MPLX Marathon Petroleum presented the Utica Shale Academy $20,000 for personal protective equipment.

Utica Shale Academy is a tuition-free publicly funded school where students are taught traditional coursework along with specialty courses targeting the trade workforce. It became Ohio’s first outdoor welding lab in 2023.

"Whenever we learned about all of the great successes that the Utica Shale Academy is having and that they have had such great successes that their enrollment has really grown, we wanted to be able to help support that,” said Tina Rush, advance community relations representative for MLPX Marathon Petroleum, said.

According to Utica Shale Academy Superintendent Bill Watson, the academy has implemented a work-based program for seniors. This initiative entails 35 out of their 54 senior students engaging in three days of work each week.

"On average, we've graduated 50-plus kids,” Watson said. “Each year, we do a survey to follow up with how they are. And were about 60-65% placed within the industrial setting in which they've been educated.”

How do the students feel about the grant money they received?

"They haven't been letting us weld outside much because it's been colder and some of the kids have been complaining because it's been colder outside,” student Connor Smith said. “So, they took the money from the grants and such and bought us these jackets. So, like, whenever it gets colder, we can weld outside.”

Ohio's 33rd District State Senator Michael Rulli worked with the academy when it was a concept and finds it gives young adults the chance to stay out of trouble and work toward a successful future.

"That we could get kids and give them a future and give them an idea on how to live,” Rulli said. “And they could do it debt free. So, they could actually have a skill and a trade where they can make a lot of money and they don't have a student loan that’s going to strangle them.”

The academy began in Salineville and has six Ohio locations.