April 10, 2009
I arrived, by plane and bus, in Evanston, IL just in time for the opening banquet of the Global Engagement Summit on Wednesday evening. I was instantly surrounded by 80 delegates from around the world, as well as an amazing staff made of Northwestern students. Every turn, I met someone who, on a normal day, I would feel privileged to encounter. All of the delegates have a passion about their project… some projects are in the idea phase, some in planning, and some in implementation phase (ours is somewhere between planning and implementation). All projects are about social development around the world. “Who are you?” “Where are you from?” and “What is your project?” are the questions, and they always result in an amazing conversation.
The opening banquet, where we sat with our assigned “small groups” for the summit, was followed by a keynote address by Nathaniel Whittemore, the founder of GES. I was inspired, as he talked about his hope for the summit, and our generation in general. Prior generations, he said, are accustomed to settling and accepting things the way they are. Our generation is “just naive enough” to not settle. We are aware of injustice, we realize that we are often even a part of the injustice, and we work to overcome it. I encourage you to read the address, found here. “Our obligation is to find our passion, and to unleash the passion of others,” he said. “Our responsibility is to remember that systems of oppression were created by people, and so too can people undo them. Our hope is to never stop believing that we can change the world, because we must.”
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