NEWSBYRYAN PEDERSON

This is the third post in Ryan Pederson's "Education Entrepreneur" series.

Over the last several months, the financial crisis has ravaged organizations around the world, causing businesses, non-profits, and universities alike to trim down to the bare essentials as they scrambling to make ends meet. Working in global education in this environment, I have often asked: Should universities put global service immersions on hold for a while as we buckle down during the financial crisis?

At Northwestern, we've watched as the crisis has made it harder and harder for students to pursue their passions and spend the money to live, work, and learn abroad. Astronomical interest in our Global Engagement Summer Institute had us preparing to handle 100 students, but come June, we'll be sending at best a lean total of 45 eager learners to Uganda, India, and Argentina to work on community development projects.

At the same time, the Northwestern endowment took a huge hit (close to 30%), spending cuts were seen all over the university, and with it, any hope for continued support from our provost for the Center for Global Engagement, even though we've more than doubled our output.

I completely understand that most families simply cannot spend $9,000 for a summer study abroad program-even when it gives several credits-and that financial aid budgets have been hit hard. But here are six reasons why we need universities to prioritize global education, especially in this economic climate:

1. Tomorrow's global leaders need a perspective of global collaboration greater than today's. I saw more positive cross-cultural collaboration on my team in Kampala three years ago when three Midwesterners, a Singaporean, and an Indian-American worked with Ugandans of several ethnicities to develop a youth education program than I see in managing our global financial crisis.

2. We need a greater global conscientiousness. Tomorrow's leaders can't follow the path of turning towards protectionism in the midst of crisis, and must develop a sense of how self-centered decisions made in halls of power can cause negative ripples throughout the world. This greater global conscientiousness grows quite quickly and deeply when living and working in a developing country.

3. Prevent panic! We can't get into a pattern where some of our smartest, most passionate future change agents panic and scramble for any corporate internship they can find instead of following their passions and channeling their energy towards social good. I've seen that trend amongst a handful of my students already.

4. Social entrepreneurship is crucially important now, and it starts early. Nathaniel often speaks of the entrepreneur's role of moving resources from areas of low yield to high yield. We've never had a time when that's more necessary. Good social entrepreneurs don't just develop overnight though. Some of our best young social entrepreneurs got their start in college-just look at Mark Hanis or Kjerstin Erickson. Global education has been a springboard for many of our students-a quarter have gone back abroad to spearhead additional projects after a summer in Uganda.

5. We need to learn resilience. We have a lot to learn from people who have lived in economic (and political) instability for decades. Life story interviews with Ugandans shaped my view of what it means to live resiliently through turmoil. Nathaniel's interview with Elmira Bayrasli from Endeavor reveals a similar point.

6. Universities have an essential niche as students struggle to find jobs. Many students are looking for ways to gain skills or enhance their marketability, and are turning to volunteer work to do so. Universities need to capitalize on this. The Foundation for Sustainable Development has seen their applicant pools rise in this downturn, and I got multiple emails from friends this week looking for international volunteer opportunities. Instead of pulling funding out of essential programs, schools like NU need to dig into the endowment a bit, and actually prioritize the dramatic learning that happens as when student live, learn, and do good in other communities.

We can't be short-sighted on this issue. Even in the midst of turmoil, universities need to claim their role as institutions that shape our future generations and societies-few programs do that as well as cross-cultural immersions.

I had a great time at the Clinton Global Initiative University conference two weekends ago down in Austin, TX and appreciated the steps that the CGI U staff has taken to improve the value that it adds to students and universities in the last year.

At the end of the conference, Bill Clinton announced that CGI U has partnered with Pat Tilman Foundation and the Wal-Mart Foundation to make available a total of $400,000 for 2009 student and student group commitments. If I were Bill Clinton, and I were working with $400,000-not to mention his incredible network-here's what I would do and say:

Thank you all for coming this weekend. It has been an inspiring one for me to see hundreds of passionate and determined people working to do their part to help our country and world overcome a challenging time. Throughout this weekend, I have stressed that it is of the utmost importance to apply critical thought and dedication to figuring out how to turn your commitments into action. A bunch of talk about commitments at a conference is not worth much if they don't translate into real, effective, responsible action.

So, with the help of the CGI U staff and the generous support of the Pat Tilman Foundation and the Wal-Mart Foundation, I'm going to do my part. Listen up-this is exciting stuff:

On the student-level, we've created a small grant and seed venture fund for student commitments. We will make $75,000 available for student commitment grants ranging from $1,000-$10,000. We will then make another $75,000 available in interest-free seed capital for budding social enterprises or socially conscious businesses like Tom's Shoes. These grants and venture funds will do two things: they will catalyze ready-to-implement commitments that otherwise are gridlocked by lack of seed capital, and they will serve as an investment in the social innovation of the grant-winners themselves.

