VCU news

By Tom Gresham

The Center for Economic Education in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business has named Rebecca Necessary, a civics teacher at Midlothian Middle School, the Outstanding Economic Educator of the Year for the VCU region.

Necessary has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to helping her students gain a clear understanding of how the economy works and their role in it. She also has invested in her own human capital by participating in professional development programs on several economic topics, including globalization.

For several years, Necessary has given her students the opportunity to participate in programs such as the Economics Challenge, a brain bowl program based on the economics concepts in the Civics Standards of Learning (SOL) sponsored by the Virginia Council on Economic Education (VCEE). Necessary’s students placed first among middle school students in 2010. 

Her students also have participated in the “Color the Economic Concepts” contest sponsored by the VCEE and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. This contest challenges students to draw a picture to illustrate the economic concepts they are learning.  Each year 12 entries are selected, printed as posters and distributed to classrooms around the state. For the past two years her students have submitted winning entries. The original drawings are framed and displayed at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

Necessary will be recognized at the VCEE Annual Economic Educator Awards Luncheon hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond on Dec. 3. She also will be considered for the statewide Outstanding Economic Educator of the Year honor, which carries a cash award of $1,000.

For more information about any of these programs, contact Suzanne Gallagher, director of the Center for Economic Education at the VCU School of Business: sgallagh@vcu.edu, (804) 828-1628.