Norfolk Southern Grant Supports Rail Education Growth
15.11.2025
Norfolk Southern awards a $1,500 grant to HERE Corp., and the nonprofit leans on that support to push its rail education mission further into schools, veteran networks, and local community events.
This is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.
Norfolk Southern Grant and the Education Mission
Norfolk Southern supports HERE Corp. with a $1,500 Thriving Communities grant, and the award lands squarely in the middle of the nonprofit’s push to explain freight rail to a wider public. HERE’s team, described on the Railroadsarehere website as a rail education nonprofit, focuses on clear, practical information and speaks with military veterans, high school students, and technical programs because these groups often weigh long-term career options very carefully.
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The organization launched in October 2024, so it still operates in an early, formative phase where every new partner and every funded project matters. HERE leans on direct presentations rather than abstract messaging, and its representatives walk audiences through the basics of railroading and the range of roles that exist inside the industry.
This model aligns with the Thriving Communities program, which Norfolk Southern outlines in its public grant guidelines, and the railroad keeps pointing its grant dollars toward efforts that connect education with workforce development and community resilience. In real terms, the company and the nonprofit pull in the same direction: they want people to understand what freight rail does and why it remains relevant.
How Norfolk Southern and HERE Shape Community Impact?
Norfolk Southern designed the Thriving Communities initiative as an open-application grant program, and that structure gives groups like HERE a straightforward path to seek support. The company highlights themes such as sustainability, education, and resilience, and HERE fits cleanly into that framework with its rail-focused curriculum and mentoring.
In a public statement, HERE board member Stacey Mansfield notes that freight rail plays a critical role in the national economy, a point echoed by the Association of American Railroads in its overview of rail’s economic impact. She argues that outreach helps communities see that role more clearly, and that kind of understanding shapes how people think about future careers. As one board member at the nonprofit basically put it, “if people don’t know how rail works, they rarely consider building a future in it” — so education turns into a quiet but important form of workforce planning.
The grant gives HERE more room to sharpen its message and keep showing up in front of the audiences it targets. And because the organization sticks to essential industry fundamentals rather than hype, communities walk away with a more grounded picture of how freight rail connects to everyday economic life.
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