Chevron awards scholarships to 823 Bangladeshi students
Chevron Bangladesh on Tuesday distributed scholarships to 823 students from 24 educational institutions near its Bibiyana, Jalalabad and Moulavibazar natural gas fields in the country.
Chevron hosted a ceremony at the premises of its Bibiyana gas plant as a part of its ongoing yearly scholarship distribution programme for financially disadvantaged and meritorious students of the country, says a press statement.
Of the awardees, around 64 per cent were females. Besides, 20 of them were awarded scholarships for receiving excellent grades in the recently published results of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations.
Chevron Bangladesh, the press communique added, started the scholarship programme with only a small handful of educational institutions nearly two decades ago. The average pass rate of Chevron’s scholarship recipients in the recently published results of the 2019 Secondary School Certificate exams was nearly 100 per cent.
It also said apart from its scholarship programme, Chevron’s ‘quality education support initiative’ is working to improve the learning environment of schools near its three gas fields.
The United States ambassador to Bangladesh, Earl Robert Miller, Chevron Bangladesh’s president Neil Menzies, corporate affairs director Ismail Chowdhury, Bibiyana gas plant superintendent Ashiq Rahman and senior staff from Bibiyana gas plant, among others, were present.
Addressing the programme, ambassador Miller said, “The United States government is proud Chevron continues to contribute to Bangladesh’s development by investing in local communities like yours.”
“Young people like yourselves can and will push this country into the future,” Miller added.
He congratulated the Chevron scholarship recipients and encouraged them to continue to challenge themselves and take risks in order to grow as people and as future leaders.
Chevron Bangladesh’s president Menzies said, “We believe that it is critical to support education activities in our operational areas to nurture the untapped potential of school children, particularly among poor and disadvantaged families, helping them achieve their full learning capacity.”
Chevron has been running the initiative near its gas fields since 2005.
“As a part of our corporate social responsibility initiatives, Chevron seeks to promote long-term human progress as reflected in our global social investment areas of focus on economic development, education and health,” said Chevron’s corporate affairs director Ismail while speaking at the programme.