Students from as far away as Peru and Rwanda came to Evanston last week to participate in the Northwestern Global Engagement Summit, a five-day conference that concluded Sunday.
“The most beneficial thing is the community that we build,” said Medill sophomore Christie Thompson, media and marketing co-chair for GES. “By creating those long-term connections, that’s a more tangible thing that the delegates can walk away with.”
The annual summit brings together students with an interest in global change and social enterprise with the aim of giving them the resources and networking opportunities to advance their projects, according to its website.
The 250 people who attended this year’s GES represented 33 universities and 42 nonprofit organizations, said Allie Bream, a SESP senior and GES co-director. One such participating nonprofit was Acumen Fund, a firm that draws on business-oriented approaches to alleviate global poverty.
Student delegates attended workshops, participated in discussions and met with other undergraduates and professionals working for nonprofit organizations.
Claire Comiskey, a sophomore from New College of Florida, said she attended GES to advance her involvement in the Student Alliance for Global Engagement at her own school. Comiskey said she has been working with a venture at New College that seeks to fund primary education for children in Nicaragua.
“It was interesting to get so many points of view on our projects,” she said. “We got together and gave each other proposals and a lot of new ideas.”
Comiskey said she used the conference as a means to network with other students and nonprofit organizations.
“There were a lot of different opportunities, personal and professional,” she said. “It was very all-encompassing and well-organized.”
Delegates had the opportunity to apply for “outcomes,” assistance from nonprofit consulting firms that may include featuring the delegate’s social enterprise project on blogs or online fundraising websites.
In 2009, 16 delegates had their projects featured on the GlobalGiving Project Challenge website to further their fundraising efforts.
Bream said opportunities through GES outcomes are a key component in what the conference hopes to achieve.
“Young people are more aware than ever before of global issues, and they understand more than ever that they have a responsibility to act on these issues,” she said. “But so many lack the network and the knowledge to make an impact, so GES provides the connections to people and resources for how to measure success and current trends in social entrepreneurship.”
The conference included a keynote speech from Josh Nesbit, co-founder and executive director of Frontline SMS, an organization that creates communication networks in order to advance relief efforts in developing nations.
Nesbit illustrated how a global engagement group like Frontline SMS worked to connect emergency workers in the aftermath of the January earthquake in Haiti.
Thompson said one of the most “satisfying” aspects of the experience is the passion for global change delegates bring to the conference.
“We’re hoping to develop the skills and capabilities of the new generation of social change makers,” Thompson said. “We’re just holed up in Norris for a few days, but we come out feeling like we’re a part of something.” [email protected]
