Published 10:49 am Tuesday, August 4, 2026
By Doris Maricle
Education leaders, teachers and industry partners gathered at Sowela Technical Community College’s Oakdale campus Monday to celebrate an expanded partnership with ExxonMobil that is funding STEM education, teacher training and workforce development across southwest Louisiana.
The event highlighted two major investments by the ExxonMobil Foundation: a $75,000 grant that helped renovate a former conference room into a collaborative learning space and a $150,000 grant that funded the second annual STEM camp for educators.
Sowela Chancellor Neil Aspinwall said the investments represent more than financial support.
“It’s not all just about the money and resources,” Aspinwall said. “It’s all about the partnerships that we form.”
He said Sowela’s mission is to prepare students for careers in high-demand industries and emphasized the importance of collaboration between education and employers.
“What better opportunity for business, industry, and education to partner together?” Aspinwall said. “We want to train those individuals, and we want industries like ExxonMobil to hire them.”
The weeklong STEM camp brought together 44 educators from six Southwest Louisiana parishes, who worked alongside experts from Rice University’s Tapia Center to develop project-based lessons they will implement in their classrooms this school year.
Richard Nelson, president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, said partnerships between education and industry are helping meet Louisiana’s growing workforce needs.
“There was a time when we worried about our graduates leaving Louisiana for better jobs,” Nelson said. “Now we worry that we don’t have enough people to fill the jobs we have.”
Nelson said investments in STEM education help build the workforce needed as economic development accelerates across the state.
Alvin Abraham, president of the ExxonMobil Foundation, said the company is committed to helping educators prepare students for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“There is a growing demand for filling STEM jobs,” Abraham said. “Partnerships like the one with SOWELA are critical to making sure we bring together the expertise needed to prepare teachers and ultimately students.”
A former classroom teacher and principal, Abraham thanked the educators who devoted a week of their summer to professional development.
“You are going to be with students a week from now,” he said. “That’s where the real impact happens.”
Allen Parish School Supt. Brad Soileau called teachers “the pipeline” to Louisiana’s future workforce and said career and technical education is becoming increasingly important.
“We don’t have enough students going into these programs,” Soileau said. “What do we do to motivate kids to realize these opportunities are here?”
He pointed to dual-enrollment programs that allow high school students to attend SOWELA while earning credit in fields such as electrical work, welding and instrumentation.
Dr. Paul Hand, executive director of Rice University’s Tapia Center, said this year’s camp focused on authentic, project-based STEM learning that connects classroom instruction to real-world challenges.
Projects developed during the camp explored topics including artificial intelligence, carbon capture and storage, and computer algorithms. Teachers adapted the lessons to fit their own classrooms while encouraging students to solve problems relevant to their communities.
Following the ceremony, educators presented their classroom projects during a poster session, explaining how students will use inquiry, collaboration and data analysis to address real-world questions.
Among the projects was an algorithm-based lesson in which students evaluate multiple data points to determine which students would qualify for a college visit, requiring them to justify their decisions using evidence.
Brandi Wennerstron, a special education teacher at Oberlin High School, explained that rather than assigning short-term classroom projects, participants designed extended, inquiry-based activities that begin with a question students can relate to, encourage them to develop hypotheses and work together to solve problems using evidence and technology.
“It has to be something that’s real to them,” Wennerstron said. “It has to be something they want to do and that they’re interested in.”
She said the project focused on helping students understand algorithms by asking them to design a fair process for selecting 10 middle school students to receive an all-expenses-paid college visit. Instead of limiting the experience to one university, the team broadened the project to include several Louisiana colleges to better reflect students’ interests and future options.
Students would analyze multiple data points, build an algorithm to make selections and justify why their process was fair, she explained.
Wennerstron said she entered the workshop with little knowledge of algorithms but gained confidence through collaboration.
“I learned a lot,” she said. “I’m not really a STEM person, but I came this summer because I wanted to learn more and bring different things back to my students.”
She said working alongside educators from multiple schools allowed everyone to contribute different strengths and perspectives.
The project-based approach is especially valuable in her special education classroom, where she strives to connect lessons to real-life situations and future careers.
“I like everything I do in my room to relate to the real world,” she said. “When students leave school, I want them to be able to use what they’ve learned in everyday life.”
Sam Remchuk, a ninth-grade teacher at Jennings High School and Betty Wise, a fourth-grade Social Studies teacher at Jennings Elementary School, explored environmental science topics with local relevance focusing on carbon capture and storage projects. Their projects investigated how carbon dioxide can be stored underground and examined the potential environmental impacts of the technology.
Using a hands-on model built with cups, noodles and colored water, Remchuk and his partner, Christian Rougeau, a science teacher at Welsh High School, will be able to help students visualize how liquefied carbon dioxide is injected into porous rock formations beneath impermeable layers that trap the gas underground.
The lesson encourages students to research the science behind carbon capture before forming their own opinions about the technology, Remchuk said.
“We want our students to be aware of what it is and how it could affect them in the future,” he said. “If they’re presented with different viewpoints, they’ll have facts to support their position.”
Wise said her group’s project which targeted fourth and fifth-graders focused on how students can use science to balance the environment while supporting Louisiana’s economy.
“Students will do hands-on experiments to learn how carbon capture works and affects the environment,” Wise said.
Additionally she noted students will be able to form an opinion to design their product to present to the school and analyze economic data based in Louisiana after learning how carbon capture works.
Teachers said the camp helped them better understand project-based learning and provided practical strategies for bringing STEM concepts into classrooms across multiple grade levels and subject areas.
Organizers said they hope the partnership will continue to expand opportunities for educators and students while strengthening Louisiana’s future workforce.