MTV Newsroom › Kim Stolz

At CGI U, 'Drug Dealers' Are Helping Get Medicine To Poor Countries

Posted 3/15/08 9:39 pm EST by in Clinton Global Initiative

More than 700 students, dozens of community leaders, activists and academics gathered in the Fogelman Arena at Tulane University this evening to hear former President Bill Clinton give the day's closing remarks, and to hear about the latest commitments made by the participants of CGI U.

Clinton said that in the past three years, the Clinton Global Initiative has made 1,000 commitments that have affected 100 countries. Over time, he said, "we were struck by how much energy we had coming in every year from young people." So CGI U was born.

On this first full day of CGI U, we have already met so many young people with ideas large and small, all aimed at helping to solve some of the world's biggest problems. Here are just a few of the ideas that have inspired us so far:

At a press conference earlier today, Clinton honored Julie Carney, a senior at Yale, for her commitment. She is a co-founder of Artemis, a project that will preserve history by digitizing and archiving the findings of truth commissioners so that, in the future, we will be able to dig up facts on human-rights atrocities so that they can be dealt with accordingly.

On a more local level, we also met DJ, a Tulane student who was handicapped after an accident in 2002. DJ survived, but with severe brain damage. His commitment is to further expand campus recycling efforts here at Tulane. He told us that although he is now handicapped, his gratitude for survival and new appreciation for life have made him want to give back, and he has become one of the most active leaders of student recycling efforts here at Tulane.

Read More...

Tags , , , ,

Bill Clinton, Students Both Inspire At Global Initiative Meeting

Posted 3/15/08 4:31 pm EST by in Clinton Global Initiative

At 1 a.m. this morning, I put the top back up on my rented pretty aqua-blue Mustang convertible, with sand still in my shoes from the past five days, during which I had been covering mtvU spring break '08 in Panama City Beach, Florida. The six-hour drive took me through the beautiful beach town of Destin, FL, through desolate roads in Alabama and Mississippi, before finally arriving in New Orleans, the site of the inaugural meeting of CGI U, the college wing of the Clinton Global Initiative.

After a few hours of sleep, we arrived on the campus of Tulane University and immediately into a room where President Clinton was giving his introductory speech. "This is, I hope, the beginning of a movement," Clinton told the room, explaining that "it's not enough to turn people away from destructive behavior. You haver to turn them towards constructive behavior." It was a call to arms to the 700 students at CGI U and the millions who are not.

Following his speech, we interviewed several students who had applied and been accepted to the conference. In order to be a part of CGI U, each student has to come ready with a commitment, which ranged from local recycling efforts to ending the conflict in Darfur. Each student had a detailed plan and had already begun implementing it on their campus, and often other campuses as well.

After five days of witnessing students from those same campuses partying at spring break, with water guns in their hands and kegs at their feet, I was struck by the diligence, vivacious creativity and active level of responsibility and duty by the students at CGI U. I was inspired by their projects of such global scale, wondered to myself, "Why didn't I think of that?!"

I am really looking forward to meeting more of the students over the next two days and watching them work together to implement these extremely creative, innovative and, perhaps most importantly, workable ideas. Ill post a little later and report on more of their stories.

Tags , , , ,

Lupe Fiasco, Flo Rida Soak Up Rays At mtvU's Spring Break

Posted 3/13/08 1:02 pm EST by in Flo Rida, lupe fiasco

lupefiasco.jpgDown in Panama City Beach, Florida, mtvU is having its 4th annual Spring Break. Artists like Kid Sister, Lupe Fiasco, Panic at the Disco, Paramore and Flo Rida are all making the trip down here over the next two weeks to perform and partake in the parties. Tuesday night, both Lupe Fiasco and Flo Rida were stuck in Atlanta due to mechanical problems with their airplane. With both scheduled to perform Wednesday, there was panic in the production room.

Luckily, some flights opened up Wednesday morning, and thousands of college students gathered around the stage on the beach at 1 p.m. to hear the first performance: Lupe Fiasco featuring Matthew Santos. Telling the crowd, "This is what a Grammy sounds like," Lupe performed five of his tracks, bringing Santos out for most of them. Afterwards, Lupe and I talked onstage about his new album, The Cool, and how much he likes playing with a full band.

Later on, I was able to catch up with him backstage. While he didn't want to "talk politics," we did talk about his music. I noticed that, between songs, Lupe talked about how sometimes his label asks him to "dumb it down" and stop using so many big words in his lyrics. If you listen to The Cool, you'll find that not only do its tracks have a rich vocabulary, but they also cover a wide range of issues. Lupe told me that "the point" is to make an album that has the music to appeal to a mainstream audience, while at the same time "sneaking" powerful messages into the lyrics. We also talked about his book and Kanye West's "Glow in the Dark" tour, featuring Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and, of course, Lupe himself. Read More...

1234567
SPONSORS
AD:
©2013 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. MTV and all related titles and logos are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.