Edwards says America has a responsbility to help solve global problems

4/20/08As the keynote speaker at the inaugural Millennium Campus Conference Friday at MIT, John Edwards told nearly 1,000 students from all over the country that America has an "opportunity" and a "responsibility" to set a positive example for the rest of the world in battling global problems.

The former North Carolina senator and Democratic presidential candidate said America needs to show the rest of the world that we are committed to working with other nations to solve the world's major problems, such as poverty, disease and global warming.

"The rest of the world has to view America as a country that is linked in a commonality of interest," Edwards said. "Because when they see us that way, when they don't see us behaving the way America has been behaving, then they respond in a very different way. And they're receptive," he said.

Edwards said for change to truly happen, Americans need to realize that the problems facing others around the world have a direct effect on lives here, and will then be committed to the cause.

"If [Americans] get and hear that what happens in central Africa, what happens in the Middle East, what happens in Asia, in all these places, are directly connected with their prosperity, with their security, with their children's future, then they will support what needs to be done," Edwards said.

The former senator added that America needs a "visionary" president who is willing to take on these serious global crises. He did not mention who that person should be however. With his home state's Democratic primary fast approaching on May 6, Edwards still has not endorsed a candidate.

Edwards' speech kicked-off the weekend-long conference which included a series of speakers, panel discussions, workshops, movie screenings, and musical performances, all aimed at raising awareness and educating students on the issue of global poverty.

Sharing the opening ceremony spotlight with Edwards was Henrietta Fore, the first female Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Other noteworthy speakers on hand for the conference included Dr. Paul Farmer, founding director of "Partners in Health," an international charitable organization that provides health care for those living in poverty around the world, and Ira Magaziner, a senior policy advisor for President Bill Clinton.

In addition, Grammy-award winning recording artist John Legend teamed up with economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, as part of "Show me: the poverty action tour," on Sunday afternoon, when students were treated to a discussion about global poverty and a musical performance.

The Millennium Campus Conference was the result of almost a year of planning by the Millennium Campus Network (MCN), an entirely student-run organization that links student groups from seven Boston-area schools which are engaged in projects to reduce extreme poverty in the world, keeping in line with the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MGDs). These goals were designed to find solutions and direct activist efforts in fighting global poverty, AIDS, and improving education in underdeveloped countries by the year 2015. Each member group of the MCN functions independently but works together on larger projects like the conference.

The organization was founded last August by two Brandeis University students, Sam Vaghar, a senior from Newton, Mass., and Seth Werfel, a sophomore from New York City. Both students are members of the "Positive Foundations" group at Brandeis, a student-run organization committed to making global poverty an academic and political priority. Through working with the Brandeis group and also at summer internships with well-known nonprofit agencies, the two began to envision the possibility of connecting like-minded student groups at other colleges, and how a national student campaign might operate, Vaghar said

"We decided, let's give it a shot. The idea was basically that there was this void, this lack of connection between students across the country, and we wanted to help fill it. And people have really responded positively," said Vaghar.

Werfel said he and Vaghar realized a unified effort is much stronger than a fragmented one, and with all of the colleges in the Boston area, there were bound to be other student groups nearby who might want to join forces.

"Boston is the biggest college hub in the country, and we were pretty sure there would a number of other groups at universities in the Boston area that were doing exactly the same thing. And it would have been a huge waste of resources to continue to work individually at our own schools as opposed to working together," Werfel said.

The idea to put together the Millenium Campus Conference came after Vaghar and Werfel reached out to Anne Liu, a senior at MIT, who was putting together a student activist group at her school called the Global Poverty Initiative. Liu already had plans to hold a conference at MIT with her own group, but said she was excited for the Global Poverty Initiative to be a part of the MCN, and so they teamed up to form a larger conference. Funding for the conference was provided mostly by the Global Poverty Initiative and other groups and departments at MIT, Vaghar said.

Both Vaghar and Liu said they hope the students who attend the conference will use the information and contacts they acquire throughout the weekend and put it to real use.

"We want to make sure people make a commitment to fighting global poverty and really stick to it," Liu said. "People are going to be learning so much, and we want them to take that knowledge and turn it into action plans for next year."

"This is just the beginning. What we're trying to do is build a national student network, a national student dialogue where students are sharing ideas with each other, and also a national movement where we can impact public policy. So, the conference is just an introduction, and a fun one at that," Vaghar said.

Vaghar said he expects the Millennium Campus Conference will become an annual event, and also that the MCN is in the process of becoming a certified 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. That would make them eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions in the future.