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President Clinton and Chelsea Clinton Announce Program and More than $400K in Funding for Student Commitment-makers at Sixth Meeting of Clinton Global Initiative University

Chelsea Clinton, board member, William J. Clinton Foundation; Stephen Colbert, host and executive producer of ‘The Colbert Report’ on Comedy Central; Hawa Abdi Diblawe, founder, the Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation; Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO, Square, Inc.; co-founder and executive chairman, Twitter, Inc.; Salman Khan, founder and executive director, Khan Academy; Sally Madsen, design lead, IDEO; Sara Minkara, president and founder, Empowerment Through Integration; Zainab Salbi, writer and producer, Nida’s Alnissa Productions; founder, Women for Women International; Jada Pinkett Smith, actress and advocate, Don’t Sell Bodies; Brendan Tuohey, co-founder and executive director, PeacePlayers International; William Ury, co-author of ‘Getting to Yes’ and co-founder, Harvard Program on Negotiation; Gary White, co-founder and CEO, Water.org; Jake Wood, co-founder and president, Team Rubicon; and Muhammad Yunus, chairman, the Yunus Centre, among the participants to speak on pressing global challenges at CGI U 2013, to be held April 5-7 at Washington University in St. Louis

33 colleges and universities join newly established CGI University Network to provide seed money for leading student commitment-makers

NEW YORK – Today President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton announced the program and featured participants for the sixth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) to be held at Washington University in St. Louis April 5-7. CGI U will bring together more than 1,000 college students with innovators, thought leaders, and civically engaged celebrities to make Commitments to Action to address the most pressing challenges facing their campuses and communities in areas such as education, environment and climate change, human rights, poverty alleviation, and public health.

More than $400,000 in funding will be available for students to carry out their commitments made at CGI U, primarily through the newly established CGI University Network of 33 colleges and universities that have committed to support, mentor, and provide seed funding to student innovators and entrepreneurs from their respective schools.

“The schools that have joined the CGI University Network are supporting student commitment-makers to create positive change across the globe,” said President Clinton. “This year, CGI U will bring together more than 1,000 college students representing all 50 states and six continents to explore concrete ways to build a better tomorrow. I look forward to working with the young leaders who come to Washington University in St. Louis this April with their enthusiasm and their ideas.”

“It’s inspiring to witness the power of CGI U students, whose energy, ideas, optimism and determination continually expand the possibilities for public service,” said Chelsea Clinton, who serves on the board of the Clinton Foundation. “By joining an extraordinary community of young people, thought leaders, and experienced entrepreneurs, students attending CGI U 2013 will have the opportunity to make real contributions and forge connections that last a lifetime.”

Washington University in St. Louis was chosen to host this year's CGI U because it is recognized as an international leader in preparing young people to address the world’s most pressing challenges.

This year’s program will address issues throughout CGI U’s five focus areas: Education, Environment and Climate Change, Peace and Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, and Public Health through sessions including:

• Getting off the Ground: Stories of Starting Up, in which a panel of budding and veteran entrepreneurs will share their stories, setbacks, and key lessons learned from their own experiences of launching a business or organization;
• A Better Future for Girls and Women: Empowering the Next Generation, which will bring together practitioners and pioneers to explore the tangible ways in which young people can continue to build a better future for girls and women around the world; and
• Solutions without Borders: Working with Unlikely Allies, will convene notable entrepreneurs and policymakers who are proving the necessity of cooperation over conflict.

For the complete schedule, visit cgiu.org/meetings/2013/agenda.asp.

