in the United States, with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). For more information about the Toyota USA Foundation, visit www.toyota.com/foundation.

Mario Lozoya
210.216.7154

Melissa Sparks
210.501.6038