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Berner Urges Industrial Information Institute to Play Bigger Role
"BOARDMAN, Ohio -- The Industrial Information Institute for Education should assume a larger role in educating students about economics and work with more high school and elementary teachers, Georgia Berner told the IIIE at its annual dinner this week.The Industrial Information Institute for Education, housed at Youngstown State University, serves all public school districts in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County, Pa.With the support of businesses and foundations in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, it supports career development programs for students and teachers, economics education satellite center programs, economics seminars for high school students, workshops for science teachers and a science project winners' workshop, among other programs."Without federal funds, without state funds, the IIIE has supported programs in 63 school districts that include 312 public and private schools," its president, Michael T. Heher, reminded the dinner guests.Urging the institute to do more, Berner, president of Berner International Corp., New Castle, Pa., asked, " Where does economics education break down?" The subject is not taught especially well in high schools, she said, as she praised IIIE initiatives.Speaking about her 70 employees, who manufacture air doors and air curtains, Berner expressed surprise at their lack of knowledge of basic economics, such as "making car payments, making mortgage payments," as she praised their ingenuity in the workplace. There "they use their brains very well," she commented.She admitted her own struggles as she took economics in college. It wasn't until she served two terms on the board of the Pittsburgh branch of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank that she began to grasp the subject, she said. "They have top-notch economists who explained things simply. That's how I learned economics," she said. High schools teachers must follow suit, she said, and make the subject more relevant.Berner would also have entrepreneurship taught in high schools. "We can't all be entrepreneurs," she conceded, "but we can all be good businessmen and wise consumers." As she sees it, entrepreneurs come in three varieties: "stand-alone," "great-idea" and "in-house."Berner is a stand-alone entrepreneur, she says. This type "knows how to run a business, large to small." Great-idea entrepreneurs include Bill Gates, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison who can take an idea and build and run a business around it. She described these two types as "having vision, drive and knowing Accounting 101."The third, in-house, lack the drive or courage to strike out on their own but have an "entrepreneurial attitude." Businesses "need employees entrepreneurial in spirit but [who] will not take the plunge" if these companies are to grow and thrive. "They are essential to the success of an enterprise," Berner said and she tries to foster that environment at her company."