Featured participants for CGI U 2013 announced today include Zafar Adeel, director, UNU-INWEH; Will Allen, chief executive officer, Growing Power; Chelsea Clinton, board member, William J. Clinton Foundation; Shabana Basij-Rasikh, managing director, School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA); Michael Botticelli, deputy director, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; Edward Breslin, chief executive officer, Water for People; Lora Brown, physician, the Pain Truth: Wake Up!; Gemma Bulos, director, Global Women’s Water Initiative; Clara Chow, president and chief executive officer, Generation Enterprise; Stephen Colbert, host and executive producer of “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central; Bita Correa, coordinator, PSA Program, FUNDAEC; David Deluca, head of campaigns, DoSomething.org; Hawa Abdi Diblawe, founder, the Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation; Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO, Square, Inc.; co-founder and executive chairman, Twitter, Inc.; Myles Estey, senior editor, Makeshift Magazine; Karen Freeman-Wilson, mayor of the City of Gary, Indiana; Eden Full, founder, Roseicollis Technologies, Inc.; Tyler Gage, chief executive officer, Runa LLC; Kumar Garg, senior advisor, White House Office of Science and Technology; Wendy Hanamura, chief project development officer, KCETLINK; Aaron Hurst, president and founder, Taproot Foundation; Emily Jacobi, co-founder and executive director, Digital Democracy; Jeremy Johnson, president of undergraduate programs, 2U; William Kamkwamba, inventor and writer, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope”; Sarah Kendzior, writer, Al Jazeera English; Salman Khan, founder and executive director, Khan Academy; Brij Kothari, founder and president, PlanetRead; Sally Madsen, design lead, IDEO; Michael Mazgaonkar, co-founder, Mozda Collective; Sara Minkara, president and founder, Empowerment Through Integration; Andrea Moore, team member, Google Online Marketing Challenge Program; Mark Nager, chief executive officer, Startup Weekend; Preeta Nayak, manager, Leading for Impact; The Bridgespan Group; Sarah Nerad, co-founder, PTR Associates; Matthew Perry, actor; Jada Pinkett Smith, actress and advocate, Don’t Sell Bodies; Shai Reshef, president, University of the People; Andrew Revkin, reporter, Dot Earth Blog, The New York Times; Jeannette Richardson-Baars, director, Aruba Police Academy; national coordinator, Anti Human Trafficking and Smuggling; Zainab Salbi, writer and producer, Nida’s Alnissa Productions; founder, Women for Women International; Michael Sherraden, founding director, Center for Social Development, Washington University; Christine Schindler, undergraduate, Duke University; Tyler Spencer, founder and CEO, the Grassroot Project; Annis Stubbs, executive director, Teach for America-Detroit; Amy Sun, president and co-founder, Fab Folk; Sebastien Tilmans, co-founder, re.source and Ph.D. candidate, Stanford University; Brendan Tuohey, co-founder and executive director, PeacePlayers International; William Ury, co-author of “Getting to Yes” and co-founder, Harvard Program on Negotiation; Dan Viederman, chief executive officer, Verite; Evans Wadongo, founder and executive director, Sustainable Development for All-Kenya; Alex Wagner, host, “NOW with Alex Wagner,” MSNBC; Gary White, co-founder and CEO, Water.org; Jake Wood, co-founder and president, Team Rubicon; and Muhammad Yunus, chairman, the Yunus Centre.

CGI University Network schools have agreed to provide more than $300,000 in total funding to CGI U student commitment-makers. Schools that have joined the CGI University Network to date include Alverno College; Arizona State University; Avicenne Private Business School; Babson College; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Brown University; the College of William and Mary; Cornell University; Duke University; Johnson C. Smith University; Middlebury College; Northeastern University; Rollins College; Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; St. Cloud State University; Simmons College; Southern Methodist University; The New School / Parsons The New School for Design; the Ohio State University; the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy; Tufts University; Tuskegee University; University of Arkansas, Clinton School of Public Service; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, San Diego; University of Delaware; University of Houston; University of Miami; University of the Pacific; Washington University in St. Louis; Westfield State University; and Widener University.

In addition, the Resolution Project is offering $100,000 in seed funding for CGI U 2013 students through the Resolution Social Venture Challenge, a competition designed to support student-launched social ventures that are sustainable and have a measurable impact. Students selected to compete in the Social Venture Challenge will exhibit their commitments at CGI U and have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. Winners will be announced at the end of the CGI U meeting.

