FREEPORT, TEXAS - April 15, 2016 - The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) Texas Operations announced today it is partnering with DonorsChoose.org in southern Brazoria County, Texas. The partnership demonstrates Dow's commitment to giving back to communities in which it operates and will empower local educators and encourage STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), specifically science-based, learning in the classroom. Through a contribution to DonorsChoose.org, the collaboration will consist of an online funding match offer and employee-driven programs to support teacher-requested science projects and programs.

DonorsChoose.org matches teachers' projects with community members' interests. Across the country, DonorsChoose.org has fulfilled over 600,000 classroom projects, supporting almost 300,000 teachers and impacting nearly 18,000,000 students in the United States. Dow Texas Operations is partnering with DonorsChoose.org to bring this unique opportunity to educators in its local community.

'Dow is committed to Building the Workforce of Tomorrow in our local communities and empowering our educators, as they have the ability to spark excitement for science in our students and expose them to STEM-related careers,' said Rob Vallentine, Dow's director of global citizenship and president of The Dow Chemical Company Foundation. 'We are also excited that this partnership supports Dow's 2025 Sustainability Goal, 'Engaging Employees for Impact', as it allows our employees to support teachers and provide much needed classroom supplies.'

Southern Brazoria County is a strategic growth region for Dow, and supporting classrooms will help support a sustainable workforce pipeline of skilled STEM talent. This partnership is also one of the first collaborations in support of Dow's newly launched, business-aligned Global Citizenship strategy, with a commitment to Building the Workforce of Tomorrow in its local communities through empowering educators and supporting students from classroom to career.

Dow's contribution will consist of the following initiatives and create up to $75,000 in classroom impact:

  • Dow will commit a total of $25,000 directly to projects on DonorsChoose.org posted by educators in the communities of Angleton, Brazoria, Clute, Danbury, Freeport, Jones Creek, Lake Jackson, Richwood, Sweeny and West Columbia , with the ability for the public to fully match this amount for new science related materials and supplies to area classrooms.
  • Dow Texas Operations STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Ambassadors, a group of trained employee volunteers, will identify select science projects that will total $10,000.
  • Local Dow employees will receive $15,000 in DonorsChoose.org gift cards to help fund classroom projects of their choice.

'We're deeply grateful for the support of The Dow Chemical Company,' said Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org. 'With Dow's help, so many more Texas teachers will be able to offer their students incredible learning opportunities that wouldn't otherwise be possible.'

Educators can visit http://www.donorschoose.org/teachers to upload their projects.

For more information about Dow's commitment to Building the Workforce of Tomorrow visit http://www.dow.com/en-us/science-and-sustainability/global-citizenship/building-the-workforce.

To learn more about Dow's 2025 Sustainability goals visit http://www.dow.com/en-us/science-and-sustainability/sustainability-reporting.

About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company is driving innovations that extract value from material, polymer, chemical and biological science to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, clean energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's integrated, market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 180 countries and in high-growth sectors such as packaging, electronics, water, coatings and agriculture. In 2015, Dow had annual sales of nearly $49 billion and employed approximately 49,500 people worldwide. The Company's more than 6,000 product families are manufactured at 179 sites in 35 countries across the globe. References to 'Dow' or the 'Company' mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

About DonorsChoose.org

Founded in 2000, DonorsChoose.org makes it easy for anyone to help a classroom in need. Teachers at 70 percent of all the public schools in America have created project requests, and 2,074,210 people have donated $423,338,352 to projects that inspire them. Over 18,292,472 students - most from low-income communities and many in disaster-stricken areas - have received books, art supplies, field trips, technology, and other resources that they need to learn.

For editorial information

Sara Steele
The Dow Chemical Company
+1 202 429 3428
smsteele@dow.com

The Dow Chemical Company issued this content on 15 April 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 18 April 2016 13:47:12 UTC

Original Document: http://www.dow.com/news/press-releases/dow%20partners%20with%20donorschoose%20to%20empower%20educators%20for%20classroom%20science%20learning