Philanthropy

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How Business Helps Build Better Schools

Right: Raleigh architect Phi Freelon mentors interns James Utley and Brian Roberts

By Suzanne Fischer

Imagine for a moment that you are Mac Everett, president of First Union's mid-Atlantic region, and that you're preparing for a critical meeting with clients. Maybe you'd straighten your tie, gather your notes, and transfer all calls. And if you were Mac, you'd put on a tall, green-and-white striped, stovepipe hat.

A little incongruous, you say? In most circumstances, yes. But not if your clients are a roomful of wide-eyed school children eagerly awaiting your rendition of the Dr. Seuss classic “Oh, the Places You'll Go.”

That's what it was like recently when Everett helped kick off one of the largest face-to-face corporate literacy events in the nation — a three-week period when thousands of First Union volunteers in North Carolina read to 200,000 school children across the state. The event, one of the company's many philanthropic initiatives, is part of a larger reading program throughout the bank's market area and an on-going commitment to early childhood literacy. Company-wide, from Connecticut to Florida and in locations like London and Bangkok, almost half of the First Union workforce volunteered a total of 753,000 hours in schools last year alone. To facilitate volunteerism, the company gives all employees four hours of paid time off each month to mentor, read to and tutor students.

“We know how important it is that children learn to read and love to read,” says Judy Allison, manager of corporate contributions and community involvement for all of First Union. “We wanted to do something that our employees would enjoy, that would be flexible and easy for them to do, and that would meet a need with measurable results.”

From Murphy to Manteo, international corporations and small, home-town businesses in a wide variety of industries are taking up the call to arms to help improve education. In a staggering number of ways — mentoring, tutoring, giving money, donating computers and other equipment, providing family-friendly working environments, sponsoring workshops for teachers, offering parenting classes to employees, and more — the state's business community continues to make education one of its top priorities in corporate philanthropy and citizenship.

“Our business community is recognized nationally for its outstanding leadership and commitment to making sure our children are getting the best education possible,” says Gov. James Hunt. “We've made tremendous progress in recent years, and our business community has been at the head of that success.”

Indeed, North Carolina received the 1999 State of the Year award from the National Alliance of Business (NAB) for improvements in its public schools. North Carolina was cited for turning around its education and workforce development systems to ensure that students and workers have the skills needed to drive the state's economy forward into the 21st century.

“North Carolina's business leaders know a better education for our students means a stronger workforce in the future. That's why they are helping students achieve higher standards, improving school technology and supporting school-to-work programs to prepare our young people for successful careers,” Hunt adds.

To catalog every instance of good work in North Carolina schools would be impossible, but we'd like to recognize just a few of the thousands of businesses and industry groups that are making a difference and applaud them — and all those that space limitations prevent us from mentioning — for their commitment to our state's youth. This year, we've chosen to focus on efforts directed at students from preschool through high school.

The Freelon Group

A 30-person architecture firm with offices in RTP and Charlotte, The Freelon Group doesn't have branches in Bangkok or London, nor can it begin to match First Union's annual 753,000 volunteer hours. What it can — and does — do, however, is provide a meaningful and educational work experience for local high school kids. Each semester, one student in a drafting class is selected for an internship with the firm, where he or she will be paid to expand skills, learn more about architecture and contribute to the firm's work.

James Utley, a junior in N.C. State University's architecture program, began his internship with The Freelon Group three and a half years ago when he was a student at Enloe High School in Raleigh.

“I've learned so much here. It's prepared me a great deal for college and helped me see how classroom work applies to the real world,” Utley explains enthusiastically.

Utley works alongside the architects and helps with renderings and other tasks. The student, who has loved drawing buildings since he was in middle school, would eventually like to work in urban design and downtown revitalization.

“Skyscrapers were my first love,” he adds with a chuckle.

Philip Freelon, president of the company, feels compelled to help the community in some way and to offer a real working experience. “I think it's important on a lot of levels,” he says. “The students learn a lot and get practical skills. And for architecture, it's crucial that we get a continuous stream of excellent students.”

Freelon and his staff attend career days at elementary, middle and high schools where, in addition to talking up the opportunities in architecture, they encourage students to work hard and stay in school.

“Law and medicine and computer fields get so much exposure these days,” Freelon adds, “that we just want to show them that the field of architecture can offer a lot of opportunities too.”

N.C. Business Committee for Education

Established in 1983 under Gov. Hunt, the NCBCE is a business-led and business-sponsored nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to bring a “business view” to the job of improving K-12 education in the state. Housed in the governor's office, NCBCE has grown to over 90 dues-paying member companies.

