The International Corrugated Packaging Foundation approved $1 million to expand corrugated packaging curriculum in the U.S late this past month (Oct. 28, 2018). Over the past two decades, the Alexandria, Va, USA.-based foundation has donated almost $12 million in equipment (and millions more in software) in colleges and universities across the nation, according to a news release.

The foundation’s board approved another 10 proposals from schools this year, to be funded over a three-year period, according to the release. The institutions are:

• Clemson University, Clemson, S.C.
• Millersville University, Millersville, Pa.
• Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
• North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.
• Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana
• University of Texas-Arlington
• Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich.
• Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
• Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho
• Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

The items the funds will pay for include: faculty, launch of corrugated packaging curricula, creation of packaging design labs, and addition of corrugated sales and business into packaging coursework, according to the news release.

The foundation works with students from more than 40 universities annually, and has more than two dozen universities that are teaching corrugated courses. In the past seven years, up to 150 interns and graduates entered the industry through the foundation initiatives, according to the release.