For many, the New Year brings new resolutions. Oftentimes these resolutions are not aligned with one’s daily lifestyle and lack true commitment and are therefore not sustainable.

When setting goals and developing plans at Marathon Petroleum Company, we rely on our core values as guiding principles.

These values serve as a foundation for us to build upon year after year without having to make drastic changes.  As I’ve written in previous articles, one such value is Corporate Citizenship and making a positive difference in the communities where we have the privilege to operate.

We are moving into a new year and setting new goals, but I want to take a minute to reflect on a few education programs that we support in our community.

We recently hosted every K-12 school in St. John Parish and the St. James Parish high schools for our annual educational outreach awards. Each school receives $1,000 and mentor support from our employees.

Four of those schools are designated as an Adopt-a-School and they receive $15,000. Those schools are East St. John High School, East St. John Elementary School, Garyville Mt. Airy Magnet School and the South Central Louisiana Technical College. Our longstanding focus on education has been bringing awareness to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs.

In 2017, we will continue to build upon that plan and partnering to develop a local workforce for our industry.

We have worked over the past few months to bring the Process Technology dual enrollment program back to ESJH in partnership with SCLTC and the St. John Parish School Board.

Our objective is to provide opportunities for local students to get a head start on a technical career and prepare the students for future employment in the river parishes. This effort will help to increase enrollment at the technical college and better prepare the ESJH students for post-graduation employment or four year degree opportunities.

As we look forward to 2017 and beyond, there are no new resolutions for us at MPC. We are committed to our sustainable guiding principles: health and safety, environmental stewardship, integrity, inclusive culture and making a positive difference in the community.

Keith Hightower is the Human Resources Manager for Marathon Petroleum’s Garyville Refinery. He can be reached at thightower@marathonpetroleum.com.