Corporate Citizenship and Education
Every other Friday, scientist Dominic Pullo can be found working with fifth graders in Kalamazoo, Mich., schools, showing them everything from spinach DNA to how to navigate using latitude, the sun and an ancient device called an astrolabe.
Away from the classroom, Pullo concentrates on his day job in research and development in veterinary medicine for $48-billion pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. Pfizer has a broad range of educational programs, from sponsorship and judging of science fairs to developing ready-made science kits for teachers.
For Pullo, the time spent in schools inspiring students to take an interest in science has an important link to his work at Pfizer. ”We’re trying to impact our communities with our skill sets and talents,” he said. “Employees that know they’re making a difference are happier.”
Across the country, companies are making a commitment to corporate responsibility by going beyond internships and contributing to educational programs. Many organizations are viewing their responsibilities as going beyond just maximizing returns to shareholders to include being good corporate citizens equally responsible to different constituencies and diverse communities. This changing role of business in society focuses on long-term profitability by investing in the success of the next generation of innovators and leaders.
These programs often enrich curricula in everything from science and technology to literacy. Schools and students benefit from the cutting-edge expertise, access to new technology and a business perspective; companies receive a range of tangible as well as more elusive benefits.
“Even though these programs don’t drive down costs or decrease the price premium for what you sell, it can still make sense to do them,” said Steven Olson, director of Georgia State University’s Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility. ”These contributions from corporations increase the capacity of the competitive environment and shore up the foundations for creating a competitive economy.”
Employers have long been concerned about growing a workforce that meets their needs, and American students’ dwindling global competitiveness - particularly in science and math - has raised concerns. Some companies are finding ways to introduce students to their fields while also insuring education provides students with the building blocks needed for that work. Federal programs like the $1.3 billion vocational and technical education-focused Perkins Act have encouraged companies to become partners with schools - and employers have taken that message to heart.
For more than a decade, healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson has expanded its nationwide Bridge to Employment program, a partnership between the company or its local affiliates and schools across the country. The program uses financial grants and company expertise to introduce at-risk students to a variety of careers in healthcare through rigorous courses, community-based projects, science and math tutoring, mentoring, summer institutes and internships.
A 2005 independent study of the program found evidence that those efforts were paying off. Researchers found, for example, that 88 percent of graduates of the Cincinnati, Ohio, Bridge to Employment program enrolled in postsecondary health care programs. On the business side, the study found that all of company supervisors agreed that interns contributed to a more pleasant office environment and 83 percent said interns increased productivity.
Employees who participated in these programs seemed to value their jobs more, said Keith MacAllum, who worked on the 2005 report and is now a senior study director at research services organization Westat. ”The employees who volunteer for these programs talk a lot about the intrinsic value of connecting with a young person,” he said.
Similar initiatives MacAllum has studied produced other benefits as well. In the 1990s, General Motors created education-related programs in Lansing, Mich., and Detroit to help interest students in the automobile manufacturing industry. As part of the GM initiative, high school seniors were challenged to solve a real automotive problem. ”In at least one situation, the kids’ ideas were actually implemented,” McAllum said.
One of the major benefits to companies in need of skilled workers is to make students aware of the types of careers available and what is needed to reach them. Agricultural company Monsanto must replace 5 percent to 10 percent of its workforce over the next several years just to maintain its staffing level, and the company wants to double its business in the next decade, said spokesman Darren Wallis. But many students aren’t familiar with the company or the wide variety of jobs available in the industry.
So six years ago, Monsanto helped establish an agricultural biotechnology program at the Clyde T. Miller Academy in inner-city St. Louis. Before the program, students there could barely envision where food came from beyond a supermarket. Now, they’ve hatched chickens and studied plants. Without this program, “these children would never consider agriculture as a career, and if they did, it might have been from a very jaded idea of what agriculture is,” Wallis said. ”This updates their vision of agriculture and opens their eyes to the possibilities.” That includes jobs at all levels, he said, from researchers to sales people.
Stephanie Mohr, a biotechnology teacher at Clyde T. Miller, said many of her students started with a focus in science, but after going through the program, “their interest lies more within the agricultural field.”
Some experts say stockholders are starting to expect and appreciate the education activity that companies take on. ”There’s a big value to being a corporate citizen,” said Richard Kazis, senior vice president for nonprofit advocacy and research organization Jobs for the Future. ”It gets your name out there, it’s good marketing and, in some industries, you can build customers.”
That’s what newspapers are trying to do with Newspapers in Education programs, said Sandy Woodcock, director of the nonprofit Newspaper Association of America Foundation (NAA). Newspapers typically provide print or electronic versions of the paper to schools, with additional lesson plans and activities. The access to newspapers helps improve literacy rates, Woodcock said, thus creating a new generation of possible readers or customers. An NAA study found that six out of 10 people with high newspaper exposure during childhood are regular readers as adults, compared to only 38 percent of those with no exposure.
As the economy dives into recession, however, will these types of programs continue to be a priority for business, or will they like the General Motors program, which was scrapped several years ago, fall by the wayside? Many can be expensive, financially, especially in terms of employee time spent on the projects.
McAllum certainly hopes they won’t disappear. These initiatives allow businesses and their employees “an opportunity to interact with teachers, provide their opinion about the curriculum and influence what kids learn,” he said. ”It would be tragic if business was not involved in education.”
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