This holiday season, Micron team members around the world have been busy giving back to their respective communities from disaster preparedness to hunger relief to public speaking training for students.

Micron Japan Receives Award for Emergency Safety Supplies Donation

On Oct. 17, Micron’s Hashimoto Engineering Center donated emergency safety supplies to be used in case of a disaster. The supplies included 50 helmets, 250 blankets and 140 emergency survival kits to support people returning home to Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, where Hashimoto is located. To show gratitude for the donation, Sagamihara City Mayor Toshio Kayama recently presented an appreciation award to Micron Memory Japan and Micron Japan, Ltd. President Yoshitaka Kinoshita for Micron's contribution in promoting administrative activities for disaster prevention.

"It will make Sagamihara city's citizens feel safe knowing that we have emergency supplies in case of a disaster," Kayama said. "Sagamihara City stockpiled a warehouse in Minami Hashimoto area, and it is taking every possible measure to prepare for an emergency. Any contribution from a company is really helpful." 

The supplies that Micron donated will be utilized by volunteer organizations in Sagamihara City in a disaster situation. They will be also stockpiled in safe shelters for when they are needed.

Micron Foundation and Milpitas Team Members Donate $10,000 to San Jose Food Bank

On Nov. 17, 38 Milpitas team members, led by executives Jeff VerHeul and Sumit Sadana, participated in a friendly food sorting competition to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank in San Jose, CA. Sadana’s team was the victor, packing 12,116 pounds of kiwi (442 boxes), versus VerHeul’s team who packed 11,720 pounds of corn (546 boxes). In total, Micron Foundation donated $10,000 to the food bank.

The Second Harvest Food Bank delivers more than 66 million pounds of free food to 300 community-based organizations, helping to provide meals to Santa Clara and San Mateo county residents. For every dollar donated, the food bank is able to provide two meals to those in need.

Manassas, VA Team Members Donate Turkeys to Local Charities

Team members from our Manassas, VA location (MTV) came together to ensure several Northern Virginia families will enjoy a holiday dinner this year. MTV donated 160 turkeys to local charities, including Northern Virginia Family Service, BARN Community Housing, St. Thomas United Methodist Church Food Pantry, Prosperity House and Bread of Life Food Pantry.

Milpitas Team Members Build and Donate Playhouse to Habitat for Humanity

On [insert date], Milpitas team members demonstrated their community support and creativity by participating in Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley’s Playhouse Program, where 10 volunteer teams compete to build and decorate playhouses for local families.

Each team is equipped a basic template, building materials and tools and tasked with using their imagination to construct the most creative playhouse. The finished playhouses are placed on display in downtown San Jose and online for the public to vote for the best overall playhouse. The winner (most total votes) is selected on Christmas Day. Habitat for Humanity selects local families and charities to receive the completed playhouses, which often go to active military and veteran families and nonprofits in the community.

Micron Foundation contributed a $2,000 donation to cover the material cost for the Milpitas team’s emoji-themed playhouse and to support Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to create affordable housing solutions for local families.

Micron Foundation Sponsors Public Speaking Workshop for Students in Avezzano

High school students got some practice in public speaking techniques at a Foundation-sponsored public speaking workshop.

Students of the Galileo Galilei High School in Avezzano are participating in a public speaking workshop with particular focus on online talks for the TED conference platform. Co-sponsored by the Micron Foundation and led by actor and communication expert Corrado Oddi, the project aims to teach methods and techniques for speech preparation, and emotion management, such as anxiety containment and empathy generation. In the first phase of the project, students made videos for self-introduction, which will be presented at a TEDxBologna 2017 contest to  be held at Bologna University. The second phase of the project will involve the school teachers and focus on further public speaking skills development.

Micron Foundation Sponsors Robot Workshop at Hiroshima University Festival

Micron Foundation sponsored a robot workshop at the Hiroshima University Festival, Nov. 4-5, providing 33 students elementary- and middle school school-aged students the opportunity to create and play with sensor-driven robot cars. Hiroshima University, which is located near Fab 15, is recognized as the academic symbol of the community, and their annual university festival draws nearly 30,000 people.

"The workshop was a great opportunity for my son to learn technical skills at a fun event," said a parent of a child who participated in the robot workshop.

Micron Foundation is committed to supporting STEM-learning efforts in the Fab 15 community, where K-12 students may experience hands-on STEM activities.

Micron Bracknell Sparks Passion for STEM Fields at Careers Day Event

Four Micron Bracknell team members recently supported the Bracknell Schools Careers Day event, providing nearly 500 secondary students with information about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Micron Bracknell volunteers greeted students at a Micron-sponsored booth, where visitors learned about Micron’s key products and market segments and enjoyed some simple computer games from a Raspberry Pi board using Micron memory.

The event was organized by Learning to Work, a nonprofit initiative focused on improving employer engagement in UK schools.

Micron Foundation and Team Members Help Spark a Passion for STEM Learning at UTM Edu-Camp 2017

Forty secondary school students enjoyed hands-on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning at the University Technology Malaysia (UTM) Edu-Camp 2017 on Nov. 18.

The Micron Foundation-sponsored camp provides students an interactive setting where they learned how to apply STEM concepts to engaging games and puzzles like how to build an earthquake-proof structure and how to make an egg stand using salt. Students also learned about the opportunities within STEM degrees and careers and spoke with engineering students and professional engineers — including MMY assembly equipment manager, event guest speaker and UTM alumnus Kugeneswaran A/L Ganesh.

Ganesh talked about his childhood dream of becoming an engineer and how his STEM education contributed to an exciting and fulfilling career at Micron. He discussed Micron’s role in our everyday products and how the company is continually innovating its methods in producing memory.