Science chief searching for another Gates
BYLINE: Mike Padgett
Bill Harris dreams of Arizona producing a new high-tech business leader such as Bill Gates, who, with partner Paul Allen, founded computer software behemoth Microsoft in 1975.
That potential for Arizona's future helped Harris, the former chief executive of Science Foundation Ireland, accept the offer to become the first director of Science Foundation Arizona.
Harris started work in Arizona in July. His ambitious goals include creation of business strategies that encourage entrepreneurial leaders -- like starting a Microsoft, or even something close to it.
"In Arizona, I want to help create the next Bill Gates, and I would even take a half of a Bill Gates or a quarter of a Bill Gates, if we can get that kind of an enterprise here," Harris said.
"I think it's possible, with the interface of biology and computer science, that there's going to be a company in this next decade or so that's going to capture the elements of modern science and personalized medicine," he said. "There's no reason why that can't be in Arizona."
Harris is so convinced of Arizona's potential, he took the SFAz job after California Polytechnic State University in September 2005 announced Harris' appointment as its new provost and vice president of academic affairs. The Arizona post offers more challenge, which is why he chose it over the California appointment. Private donations to SFAz will pay Harris' $500,000 annual salary.
Harris was recruited by a team of business leaders headed by Don Budinger, who, with his brother, William, founded Rodel Charitable Foundation of Arizona, a nonprofit organization committed to improving education in Arizona. Negotiations with Harris included Gov. Janet Napolitano.
Rodel also founded ThinkAZ, the Arizona Center for Public Policy, a Phoenix think tank that studies land use, immigration, water supplies and other public policy issues.
The Rodel Foundation in Arizona and a sister organization in Delaware were started by the Budingers after they sold their company, Rodel Inc., to Rohm and Haas in 1999. Rodel Inc., a leading maker of specialty chemicals for the electronics industry, was started in Delaware in 1968. It was expanded to Arizona in 1973.
Budinger said that while his family's foundation has several public-interest priorities, such as health care, transportation and affordable housing. "The mother's milk of the whole thing is an absolutely first-rate public education system," he said.
Programs lured Harris
Harris said the Rodel Foundation's education programs, which are backed by Greater Phoenix Leadership, Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and have financial support from several of Arizona's leading companies, played a role in his decision to accept the job as director at SFAz.
The Rodel programs are Math Achievement Club by Rodel, or MAC-Ro, which promotes more math instruction for students and requires parental involvement; Rodel Exemplary Teacher Initiative, which rewards teachers in low-income schools; and Arizona College Scholarship Foundation, which helps low-income students by providing college scholarships.
The ACFS board of directors includes Bob Craves, president and chief executive of the Washington Education Foundation, which has awarded college scholarships to more than 2,500 low-income, high-potential students in Washington state since 2000.
Craves, a founding officer of the Costco Wholesale Corp., a Fortune 500 company, co-founded the WEF with Ann Ramsay-Jenkins, chairwoman of the University of Washington Medicine Board. The WEF, helping about 500 students annually, has financial backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Costco and winemaker Chateau St. Michelle.
Budinger traces his family's Arizona College Scholarship Foundation roots to Craves' visit with Gov. Janet Napolitano about two years ago. After that meeting, Napolitano "called me and asked if I would assemble a group of citizens to see if Arizona wanted to replicate the work that was done in Washington (state)," Budinger said.
So far, there are about 100 low-income, high-potential Arizona students planning for college.
Better education opportunities in Arizona and across the country will offer more opportunities for children in all income levels to obtain better jobs when they become adults, Budinger said.
Rodel's education programs were launched by Carol Peck, president and chief executive of Rodel Charitable Foundation of Arizona. She was recruited by Budinger in 2002. Peck is a former superintendent of the Alhambra Elementary School District and a past National Superintendent of the Year. She launched similar innovative teaching programs while she was at Alhambra.
Math scores up
Rodel's MAC-Ro program is gaining popularity among principals, teachers and parents because it is raising math scores among students in lower-income families. A University of Arizona study found that in the two years after the math program's start in 2003, it led to an average gain in SAT-9 percentile rank scores of 19.5 in MAC-Ro schools, compared to an average statewide gain of three points, Peck said.
Napolitano is another backer of the MAC-Ro methodology.
"The MAC-Ro program is a model that demonstrates that it really can be done -- that students who are English-language learners, or who don't have typical middle-class advantages, are fully capable of high achievement in mathematics," Napolitano said.
