Member of SCORE shares life success story with Upward Bound students
By Linda Hall Staff Writer
WOOSTER -- Area students whose parents did not attend college are being encouraged early on to take the steps necessary to obtain a college education through Upward Bound at the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute; those same students are also benefiting from the knowledge and experience of local business executives.
Ed McKiernan -- a counselor with SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) and retired from the presidency of the SeaLand Division of Dometic Corporation -- recently spoke at ATI to a group of Upward Bound students in a life skills class.
His goal, he told them, was to share "how I got to where I am today ... and important things I learned along the way," McKiernan said.
The points he covered encompassed "having a passion ... beyond just your job," lifelong learning and balancing priorities.
"Fifty years ago, I would have been sitting next to Tony (and all of you)," McKiernan said, referring to Tony Lee, Upward Bound's academic adviser.
McKiernan, whose parents were European immigrants to the United States with just a few years of elementary school education, caught a break.
"In high school, I got put into a college preparatory program," he told the youth.
After graduating from college, he was hired as an administrative assistant at a company making sanitation systems for commercial aircraft, boats and RVs.
Once again, he was lucky, he said. "I was doing something I thought was important."
His interest in clean water became his passion; and he later worked for Mansfield Plumbing in Perrysville "because I was familiar with the regulations for marine sanitation systems and I knew how to market this equipment to the pleasure craft industry."
His career continued to evolve.
While figuring out how he could make an impact, "I learned all the time," he said, a way of life that served him well when "suddenly, I was the president of a company," despite graduating from St. Mary's College in California as a psychology major.
McKiernan also talked about the importance of being a good leader, noting, "You don't have to be the president of a company to be a good leader."
Instead, leadership is all about showing up, having your head in the game, being dependable and consistent, he said. "You stand out clearly when you do (those things)."
Other business leaders who addressed students previously were SCORE members Terry Shea and Richard Lewellen, Upward Bound director Gail Miller said.
Students learned about small businesses and how to start them, said Jeffrey Rockar, a sophomore at Orrville High School, adding, "Know what you want to do before you start your business."
Classmate Martavius Dyson said they were cautioned by speakers not to "go into debt or bankrupt. Don't mix friends or family with business."
They were told to plan, and were taught "different things you need to keep in mind while opening a business," said Jadon Shaftic, a sophomore at Wooster High School.
Upward Bound's target schools are Orrville High School and Wooster High School, as well as Timken and McKinley high schools in Canton.
Upward Bound offers the eighth-through 11th-grade students whose families qualify for a variety of services; for example, tutoring, enrichment, career exploration, standardized test preparation, financial aid and a summer residential academic program, to name a few, help students pass barriers to getting a college degree.
Reporter Linda Hall can be reached at 330-264-1125, Ext. 2230, or lhall@the-daily-record.com.