When grade 7 students of Binugao National High school walked into their classroom one Monday morning in July, they were greeted by a giant white screen that stood out in the room like a spaceship in the middle of a durian plantation. Their teacher excitedly announced that they have just received an interactive projector as winners of the Caltex Fuel Your School program.
The entire class that was used to the old-school ways of chalk, blackboard and Manila paper was mesmerized as the teacher began to demonstrate animation in a PowerPoint presentation, show videos and create diagrams that can be manipulated with a flick of a pen.
Similar scenes of engaged students were reported by the 29 other public high schools that were shortlisted as beneficiaries of Caltex’s fuel to donate program. Caltex Fuel Your School (FYS) is estimated to benefit at least 200 teachers and 50,000 students in Davao City’s highest need senior public high schools. FYS successfully raised P3 million which was used to purchase much needed learning equipment in Science, Technology, Engineering or Math (STEM) classroom subjects requested by teachers for their students.
Piso para sa Eskwela
From June 1 to 30, 2016, Caltex Fuel Your School donated P1 for every one liter purchase of Caltex with Techron or Delo Sports diesel engine oil from any of the 22 Caltex stations or lubricants business partners in Davao City. The students played a vital role in raising awareness and fuels ups for the program. Aside from tapping social media, they created jingles, cheers and homemade FYS flyers throughout Davao metropolis informing their communities that fuelling up at the nearest Caltex station will help them get their much need educational materials.
Allan Orillan, Caltex retailer, can attest to the FYS buzz surrounding his Caltex stations,” The students did a great job. I received reports from our gas attendants of motorists who gassed up because of FYS. It’s good to feel connected to the community where I do business.”
“Since its Philippine launch in 2015, we are proud to report that Caltex Fuel Your School has funded more than 58 classroom projects at 67 schools in Manila and Davao cities. It has impacted around 153,000 public high schools students,” said Peter Morris, country chairman of Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI), marketer of the Caltex brand of fuels and lubricants.
FYS beneficiaries were selected by Chevron’s project partners, the Department of Education and the American Chamber Foundation of the Philippines based on stringent criteria such as having the highest need senior public high schools students in their enrollment and a sharp focus on STEM learning. For the FYS cycle 2, teachers can choose the learning materials they need up to P100,000 in value per school . At Davao City National High School for instance which has a student population of 10,000; the teacher proposed that his grade 11 students receive two sets of Lego Mindstorm robotics kits which let them build a variety of robots and create programming missions.
“Such learning materials will help the children engage in lessons that offer many opportunities to master the skills needed to boost their education and expand their future career opportunities. And we don’t have to borrow equipment from other schools anymore,” said teacher Brady Nave who listed the robotics kits on his FYS wish list.
“We are proud to support our local teachers in helping their students get excited about STEM and encourage them to pursue STEM courses, and ultimately, STEM careers,” said Margaret Jubane, Caltex retailer.
