TELACU and SoCalGas Announce $50,000 in Scholarships for Latino Students Pursuing Careers in STEM

14 Scholarships will support first-generation Latino students pursuing careers in STEM
Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and The East Los Angeles Community Union (TELACU) Education Foundation today announced that $50,000 in scholarships have been awarded to 14 first-generation Latino students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Since 1999, and over the last three decades, SoCalGas and TELACU have partnered to address social inequality, assist deserving students navigate postsecondary education and their subsequent careers through the TELACU Education Foundation’s programmatic support.
“One of our very first corporate partners, SoCalGas has generously invested in the empowerment of our communities’ greatest, but most vulnerable, resource—our youth,” said Dr. David C. Lizárraga, chairman and founder of the TELACU Education Foundation. “The TELACU Education Foundation is tremendously
grateful to SoCalGas for investing in the communities it serves with excellence, and for its commitment to developing a workforce reflective of these communities.”

The TELACU Education Foundation serves first-generation students who live in some of the most underserved communities in the greater Los Angeles region and surrounding counties. TELACU has helped these students pursue higher education with over 99% of its college students graduating, often becoming the first in their family to earn a degree.

“SoCalGas’ partnership with TELACU highlights our commitment to create more equitable communities,” said Andy Carrasco, SoCalGas vice president of communications, local government and community affairs. “Access to higher education is a life changing opportunity for students, their families and often, their community, while also helping grow the pipeline for more qualified STEM professionals, which are so desperately needed in our region.”

“TELACU’s College Readiness Program and College Success Program have given me the opportunity to pursue higher education. I am grateful for the resources made available to me through the partnership between SoCalGas and TELACU, as they have prepared me for the next steps in my career,” said Geovanny Huerta, who was recently selected as a SoCalGas-TELACU Scholar. “Without these programs and support, I would not have been able to land a summer internship.”
Since 1999, SoCalGas has supported TELACU with over $660,000. The 2022-23 SoCalGas-TELACU Scholars are:

● Cecilia Aldape (Civil Engineering, CSU Los Angeles)
● Jacqueline Alvarado (Business Administration, UC Riverside)
● Oswaldo Gamez (Computer Science, CSU Northridge)
● Antonio Garcia (Mechanical Engineering, Loyola Marymount University)
● Yuridia Ginez (Computer Science, CSU Los Angeles)
● Gerson Gonzalez (Computer Science, Biola University)
● Disleiry Hernandez Gutierrez (Mechanical Engineering, UC Los Angeles)
● Emanuel Herrera Pineda (Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California)
● Geovany Huerta (Computer Science, CSU Los Angeles)
● Jose Lopez (Computer Science, University of La Verne)
● Yatziri Lopez Mendez (Pre-Accountancy, CSU Northridge)
● Andy Machorro (Mechanical Engineering, CSU Los Angeles)
● Antonio Sanchez (Civil Engineering, Loyola Marymount University)
● Joselyn Velasquez (Civil Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona)
SoCalGas’ partnership with TELACU is part of the company’s ASPIRE 2045 sustainability goals, which includes a goal to invest up to $50 million to drive positive change in diverse and underserved communities over the next five years. In addition to supporting TELACU scholars, in 2021, SoCalGas contributed $9.6 million in total community investment, with $4.8 million to support health and human services, and $2.3 million to support educational causes.

SoCalGas Wins Reuters Events “Business Transformation” Award

Award recognizes leadership in sustainable business priorities

On October 31, Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) announced the company was recently honored with the top “Business Transformation Award” at the, 2022 Responsible Business Awards [reutersevents.com], hosted by Reuters [reutersevents.com] Events. SoCalGas was among 700 global companies considered across 16 categories. The Business Transformation category recognized companies that have established truly transformative sustainability priorities. Entries were evaluated on the degree to which their transformation plans had the potential to create impact at scale in their sector and beyond.

SoCalGas was also named a finalist for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award which recognizes efforts “that best demonstrates measurable impact in promoting progressive diversity values around investment, strategy, education or recruitment – with the goal in mind to ensure a more just and equal society.” An awards ceremony was held earlier this month in London.