CGI U, Net Impact, and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation launched the Up to Us Competition to increase financial awareness among young people. From Jan. 21 – March 1, 11 teams of CGI U participants campaigned to educate and engage their campuses on America’s debt crisis and how it will impact their future. A $10,000 cash prize will go to the team with the winning campaign, to be announced at CGI U. The Up to Us Competition judges include Chelsea Clinton; former White House Chief of Staff and former Co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Erskine Bowles; former U.S. Senator and former Co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Alan Simpson; and anchor of ABC's “This Week” and “Good Morning America” George Stephanopoulos.

Building on the Clinton Global Initiative’s successful model of convening Fortune 500 CEOs, heads of state, the most effective NGOs, and civil society to address the world’s most pressing challenges, President Clinton launched CGI U to engage the next generation of leaders from around the world. As with participants at all CGI meetings, CGI U students must make a Commitment to Action: a new, specific, and measurable student initiative that addresses a pressing challenge on campus or beyond.

In the past five years, more than 4,500 young leaders have attended CGI U, including Harvard University student Jessica Matthews. Matthews has won awards from TED, Popular Mechanics, and was featured in a Best Buy ad for her 2009 commitment, SOCCKET, a soccer ball that doubles as an eco-friendly generator for people in resource-poor regions. With just 30 minutes of play, SOCCKET captures enough energy of motion to power at least three hours of light, run a variety of small appliances, or charge batteries.

In 2009, Dartmouth College student Ashifi Gogo’s commitment to use text messaging to combat the proliferation of counterfeit drugs in the developing world led to Sproxil, a social business that has raised more than $1.8 million and secured clients such as Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, and Johnson & Johnson.

In 2011, attending CGI U allowed University of California, Santa Barbara student Ryland King to increase the capacity of his organization, Sprout Up, founded in 2009 to empower and educate youth on environmental issues. Since making his CGI U 2011 commitment to link college volunteers with first- and second-graders, King has expanded Sprout Up from a group of motivated friends teaching 25 students to more than 150 college students teaching 4,000 children across California. Out of more than 3,300 entries, Sprout Up won $100,000 in a social media contest and was featured on NBC as a nominee for the American Giving Awards in 2012.

Support for CGI U is generously provided by AAUW, Boeing, Dell Inc., Laureate International Universities, Andy Nahas and The Prospect Fund, and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

For more information on CGI U or the CGI University Network visit cgiu.org. For inquiries, please email cgiu@clintonglobalinitiative.org or call 212.710.4492.

Follow us on Twitter at @CGIU and @ClintonGlobal or on Facebook at Facebook.com/CGIUniversity for meeting news and highlights. The event hashtag will be #CGIU.

Press registration is now open to members of the media. To apply, please complete the form at cgilink.org/YE3ZA5.

The deadline to apply for press credentials is Tuesday, April 2 at 5 p.m. ET. Journalists may apply for credentials on-site, but pre-registered media will be given priority. For questions about press registration, please email mailto:press@clintonglobalinitiative.org.

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About CGI U
The Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) brings together college students to address global challenges with practical, innovative solutions. CGI U participants do more than simply discuss problems – they take concrete steps to solve them by creating action plans, building relationships, participating in hands-on workshops, and following up with CGI U as they complete their projects. Previous CGI U meetings have taken place at Tulane University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Miami, the University of California at San Diego, and the George Washington University, and have convened more than 4,500 students from nearly 750 schools, more than 130 countries, and all 50 states. To learn more, visit cgiu.org.

About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2,300 commitments, which are already improving the lives of nearly 400 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $73.5 billion.

About Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University is counted among the world’s leaders in teaching and research, and it draws students and faculty to St. Louis from all 50 states and more than 120 nations. The total student body is nearly 14,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. The approximately 3,400 faculty teach in seven schools: Arts & Sciences, Brown School, Olin Business School, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, School of Engineering & Applied Science, School of Law and School of Medicine. Twenty-three Nobel laureates have been associated with Washington University, with nine doing the major portion of their pioneering research there. The university offers more than 90 programs and almost 1,500 courses leading to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in a broad spectrum of traditional and interdisciplinary fields, with additional opportunities for minor concentrations and individualized programs.