Seven Clinton School students will travel to St. Louis April 5-7 to attend the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU), which brings together students and innovators to pitch ideas to address challenges facing their campuses and communities across the world.
Modeled on the annual Clinton Global Initiative hosted by President Clinton in New York, CGIU attendees make Commitments to Action to address issues such as education, environment and climate change, human rights, poverty alleviation and public health.
The participating Clinton School students and their commitments are below:
Britney Sink (’13) and Dylan Perry (’13)
– Sink and Perry will develop and implement an educational workshop to immerse young people from Central Arkansas in traditional folk knowledge. With a purpose to inform and engage youth in conversations about local food, cooking and preserving, and to expose participants to food issues in a fun and non-threatening way, the workshop will gather knowledgeable members of the community to demonstrate their crafts and hold participatory presentations.
Stephen Bailey (’13)
– With the support of Teach for America alumni, Bailey will work with students at Clarendon High School in the Arkansas Delta to create a park festival and legacy program at a community park to encourage the local residents to take ownership of the park and decrease crime in the area.
John Delurey (’14)
– Delurey will work to build awareness about rural renewable energy electrification initiatives in Zanzibar, Tanzania. He will highlight the short- and long-term benefits of renewable energy development and advocate for further rural electrification and domestic energy policy that will facilitate “leapfrogging” the centralized, fossil fueled electrical grid.
Jenna Rhodes (’14)
– Rhodes will develop the Little Rock Fish Garden project, an integrated system of elevated soilless gardens and fishponds, in three school classrooms. Ideally, the gardens will be built from discarded and repurposed items that can be easily found. The Fish Gardens will be used for education, food production and skills training.
Aliyah Sarkar (’14)
– Sarkar will create “women’s colleges” to help Saudi women in the United States access educational options that are compatible to their family values. Sarkar will develop an online forum to acclimate and understand the cities and towns where Saudi women live and learn from what former students have experienced.
Andre Breaux (’14)
– Breaux will develop a short lesson on spoken-word poetry for high school English, civics, drama or other teachers to implement in their classes. Materials will consist of a week of lesson plans, high quality multimedia slides, handouts and a toolkit for showcasing the students’ work. A theme of the lesson is “Spread the Word!” because Breaux believes everyone has the responsibility to share their experiences and understandings and such empowerment will promote active democracy and social justice.
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