Cornell will send three representatives to Clinton Global Initiative University this year, while Harvard, Princeton, Penn and Columbia will each send one.
The Clinton Global Initiative is recognizing the Class of 2012 Council and the Ivy League’s seven other 2012 class councils for raising over $10,000 for Save the Children, an international charity that focuses on providing education to disadvantaged children around the world.
The class councils were recognized by an invitation to attend the Clinton Global Initiative University annual conference, a meeting for student leaders and national youth organizers to discuss pressing global issues, such as poverty and public health.
Cornell will send three representatives to CGI U this year, while Harvard, Princeton, Penn and Columbia will each send one. According to the organization’s website, CGI will be held at the University of San Diego this April.
The invitation is the result of three years’ worth of philanthropic work. Upon being elected to the Class of 2012 Council as freshmen, Annabel Fowler ’12, class president, and her fellow representatives knew they wanted to do something different than the councils before them, she said. Fowler said they wanted to make a lasting impact, which eventually led to them to reach out to the other Ivy class councils.
“This is the first time the eight Ivy League universities have successfully worked together on an undertaking of this sort,” Fowler said. “It’s tough when you’re working with eight different schools — it took us the spring semester of freshman year and throughout the summer to really get this going.”
Fowler said that the councils picked Save the Children from a list of 30 charities and organizations because they wanted to work with a charity that is involved in education.
“We’re at eight of the top twenty colleges in the country. It would be inexcusable for us not to do something to give back to education,” she said.
Of the $10,000 raised, about $2,500 came from Cornell, according to Fowler. The Class of 2012 Council, together with other campus groups, organized “Cornell’s Finest” and “Hands for Health” last semester to raise money for Save the Children. According to the organization’s website, money raised by this joint effort has sent 112 girls to school, provided 146 students with school supplies and helped relieve victims of the July flood in Pakistan.
Former President Bill Clinton founded CGI in 2005 with the intention “to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges,” according to CGI’s website. CGI U was founded two years later to get college students more involved.
“It’s really an honor to be selected and to have the opportunity to represent the Cornell 2012 community at CGI U,” Fowler said.
At the conference, the Ivy League representatives will be attending workshops, panels, lectures and discussions concerning education, Fowler added.
“The amount we can learn from the other students who are going to be there is invaluable,” Fowler said.
Original Author: Joseph Niczky