“Individual companies can't leverage the kind of changes created by the group as a whole, although that's certainly not to diminish their individual contributions either, which can be and are substantial,” says Thomas J. Williams, NCBCE's executive director. “We encourage each of our member businesses to be involved in education on their own, as well, but we feel the real value of our organization is in our collective work.”

The group's mission is the systemic and continuous improvement of the state's schools in four specific areas of focus: higher student standards and workforce development, technology, parent and community involvement, and Total Quality in Education partnerships.

“We're the only business organization in the state that focuses on nothing but K-12 education,” Williams explains. “Why K-12? Years ago businesses saw universities getting money but little attention being given to public education. They're concerned about workforce development, and they're realizing how early that needs to start. Not when kids go to college or community college, but long before that.”

Also recognized by the National Alliance of Business recently, the NCBCE, which is chaired by BellSouth's J. Billie Ray, was awarded one of five Coalition of the Year awards. Two of the other five awards were presented to the N.C. Partnership for Excellence and the Public School Forum of North Carolina. Chaired by Tom Bradshaw, a former chair of NCCBI, the Forum was recognized for its exemplary work in the public policy arena to raise K-12 education standards, launch a statewide accountability program and sustain the consensus for higher standards in the future.

Among many factors, Williams partially credits NCBCE's success to its demand for high accountability standards. “We and our member companies make decisions to fund projects and expect results and impacts to be well-documented,” he explains. “Companies in general are giving smarter.”

Neuville Industries

Some companies have proven that investing in our children's future welfare yields positive results in the immediate present, and for the company's benefit as well as for its employees and their kids.

When Neuville Industries, a hosiery company in Hildebran, opened a new manufacturing facility in 1979, its leaders looked for something that would give them a competitive edge on hiring. With women making up about 75 percent of its workforce, Neuville decided that opening a day care center might be a way to attract employees.

“That was the start of the company's `family-friendly' work policies at a time when that phrase didn't even exist,” explains Elena Azzarita, Neuville spokesperson. “These days we still use that to differentiate ourselves from our competition. In an industry where turnover averages between 80 and 100 percent, ours is 40 to 45 percent.”

Parents pay about 60 percent of the cost of care; Neuville subsidizes the rest. From its inception, the center has grown from six to 70-80 children.

The company also offers flex time — an option most often available only for administrative and professional jobs as opposed to manufacturing positions — throughout the facility.

“It makes scheduling more difficult, yes, and not every employee can take advantage of it because of the nature of our work, but we're experimenting, willing to try different things to meet peoples' needs,” Azzarita says.

Most of the employees who take advantage of flex time and shorter work weeks (another benefit offered by the company) do so because of family obligations such as being with their children after school and helping kids with their homework, Azzarita adds.

The company's efforts were highlighted in a family-focused workplace guide co-sponsored by NCBCE. “Parent and community involvement is a big part of improving education,” Williams, the executive director says. “A recent study showed that 92 percent of the factors that most influence student achievement come from quality teaching (43 percent) and parenting behaviors (49 percent) like setting high expectations and being involved.”

IBM

Dave Benevides, IBM's regional director of community relations and public affairs, grins, leans back in his chair and says “Where do I start?”

Considering that he's been asked to discuss IBM's education initiatives, it's a fair question.

“K-12 education is IBM's primary community focus. It's a key concern of ours, a key concern of our customers, and a key concern of our employees,” he says. “Our future employees are being educated today. We need a high-quality educational system for ourselves and the future of our society.”

To that end, in 1994 the company announced a $25 million international grant program called Reinventing Education. Grants of cash awards and technology go toward systemic reform; in the first round of proposals nine school systems were selected, Charlotte being one of the first with an initiative called Wired for Learning.

A web-based communications and instructional tool, Wired for Learning connects administrators, teachers, parents and students. Teachers can use the program for teaching, administration and creating their own websites and parents can access students' work and communicate with teachers.

In the second round of Reinventing Education grants, Durham Public Schools also received a Wired for Learning grant. “Our partner there is Duke University,” Benevides explains. “They're helping us identify community systems where we can provide public access so that people who don't have personal computers can go to a public library and check in.”

In addition to the technology required to “wire” the schools, IBM also provides training to teachers and parents in the use of the system.

“Obviously, technology is our tool, but we think it's an important one that gives students and teachers one more advantage,” Benevides says.

The company, however, also values the human factor: about 100 IBMers from the RTP facility alone volunteer in classrooms as tutors and mentors. Tony Reale, an RTP IBM employee, won the volunteer of the year award from the Wake County Communities in Schools program, which provides tutors to at-risk kids.

