Leebron serves as panelist at Clinton Global Institute

By Catherine Bratic     3/20/08 7:00pm

Inspired by his experiences over spring break, President David Leebron is encouraging students to step up and use their education to find solutions to global problems.Last weekend, Leebron joined other presidents and students from universities across the country at the inaugural meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University at Tulane University. The three-day event focused on how students can make a worldwide difference in the areas of energy and climate change, human rights and peace, global health and poverty alleviation.

It consisted of eight sessions in which students and guests were divided into small discussion groups and given the opportunity to pose questions to notable panelists.

Leebron served as a panelist for an event titled, "Promoting Human Rights: Protecting the Rights of Women Through Empowerment." He appeared alongside James Carville, a pundit and political commentator who moderated the panel, Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, the founder of Leadership Effectiveness Accountability Professionalism Africa, and Zainab Salbi, the president of Women for Women International.

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"One of the things I mentioned to the panel was some of the work of a student group on-campus at Rice, the Engineers Without Borders program, and their work to build facilities to make water more accessible in developing villages," Leebron said. "That makes a big difference, particularly in the lives of women."

Leebron also stressed the importance of getting young men involved in such work.

CGIU is aimed at enabling students to use their potential to affect worldwide change. Although the event was attended by a number of high-profile guests, including 30 university presidents and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Leebron said the event is designed for students.

"The presence and participation of the university presidents at this gathering was much less important than the presence and participation of the students from universities across the country," Leebron said.

Rice is also involved in the Clinton Global Initiative through the Rice 360ø institute, which issued a progress report at the CGIU. The institute, headed by Rice bioengineering professor Rebecca Richards-Kortum, was established last September to encourage technological developments to address health concerns in the developing world.

"What we took away was a much better understanding of the potential of students and what a broad range of young people are doing, achieving amazing things in the world," Leebron said.

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