Mann: High-tech education key to growing economy
By MICHAEL A. MANN
Guest Columnist
A long time ago, a company near my high school offered a program to high school juniors who were interested in science. Those of us who were accepted into the program went to work at the company offices every day for 10 weeks through the summer (I hitchhiked) and spent those weeks designing test equipment and performing experiments for our individual projects. We got to know those who worked alongside us and learned about their research. At the end of the summer, each of us prepared a formal report that we presented to the company’s management, with our parents and the other participants watching.
The program was an enlightened effort by that company to give students a chance to see if they would enjoy science research and work in a lab. It had a big impact on me, and I will never forget it.
Today in South Carolina, business support for students interested in science, math and technology is alive and well. Recently, the Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics Foundation hosted the annual Townes Award dinner to help raise funds for the school and its newly expanded program. It was clear from the number of businesses that were present and also from the remarks of the keynote speaker, Rick Stephens of Boeing, and the Townes Award winner, Darla Moore, that high-tech education is important to business and vital to South Carolina’s economy.
I heard recently that the industry with the biggest technological lead over competitors is the aircraft manufacturing industry. Boeing leads that field. South Carolina needs Boeing, and we want to be sure Boeing comes to need South Carolina. But as Mr. Stephens said, “Boeing is not about jobs in South Carolina; we’re about careers in South Carolina.” Jobs require skills; careers require an education. To support the Boeings, BMWs and other great companies that have made South Carolina their home, we need to make sure we are educating our students for those careers.
In my own case, I was able to acquire two science degrees before ultimately becoming a patent lawyer. Now I, along with my colleagues in Nexsen Pruet’s intellectual property law practice group, help scientists and engineers obtain exclusive rights to their inventions, and thus the rewards for their hard work. Given my own experience as a high school student, and knowing that I was the beneficiary of the support of a local business that wanted to promote interest in science education, it was important to me personally to see my firm as a sponsor for the dinner.
But we all need to do more. As the National Science Foundation reports: “Changing work force requirements mean that new workers will need ever more sophisticated skills in science, mathematics, engineering and technology…. In addition, the rapid advances in technology in all fields mean that even those students who do not pursue professional occupations in technological fields will also require solid foundations in science and math in order to be productive and capable members of our nation’s society.”
The students who are accepted into the Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics have a fabulous opportunity. They receive a fine high school education with an emphasis in science and mathematics, and soon also economics and finance, and their cost is minimal. They are sought after by great colleges and universities. And no doubt they will pursue great careers, many in South Carolina, where they will return value to the state’s economy.
If South Carolina’s economy is to grow at the pace we need, we must have even more students who are prepared for the careers defined by the new global economy. We must provide the students of today with the requisite education to become productive workers tomorrow.
South Carolina businesses must demand a better educated work force and push for that goal through those who are in a position to make it happen. We need to support the state’s public school system, its 16 technical colleges and the state’s major colleges and universities, and insist on their proper funding. We need to help particular students who have a hard time making it on their own.
By doing so, we are investing in our own future work force and our own future economic success.
Mr. Mann leads Nexsen Pruet’s Intellectual Property Group and serves on the board of directors for the Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics Foundation.
The State 
The April 29th edition of The State newspaper features a guest column written by Nexsen Pruet's Mike Mann, who chairs the firm's Intellectual Property Group.
