[515] MTSU Students Take Part In Conference Led By President Clinton

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 21, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-898-2919, or lrollins@mtsu.edu

MTSU STUDENTS TAKE PART IN CONFERENCE LED BY PRESIDENT CLINTON
MTSU Students Help Create Project Proposal to Aid Rural Poor in Nepal

(MURFREESBORO)—A team of MTSU students was recently invited from more than 4,000 applicants to attend Clinton Global Initiative University 2010, a forum created by President Bill Clinton that encourages the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world to take action on global challenges.
MTSU students Mary Lane Poe of Murfreesboro and Milan, Tenn., native Jesse Rawls, along with organizational communications major Becca Wilson of La Vergne, were among 1,300 students from 50 states and 83 countries who attended the April 16-18 event, known as CGIU, where they represented the first team of MTSU students to be invited. Jason Goodrich, a 2009 MTSU graduate with a bachelor’s degree in political science, served as the team’s leader.
“Attending this conference was one of the most beneficial experiences I’ve had in college,” Poe said. “The speakers and panels had spot-on discussions about pressing issues and the chance to network with so many proactive individuals from all over the world.”
The University of Miami in Coral Gables served as the host site for the conference, which focused on five global challenge areas: education, environment and climate change, peace and human rights, poverty alleviation, and public health.
Clinton kicked off the three-day conference by speaking with panelists Sam Adelburg, founder of microlender LendforPeace.org; U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin; Grammy-winning producer Pharrell Williams; and Robyn Allen, who represented a team of university researchers developing cars capable of more than 100 miles per gallon.
During the event, students were given the opportunity to participate in thematic panels and working group sessions on such topics as world education, environmental awareness, water security and scarcity, and ongoing humanitarian efforts in Haiti.
“I hope that other MTSU students have the chance to attend this conference in the future and I encourage professors to have their students submit a commitment each year,” said Rawls, who was excited to be among the first MTSU students to attend.
The students were selected to attend CGIU based on their proposal to improve public education in rural Nepal, a project of the student organization Humans in Crisis of MTSU, which is affiliated with the charity known as Humans in Crisis International Corporation. HICIC was begun in 2003 by Dr. Hari Garbharran of MTSU’s geosciences faculty.
At the time of the conference, May 2010 graduates Poe and Rawls were seniors majoring in international relations in MTSU’s political science department.
Dr. Stephen Morris, political science chairman, said, “I am so glad the department and the university could facilitate Mary Lane Poe and Jesse Rawls' participation in the Clinton Global Initiative. No doubt this type of experience broadens our students’ horizons, lights a fire, helps them network and pushes them forward.”
“HICIC and the MTSU political science department made certain our team participated at CGIU,” Rawls noted.
The MTSU team members have applied for a $12,500 CGI Outstanding Commitment Award to implement their education-based project with HICIC.



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• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To request interviews with Dr. Hari Garbharran or recent MTSU student participants, please contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at MTSU at 615-494-8857 or via e-mail at lrollins@mtsu.edu.

With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.