CGI U for six
UD students attend annual Clinton Global Initiative University conference
11:14 a.m., April 1, 2016--Six University of Delaware students have traveled to the University of California, Berkeley, to join their peers at the 2016 Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), a meeting of the minds of “the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world.”
CGI U was begun in 2007 and modeled after the Clinton Global Initiative, an annual platform for world leaders to take action on global challenges. The conference, which will be held from April 1-3, will bring together more than 1,000 students, leaders, and celebrities in the global sphere for discussion around CGIU’s five focus areas.
Global Stories
Fulbright awards
Peace Corps plans
In order to attend, students must have demonstrated a Commitment to Action in one of these areas: Education, Environment and Climate Change, Peace and Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, or Public Health.
Meredith Simon-Pearson, an undergraduate civil engineering student, will attend the conference to represent her UD Engineers Without Borders team, the Malawi Potable Water Project. The team is working in collaboration with a non-governmental organization (NGO), Villages in Partnership (VIP), to provide clean and readily accessible water to a remote village of approximately 500 people called Mphero. The chapter hopes to begin the implementation phase of the project in August of this year.
“EWB is a way to take a break from my studies...and do something that’s not just about me, but that benefits other people and is also a collaborative working process,” said Simon-Pearson.
For her, the opportunity to attend CGI U will be an important one, connecting her to experts and peers with backgrounds across disciplines. “Our project is interdisciplinary, so it helps to have broad exposure to people working on all different types of projects in different fields.”
Eric Jackson, a junior mechanical engineering major, will gain new insight into his Commitment to Action, “Title IX for Teens.” He is working with American University student Carly Fabian, and they seek to increase awareness and accessibility of resources for students to “claim their rights to a school environment free of sexual violence and gender discrimination.” Their project will culminate in a teenager-friendly website and secondary school outreach.
Dylan Buller and Jaewoong Yoo, senior philosophy and computer science and English majors, have teamed up to design EmergenCPR, a mobile app aimed at streamlining cardiac emergencies. “We did some research and it turns out most people, when confronted with an emergency, report being scared to do more damage than cause good, or might not be sure about compressions and things like that,” noted Buller.
The app, they say, will contact emergency services, triangulate a location, and walk responders through the CPR process step by step.
“Because the content is dealing with emergency situations, we really want to make sure professionals have given their feedback before we implement it,” added Yoo, who said that they are currently reaching out to community members, CPR trainers, first responders, and UD Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus staff to ensure that the application properly and safely addresses needs.
The pair, who attended the conference last year, encouraged others to make the most of their time in Berkeley. “Talk to as many people as possible, people interested in similar things, but even people who are not,” advised Buller. “We got some of our best ideas from people who are working in way different fields.”
Timothy D’Agostino, an Honors Program environmental engineering student, will also attend the conference to gain useful insight on his commitment to action, UD H-2-Grow.
CGI U will give participants the opportunity to network and gain insight on their projects. Beyond attending workshops and sessions, each will be paired with a mentor who has significant experience in a similar field and who can provide feedback on every aspect of the students’ Commitments to Action.
On Sunday, April 3, CGI U will come to a close with a “Day of Action,” where participants will take part in community service with the Oakland Unified School District and Oakland Public Education Fund. The group will volunteer on a number of urban agriculture, mural painting and athletic facility cleanup projects at the Havenscourt Campus, a consortium of five schools.
Upon returning from CGI U, the students will have the opportunity to apply for seed funding to help complete their projects.
For more information on Clinton Global Initiative University, visit the CGI U website or contact University of Delaware adviser Meng Fan.
Follow the students through their transformative time in Berkeley on Instagram and Twitter and engage using the hashtag #CGIU.
Article by Nikki Laws