TSYS donates to Phenix City STEM center
This summer, when Phenix City Public Schools superintendent Randy Wilkes presented TSYS leaders the plan for the school system's center to enhance science, technology, engineering and math education, "we were blown away -- very, very impressive," said TSYS chairman, president and chief executive officer Troy Woods.
It didn't take Wilkes long to ask for money, Woods said, and it didn't take TSYS long to decide to participate in the project.
"We jumped all over it," Woods said. "It's all about education. It's all about technology. So we saw the marriage of those two as a home run and a no-brainer."
All of which brought about two dozen Phenix City and TSYS officials together Wednesday in the atrium of the credit card and payment processor's downtown Columbus headquarters, where Woods announced the company donated $25,000 to name the center's coding lab after TSYS.
In June, Wilkes announced a $150,000 donation from car dealer Gil Dyer to name the facility for students in grades 6-7 at Phenix City Intermediate School as the Dyer Family STEM Center. It is scheduled to open in August 2016.
Now, three months into its $1.1 million fundraising campaign, the Friends of Phenix City Schools has raised about $458,000 from more than 170 donors, Wilkes said, to help pay for the $1.7 million STEM center and a $3.1 million expansion facility at Central High School.
Before the check presentation Wednesday, Wilkes told the Ledger-Enquirer that the TSYS donation shows that the company has "faith and confidence in what we're doing. It's an acknowledgement on their behalf of what their workforce demands are going to be one day and that Phenix City schools can produce students that can be productive in this environment."
Approximately 25 percent of the Columbus-based TSYS workforce resides in east Alabama, the company said in a news release. It cited a June 2014 article from GeekWire that reported around only 29 percent of the estimated 1.4 million job openings in computer science over the next 10 years will have graduates qualified to do them.
That's why Wilkes and Woods share a common interest in finding ways to better educate students in the STEM subjects.
"Who knows? Five, six years from now," the TSYS chief said, "they might be over here writing code for us."
And the superintendent's STEM mission goes beyond the center. He wants to spread state-of-the-art STEM education from pre-kindergarten through college.
"It will truly be one of a kind," Wilkes said. "Not just in Georgia and Alabama. It will be one of a kind in the entire world, because nobody else is trying to do this throughout the entire school system. They're doing bits and pieces, and they're doing it in magnet schools, and they're doing it in charter schools, but nobody is doing it P-12 or P-16, like we'd like to think as we get our higher ed on board."
In fact, Wilkes added, the Discovery Channel would interview him about the plan later in the day.
"With all of us working together as a Bi-City community," he said, "we can achieve remarkable things."
Last month, Phenix City school officials along with representatives from Columbus State University formed a joint task force to finalize details of a partnership that would include CSU providing professional development for STEM education in the school system.
"It's truly bringing the communities together," Wilkes told the L-E. "My desire is to have a P-16 educational system that has a heavy emphasis on STEM but also produces a Bi-City STEM community. We want to work with both sides of the river to do this. We either grow together or we don't."
Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.
VIEW VIDEO
Click on this story at www.ledger-enquirer.com to view a video excerpt of the TSYS check presentation to the Phenix City Public Schools.NAMING OPPORTUNITIESThe $1.7 million Dyer Family STEM Center, scheduled to open in August 2016, has two of the eight $25,000 naming opportunities left:
Virtual science lab -- Superintendent Randy Wilkes said he feels good about the chances of finalizing a donor.
Interactive atrium -- "We have a hard commitment," Wilkes said.
The following donors have filled the center's six other $25,000 naming opportunities:
Engineering lab -- CB&T
Coding lab -- TSYS
Digital media lab -- Donor committed, but announcement pending, Wilkes said.
Magic planet -- Dr. Stephen Cooper
Saltwater aquarium -- Phenix City Education Foundation
River tank system -- Phenix City Education FoundationHOW TO DONATETo help the Friends of Phenix City Schools reach its $1.1 million goal, contact executive secretary Lara Beth Johns at 334-298-0534 or lbjohns@pcboe.net.
This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 4:19 PM with the headline "TSYS donates to Phenix City STEM center ."