Global initiative brings together students with shared passion to repair world’s ills
Rutgers senior Danielle Jessen hopes to wipe out malaria in South Africa, one village at a time. Rutgers junior Henry Chang is looking to break down barriers for blind youngsters in Lebanon. Bring enough of these “dreamers” together in one room and you might well change the world.
That’s the theory behind the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU), which hosts an annual meeting where students, youth organizations, experts and celebrities bat around ideas to do just that.
Jessen and Chang were among five Rutgers students attending the most recent gathering of CGIU, which featured the likes of Bill and Chelsea Clinton and celebrities Stephen Colbert and Jada Pinkett Smith, as well as international business and political figures.
The former president launched the intensive three-day program for students in 2007, building on the model of the Clinton Global Initiative, which harnesses the energies of world leaders to address issues such as education, environment and climate change, and poverty.
More than 1,200 students from 300 universities in 75 countries attended this year’s sessions at Washington University in St. Louis from April 5-7. Through its Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs (GAIA) and the Office of Undergraduate Education, Rutgers provided funding for five university students who made it through a rigorous application process.
“It’s very competitive, and very prestigious to be accepted,” says Gregory Spear, international service learning coordinator for the centers and CGIU network liaison. “I was extremely impressed with the caliber of our students’ commitments and with the panelists CGIU brought together for their benefit.”
As heady as the high-profile guest list was, Jessen and Chang say they were more blown away by the opportunity to interact with other students who are in the trenches with them – people whose small-scale programs are already having a large impact.
“I met one student whose initiative is to shred plastic bottles and use them to make beanbag chairs for poor people in Haiti to sell for profit,” Chang recalls.
“It was exciting to be around other students who have aspirations like you do,” echoes Jessen, who was impressed by a fellow attendee who had invented a soccer ball which would generate electricity for use in villages in Africa.
Jessen, a senior majoring in cellular biology and neuroscience, says a summer study abroad program in South Africa opened her eyes to the scourge of malaria in that nation. She teamed with three other college students from across the United States to form the Malaria Awareness Program, which educates villagers about the prevention and treatment of the mosquito-borne disease.
The students began the program with 350 people in Hamakuya, a village in the northeast region of the country, about 50 kilometers from the border with Zimbabwe. “The lessons were well accepted, and now we want to take it to the next level, raising capital to train women to build their own mosquito bed nets,” says Jessen, a resident of Watchung.
When Jessen and her partners presented their story at CGIU, the malaria program won a social venture challenge – beating out 200 other programs and helping to fund the undertaking to the tune of $5,000.
“The judges liked the uniqueness of the program, and its sustainability,” Jessen says. “They liked that we’re not trying to save the world by ourselves, but giving the people in the village tools and information to do it themselves.”
Students who attend the intensive program are required to develop documents called “Commitments for Action,” plans which address a pressing challenge on campus, in their community or around the world. Past commitments have included manufacturing wheelchairs for developing countries and establishing bike-share programs on campus.
For his part, Chang is working with the grassroots Empowerment through Integration (ETI), a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of visually impaired youths on a worldwide scale. ETI runs summer camps for up to 80 children in Beirut – both sighted and blind – with an emphasis on team building and tolerance.
A journalism major from Fort Lee, Chang uses lessons he’s learned in the classroom to provide marketing services for the organization; he also lends a hand with curriculum development and with recruiting and training camp counselors.
At the Clinton gathering earlier this month – Chang’s second -- he attended plenary sessions on fundraising and using social media to promote small organizations such as his. He says he felt empowered by the knowledge that he’s not in the world-saving business by himself.
“Each year I come away with a boost of energy,” he notes. “It’s very easy to feel like you’re part of a small undertaking during the year, to hit a lot of roadblocks. I look forward to going to CGIU to see how others have handled the same obstacles. I always come back on fire, ready to hit the road again.”
Joining Jessen and Chang at the CGIU this year were:
· Jen Kong of Burlington, a senior cultural anthropology major, who worked on the Beirut project with Chang;
· Rabab Sarii, a fourth-year political science major from North Brunswick, whose initiative involves peace-building and conflict resolution among Israelis and Palestinians; and
· Nasir Uddin of Edgewater Park, a master's in business and science major with a focus on biomedical engineering, whose Access Telemed initiative is designed to provide telemedicine with integrated medical devices to remote villages in Thailand.