Cal State East Bay Center for Economic Education Honored

The Cal State East Bay Center for Economic Education recently received an award from the Council for Economic Education for its efforts working with teachers and exhibiting excellence in the practice and delivery of high-quality programming and outreach to the community.

The Albert Beekhuis Award was established by an endowment gift in 2002 from the Albert Beekhuis Foundation to the Council for Economic Education. Two awards were given this year from more than 230 eligible affiliated Centers for Economic Education nationwide. Western Washington University’s Center for Economic Education won the second award.

Jane Lopus, director of the CSUEB Center for Economic Education, will accept the award on behalf of the university on Oct. 6 in Phoenix at the annual conference of the Council for Economic Education. 

Lopus said she’s particularly excited about the recent recognition because it officially recognizes the center, the university and the work they have done in economic education locally, nationally, and internationally over the years. 

Cal State East Bay’s Center for Economic Education focuses on providing teacher training, curriculum development and research in economic education. It has contributed activity-based lessons to several of the council's curriculum publications and has also worked with the Council on the National Economics Challenge, Lopus said.

Internationally, the CSUEB center has been involved in more than 30 economics teacher-training programs in 15 former communist and developing countries. Through USAID, it worked on curriculum development and evaluation of a financial literacy project in Ukraine from 2014 to 2015.

This is not the first recognition for the center. Previous awards have included the Villard Research Award, the Schramm Leadership Award from the National Association of Economic Educators and the Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education.