News Releases

Tomorrow’s engineers and mathematicians need only a spark to get their imaginations – and their careers – headed in the right direction. PPL Corporation is providing that spark to students in five Pennsylvania school districts with grants to support in-school science, technology, math and engineering projects.

These projects and others will be possible thanks, in part, to PPL Corporation’s Empowering Educators grants. Five schools in eastern and central Pennsylvania were selected as recipients of 2014 Empowering Educators grants from PPL.

This year, PPL awarded $10,000 in Empowering Educators grants. Since the program’s inception in 2003, PPL has awarded more than $153,000 for projects in 81 schools near PPL facilities.

“The success of our future workforce depends on today’s students having experience in and enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering and math,” said Lissette Santana, manager of corporate relations for PPL. “The teachers and school projects PPL supports through the Empowering Educators grants help generate students’ interest in those areas.”

Grant recipients include:

• Hazleton Area Academy of Sciences, Hazleton, Pa., received $2,000 for “Energy Efficiency and Home Automation: Student Solutions for the 21st Century.” Students will develop and test mobile applications to control energy-efficiency home automation systems.
• Northwest Area High School, Shickshinny, Pa., received $2,000 for “Robot Generator.” Students will build robots and program them to turn a magnet within a coil of wire to create electricity. This hands-on project will help students hone their problem-solving skills while learning about the engineering process and the generation of electricity.
• Scranton High School, Scranton, Pa., received $2,000 for “Winds of Energy Change for a New Generation.” The project will allow environmental science and industrial arts students to learn about renewable energy resources by developing, building and managing a wind turbine on school grounds. 
• St. Thomas More School, Allentown, Pa., received $2,000 for “Energizing Education,” in which students will design and conduct experiments on energy efficiency and cost savings in the school’s new project-based learning center and science lab.
• Stroudsburg Intermediate Elementary School, Stroudsburg, Pa., received $2,000 for “Stroudsburg Intermediate STEM Fair,” a showcase for science, technology, engineering and math that directly connects to the school’s curriculum, allowing students to model the work of professional research scientists.

A team of PPL employees, environmental professionals and educators chose the winning projects. PPL sponsors the Empowering Educators grants program as part of an initiative to educate the public about energy resources and the environment.

PPL Corporation, with 2013 revenues of $12 billion, is one of the largest companies in the U.S. utility sector. The PPL family of companies delivers electricity and natural gas to about 10 million customers in the United States and the United Kingdom. PPL has announced an agreement to spin off its competitive generation business and combine it with the competitive generation business of Riverstone Holdings LLC to form Talen Energy Corporation. More information is available at www.pplweb.com.