Mark Dempsey
(212) 730-6586
Amy Stritikus, Director of the Center for Economic Education at the University of Nebraska in Kearney will be hosting two visitors from Bulgaria, Evelina Beshkova and Dimitrina Raykova, Sept. 20th-29th. She will be showing Beshkova and Raykova how economic education is delivered in elementary, high schools, and universities in the area.
Stritikus was selected to host a 10-day study tour of visitors from the eastern European country through a program sponsored by the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE), headquartered in New York City.
After an arrival orientation at NCEE’s office in Washington, DC, Beshkova and Raykova will travel to Kearney, where they are scheduled to visit schools, observe teacher training activities, and meet with educational administrators and business leaders.
The goal of the visit of Beshkova and Raykova is to learn about the successes and challenges in delivering economic education in Nebraska and the United States, to inform their American counterparts on how economic education is delivered in Bulgaria, and to bring the experience back home to their colleagues, students, community and family members through formal presentations and informal discussions. At the end of the 10-day visit, Stritikus will accompany her visitors to Washington, DC to meet with congressional legislators and other government and non-profit groups involved in education.
“I’m excited about meeting my international visitors and exposing them to how economic education is delivered in the schools of Kearney, Nebraska,” Stritikus said.
After returning from the study tour, Ms. Beshkova and Ms. Raykova will incorporate their U.S. experience into their teaching of economics, conduct workshops, and give presentations to local civics groups.
The study tour is part of the Cooperative Education Exchange Program (CEEP), a federally funded program administered by the U.S. Department of Education in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State. The aim of the Cooperative Education Exchange Program is to advance educational reform in economic education and civic education in the new democracies of the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe, and to help U.S. students and teachers better understand the global economy. The program also benefits educators and students in the U.S. who meet the educators from the transition countries. Legislation for the CEEP grew out of the conviction that economic and civic education are critical to the economic health and political stability of emerging democratic market economies and are in our national interest.
NCEE is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting economic literacy. Its mission is to help students develop economic ways of thinking and problem-solving that they can use in their lives as consumers, savers, investors, members of the workforce, responsible citizens, and effective participants in the global economy. Founded in 1949 as the Joint Council on Economic Education, NCEE conducts its mission primarily through a nationwide network of affiliated state councils and university-based centers for economic education.
For more information on the NCEE Study Tour to Russia, please contact Mark Dempsey, Associate Director of Training Economics International, at (212) 730-6586.
