Video: Making The Grade: Columbus Middle Schoolers are Economic Champs

[bitsontherun 0o71IfWk]

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s a great day to be a Falcon.  A special group of students at Columbus Middle School captured top honors at the International Economic Summit held at Delta State University.

Columbus Middle School students beat out 21 other teams to claim the championship at the International Economic Summit.  Gifted Education teacher Sylvia Collins coached the winning team.

“The reason these students were chosen is because of their high performance in the classroom. Their willingness to excel, their strive to always do the very best that they can do,” said Collins.

The students started preparing for the economic competition in November. Their task was to act as economic advisers to the selected country after researching that country’s economy, political structure, natural resources and other strengths and weaknesses. Their advise helped them to win top honors.

“There’s this island named Sahkalin. It’s off the coast of Japan close to Russia. Russia owns part of it, Japan owns part of it.  If Japan buys the whole thing, the world would benefit from the oil and natural resources that the island contains,” says Jaylan Lenoir, who worked on the Japan team project.

Aidan Dunkleberg worked on the Australia team project that offered this advice.

“There’s been a lot of support for China’s bullet train program, Japan’s bullet train program and I think that would be good for Australia and also for a lot of other global economies,” says Dunkleberg.

The students won for Top High Income Country representing Japan and Top Middle Income Country for Mexico. They also represented China, Egypt, Brazil, Bangladesh, Jamaica, and India. The weeks they spent preparing were well rewarded.

“They’re very competitive amongst each other so I knew they’d pulled together some pieces that were going to be challenging when they went down there.  I knew all along that they were going to place but I was very overwhelmed and excited about perfect scores. They’re an outstanding group of kids and I’m very proud of them but I’m just as proud of Ms. Collins,” says Columbus Middle School Principal Freda Dismukes.

The International Economic Summit is co-sponsored by the Mississippi Council on Economic Education, Mississippi Geographic Alliance, Entergy of MS, State Farm Insurance and Delta State.

The International Economic Summit is funded by the US Department of Education’s College Access Challenge Grant program.