Improving students' skills in one area, such as math, will spill over into other skills because of the overall positive impact on thought processes, said Bernadette Selna, professional development coordinator for the Educational Service Agency in the Yavapai County Educational School Superintendent's Office.
"It's working with the students on a deeper understanding and helping them realize how they got the answer," Selna said.
MAC-Ro will be introduced to more than 1,300 students in eight schools in seven Yavapai County districts this school year.
In Maricopa County, students at Balsz Elementary School are bugging Principal Roxanne Motrenec to start MAC-Ro right away. She has about 100 second-graders, 82 third-graders and 94 fourth-graders preparing for the program this year.
"It's a great program," Motrenec said. "It's kind of like basketball -- the more you practice, the better you're going to get at it. I have the kids asking me already, 'When are we going to start, when are we going to start?' And we don't start until October."
The Balsz students' interest is notable because characteristics of the school's population includes high mobility and high numbers of non-English-speaking families, including Hispanic families and Somali refugees, Motrenec said.
Improving students' math scores is important for the state's future because students with stronger math skills will make the state a stronger contender in the competitive biotechnology world, said SFAz's Harris.
Among Western nations, math and science courses are becoming less popular in school.
"It's just the reverse in Asia, where the culture emphasizes science and mathematics and studying," Harris said. "It's not that they (Asian students) are any smarter, it's just that the culture reinforces the importance of understanding those fields and what they can do for society."
Public wants high tech
Other factors that attracted Harris to Arizona is the ambition of the state's business coalition, the promise of the region's up-and-coming biotech alliances, and public support for high-tech enterprise.
More than 90 percent of Arizonans believe it "is important for Arizona to be a national and international leader in science and technology," according to a study conducted in March 2006 by Arizona State University's Morrison Institute. Nearly 800 Arizonans were polled.
Harris' SFAz offices at the Arizona Center in downtown Phoenix are across Fifth Street from the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, where the Translational Genomics Research Institute recently opened. Next to TGen, construction is under way on the UA College of Medicine and new facilities for Arizona State University.
Harris, standing at his office window and nodding to the new biomedical and educational facilities, said Rodel's role in helping improve education in Arizona is vital because brainpower is the fuel for Arizona's new biotech and biomedical communities.
"I believe a significant part of the economy of the 21st century is going to depend more upon brains," he said.
That's why Harris believes future high-tech leaders will surface in Arizona, either in its expanding education system or in its business community.
A diversified economy will have its key players, such as real estate and tourism, "but the way you generate wealth is to create companies, like IBMs, Boeings and Microsofts, that create the knowledge generation," Harris said.
"I think science and engineering are what are going to drive the economy in the future, and I think Arizona has the potential to capture that area," he said. "I'd like to begin helping to create a culture where people know this is the place where you start up companies."
Get connected
Rodel Charitable Foundation: www.rodelfoundations.org
Science Foundation Arizona: www.sfaz.org
A scientific vision
The Rodel education programs include:
â[#x20ac]¢ Math Achievement Club by Rodel, called MAC-Ro. It was started in 2003 in 10 high-poverty elementary schools in five school districts in Maricopa County. For the 2006-2007 school year, the program is expanding 40 percent from a year ago to accommodate 18,000 students in 88 grade schools in 38 districts in Maricopa, Coconino, Pima, Pinal and Yavapai counties. â[#x20ac]¢ Rodel Exemplary Teacher Initiative. The initiative recognizes and rewards teachers who are achieving high student success in low-income schools. The program, through partnerships with Arizona colleges, pairs exemplary teachers with student teachers showing high promise and encourages them to teach in high-poverty schools. The student teachers will receive a $10,000 U.S. Savings bond after completion of three consecutive years at the low-income schools. â[#x20ac]¢ Arizona College Scholarship Foundation. The foundation is designed to offer college scholarships to high-potential, low-income students. Its board of directors consists of President Don Budinger, Rodel Foundation's chairman and founding director; Vice President Paul Koehler, director of the WestEd Policy Center; Vice President Bob Craves, president and chief executive of Washington (state) Education Foundation; and Secretary/Treasurer Frank Brady, retired Ernst & Young partner.
Arizona businesses that are partners in Rodel's education efforts include Arizona Public Service Co., JPMorgan Chase Bank, Cox Communications Inc., DMB, Arizona Diamondbacks, Valley of the Sun United Way, Diamond Family Philanthropies in Tucson, Arizona Community Foundation, Intel Corp., BHHS Legacy Foundation, Salt River Project, Carstens Family Fund and the Yavapai County School Superintendent's Office.