A Weekend with Bill Clinton: CGIU 2011

The beginning of this month signaled a return of EWB-UC's representatives at one of the biggest youth leadership conference's in the United States - Clinton Global Initiative University (http://www.cgiu.org/meetings/2011/). This three day conference in San Diego aimed to bring together some of the world's youngest and most active philanthropists, innovators, and movement makers - the future NGO CEO's of the world. Sponsored by Bill Clinton and his foundation, the free conference (this year held at the University of California San Diego) played host to around 1,500 young men and women representing all 50 states and 90 countries. Mark Schutte and Jim Moyer, recently elected External Vice President and President of EWB-UC, both had the privilege of going to the conference in early April.

The conference consisted of large group panel discussions, followed by small breakout sessions and plenty of time for networking. "It was really an incredible experience - there were so many big names that came out to speak: the co-founder of Youtube, Sean Penn, Mandy Moore, Drew Barrymore, countless CEO's and policy makers, and of course, Bill Clinton himself," says Mark, "But really just being a part of such a huge group of people, all working towards some incredible commitments was the most rewarding part of the trip for me. It helps give me energy to go out and get to work on our EWB projects when I get to see all the great ideas others have come up with." Jim had a similar experience: "It was unbelievable how ingenious some of the commitments were. Jessica Matthews, presented her invention: the sOccket, a soccer ball that converts the kinetic energy used to kick it into electricity. Just 15 minutes of kicking creates 3 hours of light! Truly inspiring." (http://www.soccket.com/#!)

For all the hard work, Jim and Mark certainly were successful in networking with students and young adults from all over. They look forward to bringing back what they have learned to better serve EWB-UC and the UC community! Of course, not all their time spent was hard at work - San Diego's beach towns capped off the weekend beautifully!