Marathon Oil Company Supports GeoFORCE Texas, Jackson School With $150,000 Gift

December 3, 2007

AUSTIN, Texas—Marathon Oil Company has contributed $50,000 for 2007-2008 and pledged a total of $150,000 to support GeoFORCE Texas, the Jackson School's award-winning summer college prepratory program.

Marathon has supported GeoFORCE since its inception in 2005. The pledge places the company in the leadership level of major corporate donors to the program.

GeoFORCE is a summer outreach program that rewards outstanding high school students with the chance to travel, meet inspiring people and learn about career opportunities in the geosciences. Through 2007, GeoFORCE, which is open to all students regardless of background, recruited from the predominantly Hispanic region of southwest Texas region. Starting in 2008, GeoFORCE expands to Houston, where public school students from the country's seventh largest public school system will compete to enter the summer program.

L-R: F. “Woody” Pace Jr., Resident Manager-Indonesia, Marathon Oil Company, Jackson School Dean Eric Barron and Willie Stanfield, Marathon General Manager, Corporate Development & Diversity

"GeoFORCE is one of our key programs for inspiring the next generation of geoscientists and making sure they more closely resemble the rapidly evolving population of Texas and the United States," said Eric Barron, dean of the Jackson School. "Marathon's generous support shows their commitment to a diverse workforce and reveals the foresight of GeoFORCE's corporate sponsors, who are willing to take a long-term view of the need for dramatically improving science and engineering education in this country," said Barron.

The University of Texas at Austin and Marathon have had a long-standing, mutually beneficial relationship. Marathon is an active recruiter at the Jackson School and other colleges on campus. The firm has collaborated with all of the Jackson School's units—the Bureau of Economic Geology, Institute for Geophysics and Department of Geological Sciences—on a number of research projects.

For more information about the Jackson School, contact J.B. Bird at jbird@jsg.utexas.edu, 512-232-9623.