How youth are answering the question, "What can I do?"
Student Movement for Real Change (SMRC), Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) are hosting a conference to gain knowledge on and discuss global development issues and ways in which young people can create change.
Panel Health, Education, and Development: Young People Acting Now
In this panel, young professionals and students will discuss effective strategies for promoting development and social justice through initiatives of their own and through existing programs. Discussion of health and education issues in particular will be addressed. This panel will provide students the tools to move forward in creating change. The goal is for young people to leave the conference with information, contacts, inspiration, and confidence to help eradicate global poverty. The panelists will answer questions and discuss their background in the field, obstacles facing global development and offer ways to contribute to the global movement.
All panelists are young professionals or students who have exemplified impressive leadership capabilities and have founded or been involved with organizations focused on global development.
Shelley Chinnan, Student Campaign for Survival for Child Survival
Shelley Chinnan is the national organizer for the Student Campaign for Child Survival at Global Justice. A recent graduate of The University of Georgia, Shelley is an experienced issue organizer on gender, the environment, human rights, and war. While in college Shelley was the leader of the Women's Studies Student Organization; co-founded the Coalition Somos America (The We Are America Coalition) which brought together professors, students, activists, and community members to organize on economic justice and immigrant rights; and created the Kitab Project which raised $30,000 to support literacy in Southeast Asia. She has worked as the volunteer coordinator for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and as a children's advocate for CASA. For her accomplishments she received the 2007 Generation Student Leader Award from Choice USA. Shelley is fluent in Spanish, Hindi, & Punjabi.
Michael Haslett, Senior Communications Associate at InterAction
At 26 years old, Michael has spent many years working toward global change in different venues. As a student he made several trips to Southern India to help build the effectiveness of a small school for the region's poorest children. He has continued his support to the school throughout the past decade and is in the process of co-founding a registered NGO to expand and continue the school's work. After finishing his university studies, Michael worked with ABT Associates in Nigeria, helping to improve the nation's health care system.
Currently Michael is a member of the Communications Team at InterAction, the largest coalition of U.S.-based NGOs focused on the world's poor and most vulnerable people. Collectively, InterAction's more than 165 members work in every developing country. Members meet people halfway in expanding opportunities and supporting gender equality in education, health care, agriculture, small business, and other areas.
Chaz Litteljohn, Nourish International
Chaz Littlejohn is an alumnus of UNC-Chapel Hill earning degrees in Economics and Physics. Chaz was the Director of Finance for the international development NGO Nourish International, whose mission is to eradicate poverty by engaging students and empowering communities. Chaz lead the impact assessment of the organization’s Uganda Nut Sheller project and his senior thesis, on the marketing decisions of Ugandan coffee farmers, won him highest honors from the economics department at UNC. Chaz sits on the board of advisors for Nourish and is active in outreach, strategy and program development. Chaz currently resides in Washington, D.C. and works for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in their civil finance division.
Workshops
The panelists will also conduct workshops focusing on specific ways to get involved in various areas of global development. Through these workshops, participants will leave the conference with the ability to take action.
Workshop schedules are forthcoming.
Keynote Speaker
Jonathan Jacoby
Jacoby specializes in international trade, globalization,
sustainable development, and other economic issues. He has appeared on CNN, CNBC, and PBS. Jacoby has worked at the Center for American Progress and at Oxfam America to address the impact of declining commodity prices on developing economies. His efforts related to the global coffee trade contributed to the passage of legislation, U.S. membership in a multilateral organization, Procter & Gamble and Dunkin Donuts offerings of Fair Trade Certified coffee, and the creation of the national group United Students for Fair Trade. Jacoby has traveled to over 40 countries throughout Africa,
Latin America, Europe, and Asia and is fluent in Spanish. He holds a B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard and an M.B.A. and Master’s of International Affairs from Columbia.
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