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Four Student Teams Advance to Compete in the Clinton Global Initiative University 2015 Commitments Challenge


Student teams from Towson University, Mt. Hood Community College, Fashion Institute of Technology, and SUNY Broome Community College advance to Final Four.

Competing student teams have already raised more than $19,700 through CrowdRise to put their ideas into action.

New York, NY – Today, the final four student teams competing in the fifth annual Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) Commitments Challenge were announced. The Challenge is a “bracket” competition of college and university student teams that have made Commitments to Action – new, specific, and measurable plans to address a pressing challenge. The final four teams are: Hope of Guinea Community Center of Towson University; Plastic Bins, Esteli Wins of Mt. Hood Community College; Closing the Loop: FIT Muslin Compost System of Fashion Institute of Technology; and Building a Greenhouse in Encinal de Canoas of SUNY Broome Community College.

CGI U has partnered with CrowdRise again this year to power the Challenge in which student teams compete by raising funds for their commitments. Similar to the NCAA “March Madness” tournament’s “bracket,” student teams compete against each other, and the winner advances to the next round. The teams that raise the most money for their Commitments to Action each round will advance to the next.

The winner will be announced by Chelsea Clinton during the eighth annual meeting of CGI U, to be held at the University of Miami from March 6-8. More than 1,000 students representing more than 300 universities and 75 countries will be in attendance. The public can donate to their favorite CGI U 2015 commitment at www.cgiu.org/challenge.

The 2015 CGI U Commitments Challenge Rounds:

  • ROUND ONE: February 23 at 12:00 PM ET – February 26 at 3:59 PM ET
  • TOP SIXTEEN: February 27 at 12:00 PM ET – March 2 at 3:59 PM ET
  • TOP EIGHT: March 3 at 12:00 PM ET – March 4 at 3:59 PM ET
  • TOP FOUR: March 5 at 12:00 PM ET – March 6 at 11:59 AM ET
  • CHAMPIONSHIP: March 6 at 4:00 PM ET – March 7 at 3:59 PM ET
  • The final round of voting will end Saturday, March 7 at 3:59 PM ET

The CGI U 2015 program will feature sessions that will examine issues throughout CGI U’s five focus areas: Education, Environment and Climate Change, Peace and Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, and Public Health. Throughout the meeting, students will engage in various topic- and skill-based sessions, which will empower them to get involved with solving major global challenges while they’re still in school. For the complete schedule, visit http://cgilink.org/17YFx6u.

In total, 16 student commitments competed in the CGI U 2015 Commitments Challenge, including:

Cultivating Connections: Linking the St. Louis Immigrant and Refugee Community and the Washington University Student Body through Urban Farming
Commitment by: Erica Sloan, Jess Thea, and Samantha Pitz
School: Washington University in St. Louis

Erica Sloan, Jess Thea, and Samantha Pitz committed to expand the efforts of the International Institute’s Global Farms Initiative to bring together the Washington University student body and a community of immigrants in St. Louis. The team will create partnerships through a student group to host cross cultural exchanges involving farming, advocacy, potlucks, and a dinner fundraiser. They will solicit funding from the Student Sustainability Fund and the Gephardt Institute for Public Service to support urban farmers.

ReBuilding Blocks
Commitment by: Victoria McClain
School: University of Illinois at Chicago

Victoria McClain committed to repurpose demolition and construction debris to alleviate poverty, increase sustainable design, and foster workforce development in Chicago, Illinois. She will divert materials from landfills and recycle and reuse them in new building projects, reducing the amount of overall waste generated. She will partner with local companies and organizations focused on urban development and sustainability, creating a database of 90 volunteers and 30 employees, and securing land, tools, and training materials.

Hope of Guinea Community Center
Commitment by: Oumou Diallo, Jacqueline Bell, and Luis Alejandro
School: Towson University

Oumou Diallo, Jacqueline Bell, and Luis Alejandro committed to create a community center to address the lack of education, economic support, and health services for youth and adults in the town of Ratoma, Guinea. The team will provide residents with access to tutoring programs, resources for a community garden, physical education programs, and opportunities for community service. They will partner with Hope of Guinea to  collect clothes and purchase school supplies, with hopes of raising $10,000 by 2016.

Plastic Bins, Esteli Wins
Commitment by: Ana Lucia Blandon Martinez
School: Mt. Hood Community College

Ana Lucia Blandon Martinez committed to provide recycling bins to reduce waste and mosquito reproduction while empowering students in Esteli, Nicaragua. Because of the lack of dumpsters, trash pollutes and creates dams in the river, which encourages mosquito reproduction and the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. She will partner with Family United to train and educate students on recycling principles and create the recycling bins out of plastic bottles that have been collected by the local government, aiming to place 50 recycling bins in the city’s streets by 2017.

Closing the Loop: FIT Muslin Compost System
Commitment by: Lydia Baird and Willa Tsokanis
School: Fashion Institute of Technology

Lydia Baird and Willa Tsokanis committed to introduce the first textile compost system at the Fashion Institute of Technology in order to educate the fashion community on how to begin textile composting at their institution in New York. They will install an on-campus thermophilic compost bin and collect muslin waste from classrooms. The group will partner with the university’s Textile Development and Marketing Lab, The Natural Dye Garden, and a U.S. Composting Council-certified lab.

Tiwale Community Based Organization Design Project
Commitment by: Ellen Chilemba
School: Mount Holyoke College

Ellen Chilemba committed to produce traditional fabrics with local women to increase the average income and provide employment opportunities in Mtsiliza, Malawi. She will work with an expert textile designer to train 40 women ages 16-50 to create 400 traditional dye-printed fabrics that will appeal to a local and international market. She will then give 70 percent of the profits to the women who produced the fabrics, and 30 percent will be reinvested in additional community development projects. She hopes to sell all of the fabrics by December 2016.

