CGI and Young Leaders Collaborate for Change at the CGIU Conference

“I strongly believe that, through CGIU, we can harness the energy and power of today’s young leaders to improve the lives of people around the world and build a stronger future for us all.” – President Bill Clinton

Reflections from Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU)… At this conference we spent 36 hours rubbing shoulders with the next generation of young leaders from college campuses all around the world. Participants are students, universities, and youth organizations chosen by CGIU, invited to spend the weekend at the University of Miami collaborating and sharing their ideas for global change. CGIU was founded by President Clinton, who aims to build upon the success of the Clinton Global Initiative to generate collaboration among world leaders and to harness the power of young, innovative thinking.  In his characteristic public style, President Clinton mixes candor, humor, and draws upon his personal experience to inspire action and deliver results through consistent commitment, development support, and the annual CGIU Conference. To date, CGIU has delivered 2,000 individual commitments into action in the areas of clean energy, climate change, poverty, global health, and the promotion of human rights and peace.

Naturally, Opportunity International participates annually in CGI conferences because they are the largest gatherings of domestic and global leaders in the country. But there is one big difference at this conference–these are young leaders, eager to use exciting, new ideas to make improvements on a global scale.  We made a commitment to create a volunteer-led regionally based chapter network of passionate, globally-minded young professionals, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity (YAO), who actively INSPIRE, EDUCATE, and INVOLVE others in microfinance and raise $2.7 million to support Opportunity International’s initiative to start a regulated microfinance bank in Tanzania.

President Clinton said it best in his opening address: “The most important thing that we learned from Haiti is that if there are enough people behind a cause, you can change the world.”