World Trade Council takes message to high schools

Even as leaders of the Nevada World Trade Council were swamped with details for their big event of the year, they broke away to focus on the long-term future of international trade in Nevada.

The very long-term future.

The group took its first steps last month toward building a program to interest high school students in the importance of foreign trade to the future of Nevada.

Speaking to about 100 advanced-placement government students at Galena High School in Reno, a NEWTRAC delegation emphasized that the nation's economic future is tied closely to the rest of the world.

"Globalization is not just an economic fad and it is not just a passing trend,"Yvonne Stedham, a professor of international business at the University of Nevada, Reno, told the students."It is an international system that replaced the Cold War System after the fall of the Berlin wall."

Stedham, the president of NEWTRAC, was joined at the high school by Al DiStefano, director of global trade and investment for the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, and John Kauke, president of Global Market Linkage, a consultant on international trade.

Their presentation didn't oversimplify things.

The students learned about the North American Free Trade Agreement and other international protocols.

They learned about trade balances.

They touched on issues such as selection of international freight forwarders.

Stedham said later that the heavy investment in time made by the NEWTRAC leaders in their presentation to the high school students is a key part of the group's mission.

While NEWTRAC was created to strengthen world trade among Nevada businesses, she said that its leaders increasingly believe the group needs to become a leader in developing the next generation of internationally minded business leaders for the state.

It already funds a couple of scholarship for UNR international business students who study abroad.

In the next school year, the group hopes to speak to more high school students.

"Even though we are in northern Nevada, we are part of the world," Stedham said."We need people who can speak other languages, people who can learn about other cultures."

The reaction of students? "They were fantastic very alert and interested," said Stedham.

NEWTRAC's biggest annual event, its Nevada World Trade Day Luncheon last week featured keynote speaker Rene Leon, El Salvador's ambassador to the United States.