To further this investment in young social innovators-which is part of my whole intent with CGI U-our CGI U team will match grant-winners with sector-specific mentors from within my larger network who can help you develop and refine your commitment and provide advice and connections in the implementation process.

I won't stop there, though. As part of the award, students must then pay forward that same mentorship by working with five other commitment makers.  Soon we'll have 40 grants catalyzing and adding value to a total of 200 great commitment ideas that are brewing right here.

And I'll go further. I've said many times here that one of the most challenging questions of taking a commitment to action is the "how" question. Our skill sessions have started to address that question, but they were just a start. Students developing commitments need a place where they can develop their capacity to translate good intentions and ideas into responsible change.  These training forums already exist. So, we will provide $10,000, as well as significant non-financial support, for two premier student-run training conferences that focus on this "how to" part of the puzzle. And on the university level, we will provide support and matching seed funding up to $20,000 for four schools that develop innovative approaches to experiential learning. Our support will ensure that students around the country get great training in turning their ideas into action.

Now I want to turn my focus to an idea that really excites me. A lot of knowledge exists right here, in these seats. You all should be able to work together, create partnerships, and share knowledge to enhance one another's commitments. To foster this, my team is going to develop a tool called the Clinton Connector that will help to unlock and harness the power of the social capital that exists right here in this community. The Clinton Connector will focus on what others can contribute to your commitment, and what you can contribute to others. Imagine this: through the Clinton Connector, a CGI U student working to develop a fair trade network in Thailand in need of web development can find another CGI U student who specializes in just that. Or an NGO developing best practices in microfinance in East Africa can build a core group of collaborators in the region as well as draw expertise from others who have had success in South Asia. A water project in Honduras in need of an assistant program manager? It would be pretty easy to find two seniors at CGI U looking to apply their skill sets after college. The potential for connections across sectors and regions is endless.

To foster some of this type of collaboration, CGI U will award up to three grants totaling $150,000 to catalyze innovative cross-sector commitments between universities, NGOs, businesses, and/or government. It is through these multi-sector commitments that we will together bring wide positive changes in our world.

This weekend has been a thrill for me. But I'm more excited to see how these opportunities can help you all translate your great ideas into meaningful action.

Ryan Pederson is the Campus Director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement and writes the bi-weekly column "Education Entrepreneur." Questions about the CGI U Outstanding Commitment Awards (open to non-CGI U participants too!) should be directed to : cgiu.applicant@clintonglobalinitiative.org

A partnership that did work, Ryan with Moses, a Global Youth Partnership for Africa peer educator in Namuwongo, Kampala, Uganda

This is the first post in a new column called "Education Entrepreneur," written by Ryan Pederson of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement

The community based organization seemed ideal for hosting a team of six motivated students for a summer of development work: A strong board of directors, several passionate staff, strong community connections, an office at the heart of Gulu, Uganda, and core competencies in many relevant development fields.

And yet a couple weeks in, hours of confusing talking-in-circles meetings under their belt, and an embarrassing experience of being asked to teach local Ugandans how to farm, our students realized that the partnership had turned out to be a complete flop. This organization's strong community connections were dozens of kilometers away. They had no clear mission, no projects for students to build on, and little capacity to start and sustain any newly developed projects.

Failed partnerships such as this one are common in student global engagement, and taught us at the Center for Global Engagement several lessons about what to look for in host organizations.

I am currently traveling through Uganda and India meeting with several community based organizations to select partners for the Northwestern Global Engagement Summer Institute. Our 60-100 students will work in teams of 6 with up to 17 host organizations in Argentina, India, and Uganda. Like most placements or partnerships, a few criteria are key to ensuring that students and organizations have a positive, value-added relationship.

Having learned from our early mistakes, I will be looking for the following:

1. Mission Specialization: Does the organization have a clear mission and activities?
2. Student Added Value: Does the type of activity have possibilities for students to add value?
3. Community Connections: Does the organization have deep connections where the students will work?
4. Organization Capacity: Are there several full time staff and ongoing programs that students can build upon?
5. Communication: Will the organization communicate well with students and program staff?

These characteristics are essential for a strong partnership that facilitates the realization of key goals of our program: students learning about development while enhancing what already exists in a way that impacts the community and builds the organization's long-term capacity.

In the world of global engagement education many, many student projects fall apart (or can't even start) because of poorly selected partnerships. It is not uncommon for the host organization and student interns to have widely differing conceptions of what the experience should/can be. Or for the host organization to be something completely different than what it pitched itself as-whether online, through brochures, or through a charming director's sales pitch. That's why the vetting process for partners is so important for us, as I can imagine it is in any other sector.