Westminster College Students Shine at International Clinton Global Initiative University

This year when the Clinton presidential family held the seventh annual Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU) in Tempe, Arizona, for 1,100 innovative students leaders, ten Westminster students were among the crowd. Nine of the students gave presentations at the conference.  They were:

• Suravi Shrestha, a senior from Lalitpur, Nepal; Bishesh Srestha, a junior from Kathmandu, Nepal; and Molly Dwyer, a junior from St. Louis, MO-Building latrines in Nepal to raise standards of sanitation;
• Tripti Giri, a senior from Kathmandu, Nepal; Tripti Bisen, a junior from Jabalpur, India; and Ravindra Singh, a senior from Carms, Wales-Helping young orphans in India build a sustainable future;
• Tarisai Hamadziripi, a junior from Harare, Zimbabwe-Working with small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe to create gardening jobs, provide safe drinking water and improve markets.
• Thitivut “Vinny Ek” Ekphaisansup, a sophomore from Bangkok, Thailand-Create jobs to support education and social progress within the Bangkok slums; and
• Gloria William, a junior from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania-Providing solar lamps, tutoring and mentoring to boost academic performance of students in a village in Tanzania.

Of the Westminster students, only Williams’s project made it to semi-final round of 150 students and at that level, she was allowed to showcase her project in a booth.

However, all those attending the conference saw Westminster at its best when a video on  the project of Westminster senior Sahadev Yangmali Rai from Kathmandu, Nepal, who was one of the big winners at last year’s conference, was shown on the big screen.  Rai’s project was one of only nine projects out of 600 competitive presentations from 75 different countries and all 50 states to win seed money funding.  Watch his video below:

Rai’s project to empower women who are the victims of civil war and poverty in Nepal by employing them to produce cash crops that can be sold was awarded $9,000 at last year’s conference.  The profits generated from the women’s work are being invested in improving education and making a library and computer lab possible. All of the other 600 proposals competing at this international meeting were submitted by groups.  Rai was the only individual to make a submission.

Since that time, Rai has established the Yang-Ward Foundation (www.yangward.org) to monitor the progress and administer his projects in Nepal as well as raise money for them.  He has also been made a Resolution Fellow as a result of his CGIU project and is receiving hand-on support for his project from two mentors with The Resolution Project, Inc.

In keeping with the spirit of giving back that brought him this international attention from the beginning, Rai was a major force behind helping nine other Westminster students attend this year’s CGIU Conference.  Selection to attend is highly competitive and even the largest universities consider it a huge triumph to have five or six students qualify for attendance.  Rai sent an e-mail out to all Westminster students and met with twenty that were interested in applying.  He worked with them closely during the entire application process and ultimately the projects of nine of them were selected to attend the international gathering.

Another major triumph for Westminster College was the appearance of Joseph Munyambanza, a junior from the Republic of the Congo, at CGIU at the invitation of President Clinton to talk about transitional justice and the rebuilding of war torn communities.  As a result of his work with an organization he helped found to improve education in five African countries, Munyambanza is one of 18 young people chosen to serve as advisors on international education to the United Nations Secretary General and Gordon Brown, the UN Special Envoy on Global Education.

Since CGIU was held this year in Arizona, students, faculty and staff at the Westminster College Phoenix/Mesa campus provided accommodations and helped with the transportation for the CGIU attendees.  The Westminster Student Government Association assisted with some of the attendees’ fees.

Rai’s vision has taken him far and he has long range plans as well.  His long term goal is to implement 75 projects impacting 100,000 people by 2020.  Those familiar with his impressive achievements so far have no doubt he will reach his goal in the global community.

Since CGI began in 2005, 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.