ExxonMobil Foundation matching gifts help support GeoFORCE Texas, an outreach program of the Jackson School of Geosciences designed to shape the next generation of earth scientists.

The $1.31 million contribution is the largest the ExxonMobil Foundation made to any of the 871 institutions that participated in its matching gift program during the calendar year.

This total surpassed the record-breaking amount given to UT Austin during the previous year by 10 percent.

“Once again, ExxonMobil employees have set a record, not only with their generosity to UT but by making ours the largest gift to any institution this year,” says university president Bill Powers.

“We’re so grateful to ExxonMobil for the vote of confidence this represents. From one great American institution to another, we say ‘thank you.’ ”

With support from ExxonMobil and others, UT's Migrant Student Graduation Enhancement Program provides courses and services to help students like Armando Garza and Xavier Zamora stay on track and graduate from high school.

Including this year’s matching gift of $1,314,184, ExxonMobil and the ExxonMobil Foundation have given $54.96 million to the university, more than any other corporation.

Most of ExxonMobil’s philanthropy at the university benefits students and programs that promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and diversity in the workforce.

In addition to its matching gifts, the ExxonMobil Foundation’s recent philanthropic support of the university includes grants to the Migrant Student Graduation Enhancement Program; GeoFORCE Texas, which prepares high school students for geoscience careers; and UTeach Natural Sciences, which prepares secondary science, math and computer science teachers.

Students from the Indian School of Business celebrate their GVLIC win. Their company, Visolis, is developing a biotechnology process to convert biomass into the commodity chemical isoprene.

The grand-prize winner, industrial biotechnology company Visolis, beat out 39 other teams from top graduate programs around the world to receive a prize package worth $75,000.

The package includes office space, mentoring, and consulting at the Austin Technology Incubator; consulting with the McCombs School of Business entrepreneurship faculty; and $25,000 cash. The team also gets to ring the closing bell at the Nasdaq OMX Stock Exchange on June 11.

Visolis, representing the Indian School of Business and including team members Akshat Pipersenia, Amrita Dutta, Aditya Jain, Ashish Kohli, and Deepak Dugar, is developing the next generation of biocatalysts that can convert renewable feedstocks into chemicals and fuels at a price point competitive with petroleum-based processes.

The first runners-up were Dan Kleinbaum and Luke Kyohere, graduate students from the Texas Master of Science in Technology Commercialization Program, whose startup, Beyonic Technologies, has developed a mobile payment platform for use in the developing world.

Seismos, founded by Texas MSTC students Panos Adamopoulos, Omar Hernandez, Stevan Slusher, and Devin Bedwell, won the $20,000 Wells Fargo Clean Energy prize. Seismos provides real-time measurements of oil and gas flows for enhanced oil recovery. The Wells Fargo Clean Energy track was part of the competition for a second year, with enhanced prize money this year thanks to Wells Fargo’s increased commitment and funding to Texas Venture Labs.

Seismos also won first place in February’s Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition, as well as additional competitions at Rice University and UC Berkeley. Altogether, Seismos has won more than $45,000 in cash and about $100,000 in services and non-cash awards this competition season, says team member Panos Adamopoulos. “This is all thanks to the MSTC program,” he says. “We thank all the McCombs faculty and people who have been of such great help.”

This year’s GVLIC had an especially strong international presence. Eleven countries were represented, and 40 percent of the competing teams came from schools outside the United States. “We had a truly global final this year, with two of the four teams in the finals coming from outside the U.S.,” says GVLIC Director Robert Warren. “Visolis did an excellent job presenting their venture and responding to the judges’ questions, and we are excited they are the 2013 Venture Labs Investment Competition’s Global Champion.”

Rounding out the finals were AGcerez from the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration in Thailand and BriteSeed from Northwestern University in Illinois. AGcerez produces L’amai, the world’s first longan-extracted probiotic sweetener. BriteSeed offers SafeSnips, a patent-pending technology that integrates with minimally invasive surgical tools to prevent accidental cuts into blood vessels. Team members are Paul Fehrenbacher and Jonathan Gunn.

GVLIC is a unique partnership that brings together graduate students and business leaders in a simulation of the real-world process of raising venture capital. The judges function as an investment group seeking to reach consensus on the business venture they would most likely fund. The quality of the idea, the strength of the management team, and the clarity and persuasiveness of the written plan and oral presentation all influence the judges’ decisions. Begun at UT as “Moot Corp” by MBA students in 1984, the competition is the oldest new-venture competition in the world.

The Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs, named in 2012 for Fort Worth businessman and entrepreneur Jon Brumley when he gave more than $6 million to help it grow, promotes new venture creation at UT through education and mentoring, market and business plan validation, team building and networking, and direct links to resources and funding.

See also:

The Class That’s Shaping Austin’s Startup Scene

“UT3D” a first-of-its-kind production curriculum for Radio-Television-Film students

Spaceships hurtling toward you. Touchdown receptions an arm’s length away. Front-row seats at big concerts. These experiences—or at least the illusion of them—are increasingly common in movie theaters and living rooms thanks to 3-D technology. And now UT radio-television-film students will have access to the nation’s first comprehensive 3-D production curriculum.

Through a $2.17 million grant from the Moody Foundation to create “UT3D,” students will produce a range of 3-D content—including plays, sports, documentaries, and narrative pieces—and explore evolving 3-D innovations such as glasses-free viewing for television, tablets, and cellphones.

Don Howard, associate professor and production area head in the Department of Radio-Television-Film, will serve as director of the program, which will begin offering classes to undergraduates this fall. In addition to leadership from current RTF faculty members, UT3D will draw upon industry professionals—directors, technicians, producers, and executives—to mentor students.

