Cenovus announces $200K donation to OSU-Lima

LIMA —Cenovus Refinery director of planning, economic and technical services Greg Phillips said the company’s $200,000 donation to Ohio State-Lima is meant to lay a foundation at a press conference Friday.

Cenovus Energy’s donation will go with $1,000 scholarships Cenovus guaranteed to every student enrolled in engineering technology at the school and will fund the latest manufacturing technology and equipment for the students to work with.

“Having local, highly-skilled talent is very important,” Phillips said. “Anything we can do to support the education program and students is part of our mission to help us be successful in the long run.”

Dean and director of Ohio State-Lima Margaret Young said the gift will transform what the school is able to do for students.

“Engineering equipment is vital to the success of building this pipeline,” she said. “Having this foundational partner work with us as we prepare the next generation of engineers to work in our community could not be more important.”

Cenovus Lima general manager Dean Hempfling said the gift serves as a remind to young people of opportunities in their hometown.

“We want to hire local, homegrown talent and we want people to work at the refinery,” he said. ” It’s very important to support the local program that’s developing that talent to create the pipeline for people we need in the future.”

Phillips praised graduates of the program as lifelong learners and problem solvers.

“It’s a very unique opportunity because you’ve got The Ohio State University, but we still get the same local touch where we’re able to bring three or four of our engineers in here and sit down with a faculty member who is designing more of the process for their recent graduating class,” he said. “This is what we need. These are the problems these jobs will encounter in real life so learning how to approach solving them and building that skillset will help them when they’re contributing to an organization or local business someday.”

For more information on the Ohio State-Lima engineering program, visit bit.ly/3AGpyx4.

Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.