Columbus Middle Wins International Economic Summit

Front row: Graham Weseli, Lucy Whitwam, Jessica Smith, Makayla Miller, Jonas Oswalt
Back row: Sylvia Collins, teacher; David Hollingsworth, MCEE Board Member; Dr. Billy Morehead, MS College Center Director; Dr. Ricky Garrett, MCEE Board Member; and Selena Swartzfager, MCEE President.

JACKSON, Miss. — Columbus Middle School captured top honors in the International Economic Summit on December 3 at Mississippi College in Clinton. They represented Canada and emerged from a field of 33 high school and middle school teams to claim the championship.

The winning team was coached by Columbus Middle School teacher, Sylvia Collins. The International Economic Summit simulates world trade among nations, with thirty-three student teams competing. The event is structured like a model United Nations, where each student team represents a different country. The students spent weeks getting ready, researching their assigned country’s economy, political structure, imports and exports, natural resources, infrastructure needs, and other strengths and weaknesses. These “economic advisers” came to the event with specific strategies in mind, prepared to negotiate and trade their way toward improving the standard of living within “their country.”

The Summit was sponsored by the Mississippi Council on Economic Education (MCEE), Mississippi Geographic Alliance, Entergy of MS, State Farm Insurance and The College Knowledge Project, a higher education initiative of the MS Institutions of Higher Learning funded by the US Department of Education’s College Access Challenge Grant program. Support was given by Mississippi College, BancorpSouth and Security Ballew, Inc.

MCEE has reached more than 9,000 teachers with professional development and the research-based lessons published by the Council for Economic Education. Teachers wishing to learn more about professional development offered by MCEE should visit www.mscee.org.

For more information, contact Selena Swartzfager at the MCEE office at 601-974-1325.