The efforts of Shawn Humphrey and his students to fight poverty are earning attention far beyond the University of Mary Washington campus.
This spring Humphrey was chosen as one of 30 people to serve as mentor at the three- day Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU), which was held at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
“I got the opportunity to communicate with some really incredible people,” Humphrey said. Among them were a young woman from Afghanistan and a man from the Maasai tribe in Kenya. “I love the idea of being able to connect with a young person who is doing incredible work,” he said. “You can’t buy that.”
CGIU was launched in 2005 by former President Bill Clinton to bring together global leaders and activists to develop and implement solutions for some of the world’s most pressing problems, such as public health, human rights, and poverty. The 2012 session, held for three days in late March, brought together about 1,000 students from around the world for work and skill sessions.
UMW students Sarah Alvarez, Ashley Cameron, Nicole Cochran, Santiago Sueiro, and Daniel Tees also attended the event, which Humphrey called “an incredible networking opportunity.”
Humphrey and a group of students – the TDC team – first were invited to CGIU in 2009, the same year TDC went from being a UMW event to a national initiative.
In 2010, Humphrey and the TDC team attended another summit convened by the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy and the U.S. State Department, where they presented their efforts to involve citizens in fighting poverty and disease. Last year, the TDC team was invited to participate in Clinton Global Initiative University 2011 in San Diego to highlight its first National Month of Microfinance.