“SoCalGas is a leader in sustainability with innovations across our business,” said SoCalGas CEO Scott Drury. “From the delivery of renewable natural gas to support clean transportation, to powering company facilities with renewable energy, to creating a Customer Council on Decarbonization to help major energy users decarbonize their operations, SoCalGas is advancing its mission to build the cleanest, safest, most innovative energy company in America. We are proud to be recognized by Reuters for making a meaningful difference in our industry, communities, and beyond.”

“The judges were impressed by the bold target of eliminating 100% of [planned] vented methane gas, an underreported issue that has been ignored for too long,” said Ed Long, Head of Sustainable Business Events at Reuters Events. “The measures being taken by SoCalGas upstream along with the granularity of planning was very strong, and the impact and scalability of implementing this solution have the potential to be orders of magnitude greater than the impact of other commendable initiatives.”

SoCalGas is actively developing an industry-leading portfolio of scalable clean fuels demonstration projects with partners from private industry, the US Department of Energy and California Energy Commission, and leading research institutions such as the University of California, Irvine and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Clean fuels like green hydrogen could support decarbonized and reliable electric generation, clean high-heat manufacturing, and would help California reach its zero-emissions vehicle goals.

Last year, SoCalGas announced its aspiration to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and the energy it delivers by 2045 – aligning with the State of California’s carbon neutrality goals – and earlier this year released its ASPIRE 2045 Sustainability Strategy to help reach that goal.

As part of its transformative efforts, SoCalGas is accelerating its work to leverage existing infrastructure to deliver carbon neutral fuels like renewable natural gas and clean hydrogen, and to permanently remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere.

Those efforts also include the company’s announcement to develop Angeles Link, an energy infrastructure system under development that could deliver reliable green hydrogen at scale to the Los Angeles Basin for use in electric generation and hard-to-electrify sectors.

SoCalGas is also constructing a renewable hydrogen microgrid and home as part of its [H2] Innovation Experience. The renewable hydrogen microgrid for the [H2] Innovation Experience is a proof-of-concept project for resilient, clean energy using an electrolyzer to convert solar energy to hydrogen and a fuel cell to supply electricity to a home, neighborhood, or small business. The project was named a World-Changing Idea in North America by Fast Company.

As part of the company’s sustainability efforts, SoCalGas is also making investments to advance a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture in the communities it serves, including a commitment to invest approximately $50 million over the next five years in underserved communities and purchasing 42% – nearly $1 billion – of all our goods and services from women, minority, LGBT, and persons with disabilities business enterprises in 2021.

Today, nearly all of SoCalGas’ buildings are powered by renewable electricity [prnewswire.com], the company has accelerated the conversion of its fleet vehicles to zero emissions models, and it has reduced methane emissions from its system by nearly 40% since 2015 [prnewswire.com], efforts that are expected to help reach California’s carbon neutrality goals.

Click here to read CEO Scott Drury’s own words on the Business Transformation Award.

To learn more about SoCalGas’ sustainability efforts, visit https://www.socalgas.com/sustainability.

About SoCalGas
Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas® is the largest gas distribution utility in the United States.

SoCalGas delivers affordable, reliable, and increasingly renewable gas service to 21.8 million consumers across 24,000 square miles of Central and Southern California. Gas delivered through the company’s pipelines will continue to play a key role in California’s clean energy transition—providing electric grid reliability and supporting wind and solar energy deployment.

SoCalGas’ mission is to build the cleanest, safest and most innovative energy company in America. In support of that mission, SoCalGas aspires to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and delivery of energy by 2045 and to replace 20 percent of its traditional natural gas supply to core customers with renewable natural gas (RNG) by 2030. Renewable natural gas is made from waste
created by dairy farms, landfills, and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is also committed to investing in its gas delivery infrastructure while keeping bills affordable for customers. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra (NYSE: SRE), an energy services holding company based in San Diego.

For more information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas
on Twitter (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas) and Facebook.

About the TELACU Education Foundation

For nearly 40 years, the TELACU Education Foundation has provided first-generation Latinx high school through graduate school students, including veterans, a unique combination of financial resources, highly effective programming, and an unwavering support system that empowers its annual cohort of nearly 2,000 students to achieve amazing success. Historically, 98% of its high schoolers graduate and 99% of its college students earn at minimum a Bachelors’ degree. More than 75% of its students earn a STEM- or Business-related degree—more than 60% are earned by Latinas—and they launch successful careers, particularly in high-growth, high-impact sectors!