President Clinton leads the final plenary session at CGIU 2010. Stanley Clermont (right) discusses the needs of the people in his home country, Haiti.

At the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU) conference this year, the final plenary session centered on the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12, 2010. For me, this final panel was the most moving of the entire weekend.

It is plain to see why Haiti was the focus of the final session at this year’s CGIU. For one, President Clinton was just named to lead the reconstruction of the shattered Caribbean nation. Second, the devastation in Haiti has been an ongoing global focal point this year, which is not surprising considering it is probably the largest natural disaster to have taken place in the Western Hemisphere since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

Most of all, focusing on rebuilding efforts, population empowerment, economic relief, and infrastructure reconstruction in Haiti presents a unique situation whereby all of Clinton’s key Millennium Goals come into play. The five Global Challenge areas, the focus of the Clinton Millennium goals, are education, environment and climate Change, peace and human rights, poverty alleviation, and public health. And it takes little more than a Google® search of “Haiti” to see how all five of these areas are crucial to the situation there right now.

Since returning home, I continue to revisit the words of one particular panelist at that final session. Stanley Clermont is a college student, a Haitian Education & Leadership Program (H.E.L.P.) scholarship recipient, and an earthquake survivor. When all the participants on the panel were asked, “What does a bowl of rice [the Haitian food staple] signify to you?” Stanley responded, “A filled bowl of rice means two things to me: one, you did your job, you fed yourself, and two, your people have been fed. But, when I see an empty bowl of rice, it means that my family has a need and the people have a need. That’s when I say to myself, ‘Man, you have too much to do. Stop wasting time and put everything into action to fill the bowls of your family and friends around you.’”

Stanley’s words remind us of the ongoing needs of the Haitian people. I feel strongly that conferences like CGIU are crucial to helping young leaders continue to help the people of Haiti.

To read more about our experiences at CGIU 2010, check out other blog posts by Andrew Koehler and Sonya Perez-Lauterbach.