Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The Center for State Scholars has named two new members to its board of directors.
J. Raymond Elliott, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Zimmer Holdings Inc., and Dr. E. Linn Draper Jr., chairman, president and chief executive officer of American Electric Power Co. Inc., have joined the board.
The Center, introduced in the summer of 2002 by President Bush and U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, promotes the State Scholars Initiative, a business-led public/private partnership that challenges high school students to master a set of academically rigorous courses that will better prepare them to succeed in the workplace, military or higher education.
"Zimmer has been a proponent of Indiana's Core 40 Scholars campaign," said Center for State Scholars board chairman J. Brian Ferguson, who is chairman and chief executive officer of Eastman Chemical Co. "Ray Elliott will help us advance the message that students who complete a rigorous academic course of study are equipped for the future, while students who don't complete rigorous math, science and communications courses are not. This is particularly relevant to Indiana's significant health care industry base."
Elliott has been president of Zimmer since 1997 and has served on more than 15 boards in North America, Europe and Japan.
Zimmer employs nearly 7,000 people worldwide, had 2002 revenues of more than $2.2 billion and has operations in 24 countries.
"AEP employees have been a tremendous asset to State Scholars initiatives in several communities where they have facilities," said Ferguson. "Linn Draper's participation on the CSS board will expand AEP's leadership role in this important effort to improve high school education nationally."
Draper has been president of AEP since 1992. He participates on numerous local, national and international boards.
American Electric Power owns and operates more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States and select international markets and is the largest electricity generator in the U.S. AEP also is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, with almost 5 million customers linked to AEP's electricity transmission and distribution grid. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio, and employs 22,000 in the U.S. and serves customers in Indiana and 10 other states.
The State Scholars Initiative creates public/private partnerships to motivate high school students to take courses that prepare them for college and careers. Based on research that shows a direct relationship between challenging high school courses and college completion rates, State Scholars promotes a core course of study that emphasizes math, science, language arts and social studies. Under the Initiative, statewide business organizations are focusing on strategies to bring about sustained high school improvement in Indiana, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
The Center for State Scholars is a 501(c)(3) established in 2002 to increase the percentage of high school students completing a rigorous course of study. The Center receives funds from the Office of Vocational and Adult Education of the U.S. Department of Education and from private sources.
For more information, visit www.centerforstatescholars.org
