by Tyra E. Haag
@tyratuckerhaag

With education reform being the hot-button topic in many political, educational, professional and parental circles lately, I can only imagine what the fruits of those discussions might actually bear. My hope is that it’s not the topic-du-jour, but rather a permanent dialogue that remains top-of-mind for years to come.

If you happen to follow Bill Frist, former Tenn. Senator and founder of SCORE (State Collaborative on Reforming Education), on Twitter (@bfrist), you might have read his startling tweet from Aug. 1:

“#Education & #globalhealth vitally linked: 7 million #AIDS cases could be prevented in decade if every child received an education.”

That statistic floored me – seven million AIDS cases could be prevented in a decade if every child received an education?

I then thought to myself: when possible, we as public relations professionals should throw philanthropic support behind worthwhile local and national movements, and do so in a respectful, meaningful and bipartisan manner.

In 2008, our agency (MBWC) began working with the Blount Education Initiative to promote education as the number one priority in Blount County. Recently, MBWC partnered with the Rural Communities STEM Initiative (RCSI) to promote the July 28 pilot training for RCSI’s “Lab-in-a-Box” program designed to provide innovative teaching tools to math and science teachers from nine rural communities in East Tennessee.

For me, one of the most professionally gratifying experiences occurred during my time as the media relations and project director of the Metropolitan Drug Commission (MDC), a non-profit substance abuse prevention agency in Knoxville, Tenn.

One of the goals I outlined during the RFP process for a grant from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth was to institute an anti-drug after-school club at Fulton High School (FHS) – an inner-city school in the heart of Knoxville that has seen its fair share of crime, drugs and truancy. I met with the principal, secured a club sponsor and campaigned in the lunch room for students to join the club (formerly known as PRIDE, but now called Youth Above the Influence).

That was 2006, when their graduation rate wasn’t even at 50 percent – fast-forward to 2011 and the club is still going strong.

So, I couldn’t help but smile when I saw a recent news clip on FHS regarding their improved No Child Left Behind (NCLB) status. For several years, FHS had been receiving poor marks on their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Reports, but in May managed to graduate 82 percent of its students.  The inner-city school also met federal progress standards in math and English, too. 

I’d like to think that maybe in some small way I, along with the MDC, are at least a small part of the reason students are striving for betterment in their lives, thus doing well in their studies which then reflects well upon their school.

I’m also proud of the work Mary Beth West Consulting has a hand in locally – Maryville City Schools Foundation, Emory Valley Center and the East Tennessee Economic Council to name a few.

What kind of philanthropic hats do you like to wear? Does your company support area non-profits or national movements?