CSC business department responds to demand

In fact, CSC is looking to attract students to the business education program in the hopes the eventual graduates will take teaching opportunities in Nebraska and the region.

“The Business Academy is producing fewer teachers than five years ago, and this impacts the school districts in the region,” said Dr. Barbara Limbach, professor of Business at CSC. “The business education curriculum is being updated to resolve the disconnect between training and school district’s needs.  School districts are much more insistent on what the qualifications are of teachers they hire. Higher education must meet these needs. Therefore, CSC must be able to produce the kind of teacher school districts are desperately looking for.”

Limbach said one of the reasons the Business Academy is looking to update business education curriculum is because the Business, Marketing and Information Technology (BMIT) program at Chadron State prepares students to teach all business, marketing and information technology education courses.

“CSC is known for its teaching program and the BMIT program will provide business students with the teaching opportunities available due to the teacher shortages across Nebraska,” Limbach said.

According to a report by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education in August, Nebraska has had a shortage of Business Education teachers four times in the past 16 years and a lack of BMIT teachers the past three years.

“Where CSC and the Nebraska Department of Education BMIT committees really converge on a problem is to the need of rural educators to have many teaching field endorsements,” said Business Academy Department Chair, Dr. Nathaniel Gallegos. “Anyone who has lived in American flyover country knows that we wear many hats in our jobs and community.

“The Nebraskan BMIT encompasses multiple subjects including information technology so as to give rural Nebraskan educators versatility to meet the education needs of our most rural citizens and also give a broad base of education to ensure that the BMIT graduate has many doors of opportunity open.”

Limbach said CSC students who traditionally choose the BMIT program are lifelong learners, which continues to benefit them later in their careers.

“When you are a teacher, you have the opportunity to be a student of your topic as you incorporate new research, technologies, and activities into your classroom,” she said. “Students who receive satisfaction from helping others learn new things, enjoy challenges and ever-changing opportunities, as well as a desire to change the world are attracted to the BMIT program. The students choosing teaching as a career are generally not driven by the pay, but have a passion for teaching business topics and experience pleasure in intrinsic rewards.”

Some of the ways CSC is looking to prepare BMIT students is potentially adding more classes related to marketing, database management, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), web design, and economics and finance.

Gallegos said the investment in education by the State of Nebraska and CSC helps create educated citizens who are innovative and productive.

“In economics, education is treated as an investment into human capital. Nebraska’s efforts are well placed to keep educators current in their fields and help our future workforce meet a changing, globalized marketplace. It’s the Business Academy’s hope to do our best to recruit rural BMIT educators to ensure our state does its part to help and lead our country,” he said.