In its matching grants program, IBM allows employees and retirees to contribute to the donation of PC equipment to eligible preschools, childcare centers and K-12 schools of their choice. A single employee, or group of workers, must donate 20 percent of the price of the equipment and IBM will contribute the balance.

And in an expansion of its successful KidSmart Early Learning pilot program, the company is donating 1,000 kid-proof computer stations and age-appropriate software to over 400 nonprofit childcare centers in 44 states. Ninety-four of the primary-colored work stations will be housed in North Carolina centers.

“Education is the one cure that seems to encompass and address all societal ills,” Benevides posits. “We're fortunate that we have so many other businesses here to hold the education banner with us. And there is no question that our governor and his education policies and the commitment of other leaders in the state have made North Carolina a shining star in the education world.”

N.C. Auto Dealers Association

The N.C. Auto Dealers Association, in an effort to increase public awareness of quality education in the state, plans to become a permanent sponsor of the North Carolina Teacher of the Year program. The winner of the award will receive a gift automobile each year and will keep it permanently.

The NCADA also agreed to assume financial sponsorship of the awards recognition luncheon conducted for all finalists in Raleigh in May, and to pay expenses for regional finalists to plan six leadership and professional development symposiums for fellow teachers in their region.

NCADA president Harry Brown said that “because dealers are in every community across the state, we hope to have a significant impact on highlighting quality education.”

Weyerhaeuser

Like many of the businesses we talked to for this article, Weyerhaeuser knows that an investment in education serves the good of its company and the good of the community.

“Sure we have self interest in making sure we have capable employees in the future and that we can attract employees who have school-aged children,” says Marc Finlayson, North Carolina communications manager for the company. “But we also know that education strongly affects our quality of life and we have a long-standing tradition of investing where we operate.”

In the late 1980s, for example, the company's foundation spent $1.5 million to build Pines Elementary school in Washington County and in the early '90s it instituted its Southern Partnership, which assists schools in five states with strategic planning and total quality techniques.

In North Carolina alone, the Weyerhaeuser Foundation invests nearly $400,000 annually, mostly in educational programs. In Washington County, for instance, the company donated $250,000 to help build an educational center which houses the local SmartStart program as well as adult literacy classes.

And near the company's pulp mill in Craven County, Weyerhaeuser created the Cool Springs Environmental Education Center, an outdoor learning area with miles of trails and boardwalks through the wetlands, where over 10,000 school students in the past four years have come to learn about wildlife management and resource conservation.

Nortel Networks

At Nortel, company leaders continue to focus on on-going educational projects and launched some new ones. Its main areas of focus are parental involvement, total quality management issues and leveraging information technology in the classroom.

Over the past six years, for example, Nortel has offered courses through which teachers can get continuing education unit credits in computer skills. Employees volunteered time to design training manuals and teach the courses on Saturday mornings.

Throughout its RTP facilities the company holds parenting seminars on topics like investing for future college expenses, dealing with attention deficit disorder and practicing good family communication skills. Working Mother magazine honored the program with its Apple PIE (parental involvement in education) award last year.

The company also used a potentially problematic situation — converting from a Macintosh platform to PCs — to donate more than 2,000 computers to 10 school systems in the RTP area.

What's Next?

With all this philanthropic activity, it can be hard to imagine room for improvement in the giving arena. But Lowell Thomas, chair of NCCBI's education committee, offers some ways the business community can continue to build upon its already-exemplary track record.

“There's been a tremendous amount of cooperation from business and industry at all levels of education,” Thomas says, “And historically, we (NCCBI) as an association have had a significant hand in bringing about a variety of reforms in things like standards and accountability and ABCs. But I think there are still many, many opportunities and challenges ahead.”

Thomas would like to see businesses increase their role in encouraging parental support through family-friendly work policies and by inviting educators to the workplace to interact with parents there. He encourages companies to mentor more students and offer apprenticeships and internships.

He'd like the business and industry community to continue to be generous with its resources but to improve in its assessment of projects' effectiveness. He thinks business can help educators develop more skills in collaborative decision-making, as opposed to the top-down approach.

“I just believe we can be a real partner in this process,” he says, “and take a `how can I help' approach.”

The governor is counting on it.

“We have set an ambitious goal for North Carolina as we head into a new century — making our schools First in America by the year 2010,” Hunt says.

“Our business community has always risen to the challenge, and can play a critical role in this effort, by continuing to dedicate themselves to stronger schools and a brighter future for our children and our state.”

COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. This article first appeared in the December 1999 issue of the North Carolina Magazine.

Suzanne Fischer can be reached at sfischer@nccbi.org or at 919-836-1412.