Marquette, Mich.--Northern’s Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship (CEEE) is the 2012 recipient of the Albert Beekhuis Award. The national Council for Economic Education presents the award annually to one of its 205 network-affiliated centers to recognize “outstanding performance in working with teachers and exhibiting excellence in practice, delivery of high-quality programs and outreach to its community.” Tawni Ferrarini of NMU's economics department is pictured left accepting the award from the national Council for Economic Education president.          

Ferrarini is the Sam M. Cohodas Professor at Northern and was the first director of the CEEE. The center was literally resurrected from an NMU closet in 2000, when Ferrarini discovered boxes of curriculum and workshop materials. It has since made its mark on all 15 Upper Peninsula counties by helping to integrate economics into the preschool-higher education curriculum through publications, conference presentations, workshops and webinars. Its focus is on engaging students and teachers in their communities. The CEE also uses multimedia technology to expand its reach to other states and foreign countries.

“In the past few years, the center has served as a liaison between the Council for Economic Education network and the CEE of Japan,” said Ferrarini, who helped to start the Japanese council. “The NMU center built its staff with the appointment of Hugo Eyzaguirre as the new CEEE director. He founded and directed the first Center for Economic Education in Peru. Dr. Eyzaguirre continues his work in South America and has drawn visitors from Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay to learn more about how to succeed as economic educators.”

Ferrarini is beginning related work with the Korean Development Institute. Her coauthored book, Common Sense Economics, is being translated into Korean and previously was translated into Italian.