University SIFE Students Teach Central Asian Educators About Business
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 16, 2002
Joe Wills
530-898-4143
Curt DeBerg, SIFE Adviser
530-898-4824
University SIFE Students Teach Central Asian Educators About Business
Five members of California State University, Chico’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team are conducting a workshop for 31 teachers from five newly independent states (NIS) of the former Soviet Union tomorrow, July 17. The workshop takes place on the CSU, Chico campus 2-5 p.m. in Glenn Hall.
The English and American studies teachers, who are visiting Chico for six weeks, are from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The title of the SIFE workshop is “Understanding Money, Understanding Markets: Economic Education for Secondary School Students.” The workshop is part of a program called “Excellence in Teaching,” a professional development seminar. The overall goal of the program is to introduce teachers from the NIS to contemporary U.S. teaching practices, and so help NIS educators successfully integrate new ideas with their own teaching methods. The SIFE team’s presentation on economic education is one of six major topic areas.
The visiting teachers will be introduced to the some of SIFE’s most outstanding community outreach programs, including a high school mentoring program related to entrepreneurship, economics and community service-learning. Another program is the Wise Kid, Wealthy Kid youth entrepreneurship camp.
Also on hand to help teach the workshop will be 13-year old Nikita Schottman, the “star” graduate of the Chico Youth Entrepreneurship Camp in March. Nikita moved to the United States when he was nine years old, from Siberia. His import business, “A Little Bit of Russia,” earned more than $1,000 since its creation last year.
Tina Renot, director of the CSU, Chico SIFE team’s global projects, said, “We are excited that CSU, Chico’s School of Graduate, International and Sponsored Programs invited us to make a presentation. As a result of this workshop, we hope to accomplish three goals. First, we want the high school teachers to start programs in their cities where students can learn about business concepts and skills, and we are providing them with some curricular tools to accomplish this. Second, we can link them to college SIFE teams in their own countries. Third, we want to show them that one is never too young or old to start your own business. Nikita started when he was only 12 years old, using the tools we taught him at the youth camp.”
Faculty adviser Curt DeBerg, professor of accounting and a Sam M. Walton SIFE Fellow, said, “It’s quite amazing for Chico State students to be teaching economic principles to high school educators from the former Soviet Union. What we take for granted in the U.S. is very new to the NIS teachers. If we can help the teachers understand basic business concepts as practiced in a free market economy, then the teachers can go home and introduce these important concepts to their students.”
DeBerg added, “It really doesn’t matter where you live. The best way to help people become financially independent is to have them understand concepts like risk, reward, savings, investment, supply, demand and time value of money at a very young age. Chico State SIFE students know this well, and they are in a unique position to teach these concepts to an eager audience.”
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