SUNY Canton recently hosted educators from Ukraine and Russia as part of the International Education Exchange Program (IEEP). Since 1995, the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) has conducted the economiceducation component of the International Education Exchange Program (IEEP). Legislation for the IEEP grew out of the conviction that economic and civic education are critical to the economic health and political stability of the emerging democracies of the former Soviet Union and eastern and central Europe. The program promotes educational reform through training, materials translation and development, study tours, conferences, and other forms of exchange.

As NCEE's international partners have begun to deliver their own economic education programs, they are creating infrastructures that will sustain their work. Their programs may be part of existing structures such as universities, institutes for recertifying teachers, or ministries of education, but in many cases, the partners are building new nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) in the tradition of similar nonprofit organizations in the United States.

The National Council is helping these pathbreaking efforts by bringing small  groups of selected educators from the eligible countries to the United States  to see how economic education is delivered here. The program is funded by  the U.S. Department of Education in cooperation with the U.S. Department of  State.

Michael Gordon, Director of the Canton Center for Economic Education and  Professor of Economics at SUNY Canton, organized the visit to SUNY Canton, serving as the educators' host during their eight-day study tour. "It was a wonderful experience for both our guests and ourselves. They had the opportunity to meet 'real' Americans here in St. Lawrence County, and they loved it," added Gordon.

Nina Makarova, of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, is a professor at the State Chemical and Technological University of Ukraine and is also Director of theRegional Center for the Development of Economic Education. A graduate of NCEE's 1999-2000 Trainers of Trainers program, Nina participated in NCEE's conference last summer on the status of economic education in Ukraine.

Vera Chilina, of Cheboksary, Russia, is an economics teacher and is the Director of the Chuvash Regional Center for Economic and Business Education. A graduate of NCEE's 1999-2000 Trainers of Trainers program, Vera also took an active role in NCEE's conference last summer on the status of economic education in Russia.

In addition to SUNY Canton, the international guests visited local school districts, County offices, a local bank, local businesses, the County jail, and the Remington Museum. At the end of the study tour, Professor Gordon and his guests traveled to Washington, DC, to meet with Congressman John McHugh.   Photos