High school teachers attend Georgia Pacific summer institute

ATLANTA — Georgia-Pacific, in partnership with the Georgia Council on Economic Education, recently completed its third Economic Education Summer Institute for close to 30 high school teachers across the country in Atlanta.

Greg Boyce from Cairo High School was selected to participate in the program through an application process managed by GCEE. The educators spent a week in Atlanta at Georgia-Pacific’s headquarters learning concepts such as opportunity costs, specialization, the free enterprise system, monetary and fiscal policy, entrepreneurship, and international trade.

“Georgia-Pacific values its commitment to community and what we can accomplish through partnerships such as the Georgia Council on Economic Education,” Curley M. Dossman Jr., president of Georgia-Pacific community affairs and vice president Koch Companies Community Fund. “By sponsoring teacher development initiatives, GP helps to bolster the knowledge and motivation of teachers who return to their classrooms to equip and effectively educate their students.”

Each year, GCEE seeks to increase participant knowledge of economic concepts and equip attendees with grade-appropriate lesson plans and ready-to-use classroom materials designed to help teach economics and the role entrepreneurs play in a free enterprise system in innovative ways. Participants also learn more about Georgia-Pacific, its businesses, products, and its corporate social responsibility initiatives. Once the teachers complete the program, they receive a $250 stipend and are eligible to apply for a $500 classroom grant to implement learnings from the institute.

As a former educator, Beverly Ferguson, the senior director of community affairs for Georgia-Pacific, worked with GCEE to offer a program designed to help high school economic educators located near a Georgia-Pacific community obtain advanced training in their fields.

“It’s been rewarding to be involved in the development of this program,” Ferguson said. “It’s exciting to see its impact on economic teachers and the tremendous value it brings to the communities where our employees and their children thrive.”

“The Georgia Council on Economic Education is proud to once again partner with Georgia-Pacific for this powerful learning experience for teachers,” Chris Cannon, the associate director of GCEE, said. “There is no substitute for the quality face-to-face training and experiential learning this institute provides. GCEE and the participants appreciate Georgia-Pacific’s continued commitment to helping teachers teach students in underserved communities across the country.”

The GCEE’s mission is to help teachers teach economics and personal finance in Georgia’s public and independent schools. GCEE strives to ensure students leave school prepared for their economic roles as productive workers, informed consumers, and savers, involved citizens, and lifelong decision-makers in a globally interdependent world.

Based in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific and its subsidiaries are among the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of bath tissue, paper towels and napkins, tableware, paper-based packaging, cellulose, specialty fibers and building products. Familiar consumer brands include Quilted Northern, Angel Soft, Brawny, Dixie, enMotion, Sparkle and Vanity Fair. Georgia-Pacific has long been a leading supplier of building products to lumber and building materials dealers and large do-it-yourself warehouse retailers.

Georgia-Pacific operates more than 150 facilities and employs approximately 30,000 people directly and creates more than 80,000 jobs indirectly. For more information, visit gp.com/about-us.

Special Photo: Georgia Pacific