Toyota USA Foundation is helping North Alabama schools meet the needs of students by providing $200,000 for laptops and internet access. The funding is part of a national effort to help more than 350,000 students gain access to virtual learning in 13 states where Toyota has operations.
“This is an exciting announcement for schools, teachers and students across our community,” says Elizabeth Fleming, the Schools Foundation executive director. “COVID-19 has strained school budgets tremendously as districts plan for in-person and remote learning for more than 55,000 students. The silver lining is seeing the community support for our schools and Toyota has been a tremendous partner in education from day one.”
The schools benefitting from this donation in Alabama are the Huntsville City Schools, Madison City Schools and Madison County Schools.
“All students deserve equal access to education,” said April Mason, Toyota Alabama general manager. “The foundation typically supports STEM, but the pandemic has exposed deeper issues that are a barrier to good education.”
Earlier this month, Toyota Motor North America launched a virtual education hub that offers free STEM-based lessons and curriculum, as well as virtual plant tours of the company’s U.S. manufacturing facilities. The STEM-based lessons — available at tourtoyota.com/educationhub — goes behind the scenes at Toyota’s Research Development center in Michigan, as well as showcasing how the company will apply artificial intelligence and pioneering technologies to its manufacturing processes in the future.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Alabama, in Huntsville, is the company’s only plant to make 4-cyliner, V-6 and V-8 engines. In addition, Toyota is investing heavily in its joint manufacturing plant with Mazda in Huntsville. The Mazda Toyota Manufacturing facility, once running at full capacity, will produce 300,000 vehicles a year.
