Ariens Funds Technology, Education Center

The $1.5 million Ariens Technology and Engineering Education Center was dedicated Sept. 25, opening the door to what is likely the most innovative high school "shop class" facility in the country.

The new 10,000-square-foot facility was paid for by a donation from the Ariens Foundation.

It includes a 50-student lecture hall; a large lab for processing wood, metal, plastics and composites; a state of the art computer design studio; CNC machines, electronics and robotics equipment; and an outdoors construction area.

The facility culminated a three-year plan to redesign the technology education curriculum at the school. Unlike traditional shop or industrial arts classes, students at Brillion learn the industrial process from conception to research, design, development and production.

The curriculum is hands-on, but draws heavily from computer, science and math courses.

Steve Meyer, Brillion High School technical education instructor, conceived the facility and the curriculum.

Dan Ariens, president and chief executive officer of the Ariens Co., called the $1.5 million a good investment in the future.

"The kids who come through this program are going to be smarter and more innovative, more articulate," Ariens said. "They are going to be leaders, and I think at the end of the day, no matter what kind of job you have, if you bring leadership skills to the job, you're going to be a better person for the employer."

Ariens said the donation came because of Meyer's visionary work.

"Steve had a vision and has a great passion for what can be built here and we bought into the dream," Ariens said. "He has an education process here that goes from A to Z.

"Nothing is truncated. It fits the way we live and work every day," he said.

The Brillion curriculum teaches "process," rather than filling students with knowledge that is obsolete in two years.

"Change is a part of the process of building a better company and building a better educational system," Ariens said. "If you stand still, you die. We are changing the way we manufacture every day and Steve is a living example of how you can change education."

Ariens said his company hopes to benefit from the kind of student who graduates from Brillion High School's technical education program.

"They are going to have these skill sets before they get to us," he said. "They are going to know how to solve problems before we have to teach the problem-solving process … this is a holistic learning approach to engineering and technology."

Meyer spoke briefly following Ariens' remarks, thanking the Ariens Foundation and the company's leadership.

"Your gift will help the young people of our community fulfill their dreams in the 21st century and not only that, it will keep our Brillion community strong," Meyer said.

Meyer fought back tears through most of his remarks.

The keynote speaker at the dedication ceremony was Dr. Jim Bensen, the president emeritus of Minnesota's Bemidji State University.

Bensen's high-energy speech stressed the importance of moving forward and he cited how much the technological world has changed with the example of a greeting card he bought for his wife that plays a song when it is opened.

"There was more computing power in that greeting card than there was in the entire world in 1950," Bensen said.

Bensen said technology and business is changing so rapidly that today's knowledge represents only 30 percent of the knowledge that will be essential in the same field five years from now.

"What are the answers to the questions that haven't even been asked yet?" Bensen said. "What you are putting in place here today (in Brillion) is a model for the rest of the world. Not just the best in Wisconsin … this is going to be a model for the rest of the world to come and take a look at and see what's going on.

"There is going to be continuous improvement every day, new ideas, new creativity."