How I S.E.E. the World (Sustain, Empower, Enrich)
Commitment by: Antasha Durbin Solomon
School: New York University

Antasha Durbin Solomon committed to build a school out of recycled materials and provide food, nutrition, skill-building, and educational workshops to educate and empower impoverished children and families in Mwanza, Tanzania. She will build a school sourced entirely from recycled materials and built by local laborers, and will have seven teachers and 50 students coming to the workshops and seminars within the first year. She will also build rainwater harvesting systems and plant gardens for each household, ensuring their self-sufficiency, with a goal of helping 50 children and their families.

Building a Greenhouse in Encinal de Canoas
Commitment by: Juan Romero
School: SUNY Broome Community College

Juan Romero committed to build a year-round greenhouse to create stability for 12 families in Guanajuato, Mexico. Juan hopes to solve the issue of farmer migration at the end of the rainy season in this region. The greenhouse will operate all four seasons to generate jobs all year long, and produce will be sold at the municipality market. He will host bake sales and community events to raise funds and recruit partners.

Education at Your Doorstep
Commitment by: Leslie Ossete
School: Earlham College

Leslie Ossete committed to create and distribute early childhood education curricula to ensure that education is accessible and affordable for low-income children in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. She will provide her curriculum, which will focus on motor, sensory, critical thinking, and language stimulation, along with complementary books and toys made from upcycled materials, to young children in urban slums on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. She will partner with a local certified educator to train people from those slums to be effective teachers.

Link & Match: Affordable Individual Elderly Services for the Low-Income Elderly in Less-Developed Countries
Commitment by: Andi Widianto
School: University of Chicago

Andi Widianto committed to pair orphan youth with low-income elderly people to provide income and skill-building opportunities for orphans and to provide non-medical services for the elderly in Indonesia. He will implement a matching program so youth with specific skills are paired with elderly people needing corresponding services.

Adjustable Glasses for the Developing World
Commitment by: Yitaek Hwang and Nathan Brajer
School: Duke University

Yitaek Hwang and Nathan Brajer committed to design easily-adjustable, affordable glasses to reduce distribution barriers and increase vision care access in Jaipur, India. They will distribute glasses that feature simple interchangeable lenses so users can customize their glasses without visiting an optometrist. They will establish partnerships with Indian nonprofits to test the product and distribution model. They hope to distribute 10,000 glasses in the project’s second year, starting in July 2015.

Improving Health Education via Seminars in an Underprivileged Maternity Hospital
Commitment by: Vanessa Nascimento
School: University of Central Florida

Vanessa Nascimento committed to offer daily educational seminars for underprivileged expecting mothers in Parana, Brazil in order to increase knowledge of maternal health issues such as breastfeeding, bathing newborns, and general postpartum care. She will work with women at a public hospital that is facing resource and staffing shortages to improve health conditions for mothers and their newborns. Her seminars will be given by three volunteer students from Brazil and will be supervised by a local doctor.

Smart Diaphragm 2
Commitment by: Rahul Nayak, Sita Kumar and Huzaifa Beg
School: University of California, Berkeley

Rahul Nayak, Sita Kumar, and Huzaifa Beg committed to develop and implement a device that screens for vaginal infections in pregnant women to reduce pre-term birth and disease transmission in the United States. In 2011, they partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and are now working to get IRB approval to run an observational clinical study using the novel vaginal infection detection device at UC San Francisco-affiliated hospitals and clinics in February 2015.

E-Create
Commitment by: Kevin Chen
School: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey – New Brunswick

Kevin Chen committed to reduce electronic waste to decrease the harmful environmental and health effects of processing e-waste in New Jersey. He will repurpose reusable electronics in landfills and convert them into project supply kits for young people interested in STEM so that they can gain hands-on experience with building items out of recycled materials. He will partner with two engineering students to source the e-waste and develop the project kits.

Building Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs
Commitment by: Khaoula Morchid
School: University of Notre Dame

Khaoula Morchid committed to provide young leaders with tools for starting their own enterprises to address a lack of formal leadership and entrepreneurship education in Morocco. She will organize a summer camp for 35 young people from Morocco and neighboring nations, who will be matched with mentors to help them unlock their potential and achieve tangible goals. She will partner with other organizations that empower young people such as EgyptAbility and Startup Gh.

Mosquitoes Be Gone
Commitment by: Ruchi Shah
School: State University of New York at Stony Brook

Ruchi Shah committed to develop an all-natural and inexpensive mosquito repellent to reduce the prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases in India. She is currently in the final stages of developing, testing, and marketing the repellent. She will strengthen strategic partnerships with local communities and global nonprofits to raise awareness and increase distributions of the repellent.

Rules for the CGI U Commitments Challenge can be found here: http://cgilink.org/17YGoUG.

Media registration for CGI U is now open. To apply, please complete the form at cgiu2015.iworldreg.com/public/apply/press. The deadline to apply for press credentials is March 4, 2015. Journalists may apply for credentials on-site, but space is limited and pre-registered media will be given priority. For questions about press registration, please email press@clintonglobalinitiative.org. 

Follow us on Twitter at @CGIU and @ClintonGlobal or on Facebook at Facebook.com/CGIUniversity for meeting news and highlights. The official meeting hashtag is #CGIU. Plenary sessions will also be live streamed during the meeting at http://new.livestream.com/CGI/CGIU2015.

Support for CGI U 2015 is generously provided by: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Laureate International Universities, Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Andy Nahas and the Prospect Fund; and the Ramsey Social Justice Foundation.

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Learn more about our work at https://www.clintonfoundation.org/about, on Facebook at Facebook.com/ClintonFoundation and on Twitter @ClintonFdn.

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