Students attend International Economic Summit

Hundreds of high school students from across the region packed a North Idaho auditorium to learn the ins and outs of global trading in a mock-economic summit on Tuesday, April 20. The International Economic Summit brought in roughly 300 students from high schools as far away as Lewiston in the south, to Coeur d’Alene in the north to take part in the day-long global economic simulation in the Event Center at the Coeur d’Alene Casino outside Worley. Co-sponsored by the University of Idaho and the Northwest Council for Computer Education, along with the help of more than 35 community volunteers that served as score keepers, bankers and summit monitors, the competition featured 64 teams of students serving as “economic advisers” for pre-selected nations to work together with other participants to solve real world issues that are playing out around the world, from pollution and deforestation, to AIDS and human trafficking. “This teaches students what’s actually going on in the world right now,” says event founder Kali Kurdy, a retired Boise high school teacher who first began the simulation sessions in her classroom almost two decades ago. The origin of the simulations can be traced back to Kurdy’s Borah High School economics class in the early ‘90s. After a trip abroad to Russia, Kurdy says she recognized that many students lacked an understanding for the intricacies of the global marketplace. Soon, the international trade sessions were born – first in her class but before long bringing in several others in the school. “I realized that our students really didn’t know anything about anything that was going on in the world,” she offers, as students began to pour into the cavernous hall before the start of the recent simulation. “It was a classroom activity that the students enjoyed. It’s really caught on.” The program grew to be so popular among students and teachers alike that high schools around Idaho began taking part, with several iterations now taking place around the state every year. Several years ago, the Idaho Council on Economic Education took over the global simulation program, which has now spread to countries around the globe, including China. But it couldn’t happen without outside assistance, Kurdy offers. “This is such a great volunteer area,” she says. As the hundreds of students filed into the room, Lake City High School economics teacher Russ Blank walked among the more than 80 Coeur d’Alene-area kids as they set up posters and other informational material at their tables. To better play the parts of their assigned country, many students arrived in character, their dress as diverse as the countries they represented, with Middle Eastern robes, Swiss-style European outfits, Jamaican knitted hats, and everything in between on display. “We spend a lot of time preparing for this – probably around a month – and the students really adopt their roles,” Blank explains. Volunteer Tom Cronin, former police chief with the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, says the event is a fantastic learning experience for the kids. As he prepared to keep score along with a host of other helpers, including area business leaders, education professionals, retirees and more, he said he’s been attending the events for several years, and will continue to for as long as possible. “It’s so much fun, it really is,” he says. “These kids really do buy into their roles; they really do become that country.” Getting teens to work together is another important lesson students learn at the summit, Blank says. “They learn to work together to accomplish their goals,” he adds. Though the teenage participants are aggressively working with other teams to better the economic situation of their assigned country, the students also strive to improve the world through proposals addressing the issues. And it’s a heady mix of topics, which will help them grasp the complexity of the world stage for the rest of their lives, Kurdy says. “I think this helps them better place themselves in the world,” she offers. As the teams negotiate, trade and debate in order to achieve the goals listed on their Strategic Improvement Plans, they are awarded points for completing specific tasks and objectives. At the end of the day, teams with the highest point totals are recognized with awards in various categories, such as best first-world, second-world and third-world countries, as well as best dressed. With the rolling, fertile farmlands of the Worley-Plummer area right outside the Event Center’s doors, Kurdy brought up another important point that the simulations provide. As the students soak up information on their assigned country, such as on imports, exports and problems for future generations, they learn that not all places are as resource-rich as the U.S. “Our country, with so many resources, is sort of an anomaly,” she says. “If the students can start thinking about how much water they use and how much food they throw away, I think that leads to more sustainability on their part – one small step at a time.” Lake City senior Marshall Johnson, representing South Korea for the day, says the global economic mock-up helped put things into perspective. “It’s helped my point of view to see that it’s not about just our country; there are other countries that are struggling as well,” he offers. And that’s just what Kurdy says she hopes to hear from every student. “My hope is that they learn a little bit about the complexity of the world economy,” she explains. “I would say by them understanding another country, their limited resources and how that affects their decision making, the students might become more aware about how we use resources here.”