CGI U selects 29 ASU students to attend 2015 event
The 2015 Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) has selected 29 Arizona State University students to advance at the annual conference, which will be held this year on March 6-8 at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.
The annual CGI U conference is a highly anticipated event that convenes over 1,000 students from over 300 colleges and 80 countries. Hosted at ASU in 2014, CGI U provides selected undergraduate and graduate students with opportunities to engage with topic experts, renowned leaders and celebrities through interactive workshops and plenary sessions.
Of the 29 ASU students selected to attend this year’s CGI U, 12 are graduate students and 17 are undergraduate students. They represent over 18 different majors and nine colleges, including the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. For fourteen of these students, this is their first time being invited to attend the conference.
To attend, students must pass a competitive selection process by submitting compelling solutions, called Commitments to Action, to today’s most pressing issues in one of five focus areas: education; environment and climate change; peace and human rights; poverty alleviation; and public health. Students must also explain how their Commitments to Action are new, specific and measureable.
Andrew Ninh, an online student studying electrical engineering, shared how his life experiences inspired his Commitment to Action, called DocBot. “DocBot’s story began when I spent my graduation in the ICU of a local children’s hospital because my lung collapsed,” explains Ninh. “During my recovery, I spent time thinking of ways in which the health care process and delivery of care may be individualized and optimized.”
Last summer, DocBot was selected to the Microsoft Idea Camp accelerator program, during which Ninh and his team engaged in market validation by interviewing several physicians and gathering enough information to build customized software programs around the physicians’ needs.
CGI U invites students to propose projects that would affect one’s local community, as well as projects that may have a more global reach. Bernard Jere, a MasterCard Foundation Scholar studying Global Agribusiness in the W. P. Carey School of Business, shares that his Commitment to Action, XPRI-EMPOWER, will socially and economically empower ex-prisoners of correctional facilities in Malawi.
“I am inspired by ASU's mission of creating value and impact for the global community it serves,” says Jere. “I am glad to be both a beneficiary and an agent of that mission.”
The CGI U conference is held annually each spring, and offers selected students the opportunity to network, build skills and collaborate with like-minded and passionate individuals from around the world.
With their sights set for Miami this March, the CGI U Sun Devils will take part in a proud tradition of bringing great ideas into action.