Superintendent of Education urges students to embrace change during Business Week
July 17, 2009
Approximately 200 of South Carolina’s brightest young business minds converged on the Presbyterian College campus this week for the S.C. Chamber of Commerce’s 26th annual Business Week.
High school students from throughout the state were chosen to interact with and learn from South Carolina professionals in business, government, and education. Throughout the week, students develop their own mock companies and engage in programs on the stock market, business ethics, personal finance, leadership profiling, and diversity in business and entrepreneurship.
The program also welcomes several high-profile guest speakers, including Thursday’s guest, S.C. Superintendent of Education Dr. Jim Rex.
Rex told students they face an interesting decade ahead that will challenge them to step up as leaders, much like PC student Logan Berry did this year when he was chosen by billionaire environmentalist T. Boone Pickens to serve as an advocate for alternative energy.
“We need you badly” to become leaders and to bear greater responsibilities as citizens, Rex said. “Many of you will be eligible to vote in 2020,” he said. “We need you to make better choices in this state.”
One of those choices, Rex noted, is education on a level that allows South Carolina graduates to be competitive in business and in the workforce. To reach that lofty standard, he said, South Carolinians must expect more of their elected officials.
Those elected to high office, he said, must realize they are responsible for everyone in the state – even people who voted against them and those who don’t vote at all.
“We are expected to represent the best interests of the majority to be certain,” he said. “But we must also represent the most vulnerable people in our state – the old, the disabled, and the needy. If we don’t, we all suffer.”
Unfortunately, said Rex, the best people for political jobs are probably not candidates.
“We’re not going to see better leaders until we get better candidates,” he said. “More of you need to get involved in the political process. That’s what makes democracy work.”
In a state with the third highest unemployment rate in the country, Rex said it is obvious something is seriously wrong with the way decisions are being made. He said there is no sense of urgency to make necessary changes in South Carolina, especially to address inequities in school funding.
“That is an anchor that holds us back,” Rex said.
In order to be competitive in a global economy, young people must be highly educated and understand and embrace change.
“We probably can’t outsweat the competition in other parts of the world,” Rex said. “We have to be smarter. … You must embrace the need for change, the need for being creative, and the need for being an entrepreneur.”
posted by Stacy Dyer '96
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