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Success Story

Photo: Vsichko za Zhenata

Mita Georgieva has spent more than a decade coaching her students in successful business techniques

“I believe in young people. We have to help them make their dreams come true here in Bulgaria,” said Mita Georgieva, who encourages entrepreneurship among her high school students.

Mita Georgieva has spent her career as a statistics teacher at the Sofia National High School in Finance and Business. Always open to innovative teaching methods, she began working with the USAID youth entrepreneurial spirit program implemented by Junior Achievement Bulgaria (JAB) in 1997, which introduces practical entrepreneurship and economics education in Bulgarian primary and secondary schools.

“Upon my first encounter with these programs, I was fascinated by the effective way they present key economic concepts,” said Mita. Mita introduced various JAB programs at her school and became a consultant to students participating in JAB’s most popular program, Student Company. She began adapting English textbooks to the Bulgarian educational setting, including case studies about the Bulgarian economy. In 2002, her work was recognized by the Minister of Education, who certified Mita as a methodologist in economics. In addition to coordinating a council where JAB teachers discuss the most effective ways of applying the economics program at schools, Mita trains volunteer teachers new to JAB.

Among Mita’s fondest memories are the student companies she instructed through the years. In 2001, she and the student company William Juniors traveled to the Young Enterprise Trade Fair in Dorset, England, where they won the runner-up award for best trade stand. In 2006, Mita’s students from the company ABC Business initiated the first nationwide student entrepreneurship conference.

Mita finds her experience with student companies highly rewarding because young people teem with ideas and enthusiasm, saying, “Student gain the knowledge that nothing is impossible if they have a clear goal and the ability to make their own decisions. They learn how to work as a team and become financially literate.”

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