ConocoPhillips has continued its collaboration with the National Energy Education Development (NEED) program to present energy education workshops for teachers in the Anchorage and Fairbanks areas. The workshops are designed to equip K-12 teachers with tools to improve their students’ energy knowledge and encourage classroom dialogue about energy.

ConocoPhillips has contributed more than $43 million to the University of Alaska system, making the company its single largest contributor. This support has helped create the ConocoPhillips Arctic Science and Engineering Endowment and provided equipment for the state-of-the-art ConocoPhillips Integrated Science Building. Additionally, we established a $500,000 Engineering Endowment for the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Engineering and Mines to support projects and programs that will impact student success and recently donated another $500,000 to the University of Alaska Fairbanks for its Alaska Center for Energy and Power.

ConocoPhillips has also provided funding for an endowed chair for UAA’s Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program (ANSEP). ANSEP provides an intensive course of study for qualified Alaska Native students from the time participants are freshmen in high school through graduate school. The ANSEP program has been noted as one of the most successful of its kind in the country. The endowment will ensure a funding source for a full-time year-round faculty member dedicated to ANSEP students.

Recently, ConocoPhillips supported Ilisagvik College in Barrow, Alaska, with a donation of $100,000. In 2014, Ilisaġvik College recognized ConocoPhillips for total donations in excess of $1 million. Located in the northern most point of Alaska, Ilisagvik College is a two year college offering quality post-secondary academic, vocational and technical education dedicated to matching workforce needs while perpetuating and strengthening Inupiat (Eskimo) culture, language, values and Traditions. ConocoPhillips has supported this college since 1997.

The company also provides funding in support of Alaska Pacific University programs and is honored to have an art gallery at the University named for the company. The ConocoPhillips Gallery was the final phase in the renovation and renaming of Alaska Pacific University’s Grant Hall.

ConocoPhillips invests in Alaska in other ways, as well, consistently providing internship and job opportunities to Alaskans. We currently employ more than 100 University of Alaska graduates. ConocoPhillips provides internships to college students who are either studying in the University of Alaska system or are from Alaska but are studying at universities outside the state. ConocoPhillips also supports local training and educational programs that help prepare individuals for jobs in the oil industry. Additionally, the company has traditionally funded the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) and the Alaska Process Industry Careers Consortium (APICC), an organization that works to prepare Alaskans for future careers in the oil and gas industry. We go out of our way to recruit promising Alaskans – rural, urban, even those attending college out of state. After all, these are the ConocoPhillips employees of the future.