“3-D content and technology are headed for a revolution across all platforms. It’s imperative to share this new toolkit with future filmmakers so they have the training and experience for the jobs of the future,” says RTF graduate Wayne Miller, an executive producer at Los Angeles-based SD Entertainment who helped envision the program. “By providing students an understanding of 3-D technology and hands-on experience with state-of-the-art equipment, The University of Texas at Austin is bound to become the leader in 3-D education.”

The grant will be made over a five-year period. Classes will be taught at the Belo Center for New Media on campus and at the Moody Theater in downtown Austin—the recording studio for the PBS television show “Austin City Limits”—where students will use the studio’s 3-D production and performance facility.

“We’re delighted to support UT3D,” says Ross Moody, president of Austin’s National Western Life Insurance Company and a trustee of the Moody Foundation. “Students will gain firsthand experience at the Moody Theater to start their real-world training. And when they graduate, they’ll be ahead in the growing medium of 3-D.”

UT3D was also made possible by Tim McClure. McClure, a co-founder of the advertising agency GSD&M and College of Communication advisory council member, provided guidance on the creation of the program and will continue to connect the college with industry partners.

“This is a tremendous example of what planned giving can do for the future of the university,” says Randy Diehl, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “Our college alone has received more than $30 million in planned gifts during the past five years. We are grateful for the generosity and foresight of people like Gardner Marston, who valued their education at the university and wanted to give back so that others might enjoy the same benefits of higher education.”

Alan Tully, chair of the Department of History, said that although Marston’s course interests ranged across the liberal arts, he recognized the central importance of historical studies in fostering enlightened citizenship.

“Many individuals have remarked on the fundamental connection between curiosity and good education,” Tully says. “With his gift, Gardner Marston made a further connection, recognizing that fellowship support is crucial to attract and support students who bring to our program restless curiosity and keenness of mind. We are deeply in his debt and trust that others will find themselves challenged by his example.”

Jackie Jones, professor and graduate chair in the Department of History, says resources would be used to provide yearlong fellowships and summer stipends, and to fund students’ travel to archival collections in the U.S. and abroad. “This generous gift will enhance the ability of the history graduate program to recruit outstanding students and to maintain the overall excellence of our program.”

The original Gardner F. Marston Endowed History Scholarship Fund was established with a $250,000 gift in 1998. Marston died in 2011.

Learn more about gift and estate planning at the university.

INSPIRE students visiting the U.S. Capitol while at the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders, 2012.

Donations Matched Up to Total of $25,000

UT alumna Dr. Mary Braunagel-Brown is committed to the establishment of an endowment supporting women undergraduates selected for INSPIRE Leadership, a three-year revolving program serving sophomores to seniors that helps women develop the skills they need to achieve the highest levels within their chosen academic fields.

Dr. Braunagel-Brown is matching new gifts dollar-for-dollar for the proposed Mary Braunagel-Brown Excellence Fund, up to a total of $25,000.

By matching the gifts of other donors, Braunagel-Brown wants the INSPIRE fund to grow quickly and support as many students as possible.

Under the direction of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, the INSPIRE program has served as UT’s signature leadership program for women undergraduates since 2009.

INSPIRE students celebrating the end of the semester, 2012.

“The INSPIRE Leadership Program is a unique and transformative space at UT,” says Juan Portillo, INSPIRE program facilitator. “While we provide professional development workshops, take the students to conferences, and help the students work on group and personal projects, the biggest impact that I feel this group provides is the space and time to take a step back and reflect on what it means to be a female student, more than likely a first-generation college student, and more often than not in male-dominated careers.”

Of INSPIRE participants, 90 percent are young women of color, most are in underrepresented majors, and many are first-generation college students.

“Freshman year at The University of Texas at Austin, before I was in INSPIRE, felt like a never-ending journey towards something that I didn’t quite have the idea of,” says Bibha Suvedi, an INSPIRE participant. “With so many students and their respective student organizations, it was surprisingly difficult to find a space to fit in. Joining INSPIRE and being able to interact with an amazing group of diverse young women became the highlight of my week.”

Inspiring Confidence Through Service

INSPIRE promotes an understanding of cultural diversity, encourages its participants to become global citizens, and teaches them to address international challenges in partnerships with women from other countries.

INSPIRE Fall Retreat at Zilker Park, 2011.

Suvedi says, “INSPIRE has given me a chance to explore topics outside of my major and work with one of my advisers to develop a senior project dealing with sexual violence. Without INSPIRE, I don’t think I would have the courage, the support, or the drive to develop and go on with this project, which I know will be one of my personal crowning achievements of college.”

INSPIRE provides its participants the opportunity to gain the confidence and knowledge to express their voice in their community and build leadership skills by having them engage in community service and by working with other women in supportive and interdisciplinary environments.

“In an academic environment where what is valued is often grades or other signs of productivity, such as the number of internships you have, the number of awards in your resume or the ability to compete and leave others behind, INSPIRE Leadership has become the space where students can breathe for a moment and reconstitute themselves in order to still be successful but keeping in mind their health, their relationships, and their future,” Portillo says.

The program inspires and supports students in the classroom, on campus, and in community leadership roles. Students develop skills applicable to diverse social settings: critical thinking, public presentation, group motivation, and negotiation.

Your Gift to INSPIRE Will Be Matched Dollar for Dollar

To help more participants in the INSPIRE program and take advantage of Dr. Braunagel-Brown’s dollar-for-dollar match, make your gift online today.