Students Gain Insight Into Economic Development
Published May 27, 2009
Students in Norm Gustafson’s economics class at Sanger High School near Fresno are getting a new perspective on business and economic development by going out into their community and getting to know companies.
The Valley Regional Occupational Program, which supports career technical education in the area’s schools, paid for Gustafson to attend a training program conducted by the California Association for Local Economic Development. During the weeklong program, he picked up building blocks for teaching economic development principles using a research-based, hands-on approach.
“Kids have tended to be on the consumer side of the counter when it comes to business, but this gets them thinking about what it’s like to be behind the cash register,” Gustafson says.
In 2008, about 100 students chose the research project over other options. They learned principles related to business attraction, creation, site selection and curb appeal.
“I had the kids go through the city as if they were visiting to get them thinking about how attractive our community is and what the pros and cons of shopping locally are,” he says.
When students conducted workforce surveys, they got a taste of the labor market and what employers look for. When one of the businesses they studied shut down, vague unemployment statistics became the job losses of real people.
“It turned out to be really gratifying,” Gustafson says. “I’ve had some students say they want to pursue business in college now. We offer students so much benefit by taking them out of the school building and hooking them into outside research. This proves that you don’t have to sacrifice academic rigor in order to inject real-world experience into the classroom.”
Story by Carol Cowan
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