Clinton Global Initiative announces new commitments

[from Philanthropy News Digest] At the fifth annual Clinton Global Initiative University meeting atGeorge Washington University this past weekend, former President Clinton announced over nine hundred new projects that students and universities will undertake to improve the world.

New commitments announced at the two-day meeting include an expansion of Code the Change, a project of Stanford University student Sam King that hosts Code Jams in which computer science students provide up to twenty-four hours of pro bono volunteer services for nonprofit projects; the development, by Duke University student Patrick Oathout, of Uhuru, an online operating module that uses crowdsourcing technology to increase access to information among the international refugee community; the creation of Teach for Africa, a program byHarvard University student and Kenyan native Peggy Mativo that will provide trained teaching assistants to underserved schools in Nairobi, Kenya; and training workshops taught by Princeton University students Amanda Rees and Corinne Stephenson on how to build and operate solar drying units, enabling Kenyan farmers to dehydrate and preserve otherwise perishable produce.

Sponsored by the Victor Pinchuk and Peter G. Peterson foundations, as well as Microsoft, Laureate International Universities, Andy Nahas, Joan and Irwin Jacobs, Peter Kovler, the Prospect Fund, and Booz Allen Hamilton, CGI U 2012 convened more than one thousand students representing all fifty states, eighty-two countries, and over three hundred universities around a wide range of topics, from the global economic crisis and its impact on young people to the youth movement for global health. The second day of the event concluded with a day of service held in partnership with Rebuilding Together and the United Service Organizations.

To view a complete list of commitments made at this year's meeting, visit the Clinton Global Initiative University Web site. “President Clinton Hosted the Fifth Annual Clinton Global Initiative University Meeting at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.” Clinton Global Initiative University Press Release 3/31/12.