2017 award winners

From left, Beth Yelverton, Allen J. Ruliffson, Emily Hartman, Holly Kincaid, Callie Randolph, Nora S. Fletcher, Virginia Munns, Lisa Long, Russell Kohrs and Walt Williamson were recognized as 2017 winners.

On Oct. 2, teachers from the Harrisonburg City and Rockingham County Public Schools were received awards for their innovative approaches to economic education. The awards were sponsored by the Harrisonburg Rotary Club and the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Shenandoah Valley Economic Education, Inc. The awards include cash prizes ranging from $250 to $1,000.

Awards were presented at the regular Monday meeting of the Rotary Club. Beth Yelverton of Ottobine Elementary School was honored for her work with the economic literacy reading program, “Reading Makes Cent$,” sponsored by Virginia 529.

The teachers honored also included these grade-level winners:

  • Virginia Munns of Smithland Elementary School, for her project, “Volunteering Acts of Kindness,” which won first place in the primary (K-2) division.
  • Emily Hartman of South River Elementary School, for “The South River Breakfast Cart,” which won first place in the elementary (grades 3-5) division.
  • Allen J. Ruliffson of J. Frank Hillyard Middle School, for his project, “Learn it. Sell it. Love it. On eBay.,” which won second place in the middle school division.
  • Callie Randolph and Holly Kincaid of Skyline Middle School, for their project, “Monster Factory,” which won first place in the middle school division.
  • Russell Kohrs of Massanutten Regional Governor’s School for Environmental Science and Technology, for “Over the Cliff or Sustaining the System: An Exploration of EROI (Energy Returned on Energy Invested),” which won first place in the high school division.

The overall winners were

  • Nora S. Fletcher of J. Frank Hillyard Middle School, for her project, “Poverty in America: Addressing Disparities through Action,” which won the reserve grand prize in the overall competition division.
  • Lisa Long and Walt Williamson of Harrisonburg High School, for their project, “Joe to Go!,” which won the grand prize in the overall competition. Judges were impressed with the project’s integration of economics and life skills for the special education students who participated.

SVEE is a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote economic literacy in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Lynne Stover

Lynne Stover rings the bell for the opening of the GEM Fair’s marketplace.

Lynne Stover, associate director of JMU’s Center for Economic Education, has been selected by the National Association of Economic Educators (NAEE) to receive the Bessie B. Moore Service Award, the organization’s highest honor for economic education field work. Lynne will accept the award on October 5 at a national recognition luncheon in New York.

The Center for Economic Education is an outreach center of the JMU College of Business (CoB), promoting economic literacy in the Shenandoah Valley through teacher training and consultation. An educator with more than four decades of experience, Stover conducts teacher workshops and develops curriculum and activities to support the center’s mission. A frequent contributor to EconEdLink, she has published numerous articles and is a frequent presenter at regional, state and national educational conferences.

Stover, who joined JMU in 2005, helped create and implement the GEM Fair, an area-wide entrepreneurship fair for mini-economy classrooms. She also helped launch the statewide “Reading Makes Cent$” initiative, sponsored by the Virginia 529 College Savings Program, to promote economics and personal finance literacy among elementary school-aged children.

She has been an elementary school teacher, a gifted education specialist and a middle school librarian. She was honored in 2013 with the Friend of the Virginia Association of School Librarians (VAASL) Award. In 2006, she received NAEE’s Rookie of the Year Award.

In nominating Stover for the award, JMU economics professor William Wood praised her dedication to and passion for the field of economics education.

“Lynne is a creative educator, always on the lookout for new ways to teach students and other economic educators,” Wood wrote in a nomination letter. “She understands the power of face-to-face workshops and has excelled in that format … Because of her superb presentation skills, her hard work, and her genuine heart for other economic educators, her sessions have drawn large attendance and high ratings.”