Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) presented Alabama State University with a check for $50,000 Feb. 21, in conjunction with the company’s celebration of the start of production of its electrified Genesis GV70 in Montgomery. The news conference and presentation were held at the Hyundai site.
National, state and city dignitaries were in attendance, along with university representatives, including Joyce Loyd-Davis, DNP, senior director of Health Services, Col. (ret.) Gregory Clark, vice president of Institutional Advancement; Audrey Napier, Ph.D., associate professor of biology; Carl S. Pettis, Ph.D., provost and vice president of Academic Affairs; and Michelle Foster, Ph.D., associate dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (C-STEM).
During a special presentation at the end of the program, Brandon Ramirez, director of Corporate Responsibility and External Relations for Genesis, awarded the university with a $50,000 check to support STEM scholarships as part of its “Genesis Gives” initiative, which supports STEM education and sports programming.
“With this donation, we look forward to seeing future Alabama State University grads joining the HMMA team,” Ramirez said.
The university was acknowledged for its positive partnership with Hyundai and for its two-day COVID-19 vaccination clinic where the university’s Health Services team inoculated more than 1,000 HMMA employees with the COVID-19 vaccine, under the leadership of Davis.
Clark offered remarks on behalf of the university.
“This is a great day for Alabama State University,” Clark said. “On behalf of President Quinton T. Ross, Jr. and the board of trustees, we would like to thank you for what you do to support Alabama State and for being a partner with the university. These dollars will immediately go to help our brand new engineering program that is expected to start in the fall of 2024. So, in a couple of years, we will be able to send you interns [to HMMA] and in about four years, we will send some graduates to Hyundai to keep these young men and women in the state of Alabama working…We are happy to be proud partners with Hyundai,” Clark concluded.