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Community PartnershipsTVA helps the people of the region achieve their goals through partnerships with educational institutions, communities, agencies, stakeholder groups, and others who share a commitment to improving quality of life in the Tennessee Valley. In 2003, TVA investments in community partnerships totaled more than $1 million.
EducationEarly in its history, TVA collaborated with agricultural departments of colleges and universities to train farmers in model farming practices, uses of fertilizer, and reforestation of the Valley. Since then, TVA has maintained alliances with colleges and universities for energy demonstrations, research and development, and integrated resource management. Over the years, TVA has also developed relationships with public and private schools in which services and benefits are provided and received by both parties. Through this spirit of mutual cooperation, TVA helps educational institutions in the Valley impart the skills businesses and industries will need in the future. In fiscal year 2003: • TVA contributed $294,175 to more than 115 elementary, middle and high schools and 11 universities and community colleges in the Valley. TVA also donated nearly $100,000 in computer and equipment to Valley colleges, universities, and schools. • TVA donated 1,103 computers to 32 Tennessee Valley schools. One hundred fifty of these computers helped Mississippi become the first state in the nation to bring Internet access to every public classroom. • Weekend Academy encourages lifelong love of learning by providing inner-city children with interactive educational sessions and field trips led by business and community volunteers. • TVA’s Employee Scholarship Program provides up to $5,000 a year for undergraduate study lasting up to five years. A joint scholarship program sponsored by TVA and the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association provides $48,000 in additional educational assistance to students. TVA also provides more than 500 University of Tennessee students with cooperative education and internship opportunities. • TVA supports employee education activities through a tuition reimbursement program for full-time annual employees. In 2003, 11 employees earned graduate and undergraduate degrees through this program, enhancing the knowledge and skills they offer TVA and the communities they serve.
Other partnerships• TVA helped stabilize a severely eroding stream bank in Rising Fawn, Ga., demonstrating ways that area farmers can prevent or remedy similar erosion on their lands. • TVA, in partnership with distributors of TVA Power, Oak Ridge National Laboratories and the U.S. Department of Energy, constructed a Habitat for Humanity house that is a model for energy efficiency and supplies solar power to TVA’s power system. • TVA and distributors of TVA power sponsor the Knoxville Open, a professional golf tournament that benefits the Boys and Girls Clubs of East Tennessee. This weeklong event raises money that supports mentoring programs for students when school is not in session. • TVA helps the city of Huntsville, Ala., clean up illegal dump sites and supports Huntsville City Schools Ecological Education, Flint River Festival, forestry and horticultural projects, and the city’s Clean Marina initiatives. These partnerships led Huntsville to proclaim Jan. 9, 2003, as "TVA Resource Stewardship Day." • TVA helped the Kentucky State Environment Education Committee review a Tennessee program that allows communities to better understand how land use affects water quality. As a result, the program may be adapted for statewide use in Kentucky. • TVA partnered with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to construct a fish habitat and the first public handicap-accessible fishing pier on Chatuge Reservoir in western North Carolina. • TVA helped Appalachia, Va., and the Wise County Health Department secure a $100,000 grant to build a wastewater treatment system in the southern Virginia coal camp community of Imboden.
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