Global Symposium raises awareness

Seminar informs community, university about ‘Putting a Face on Poverty’

A three-day global citizenship symposium took place on campus fromFeb. 7 to Feb 9. The International Education Center, the American Democracy Project, Office of Academic Affairs, Office of Student Affairs, the Student Government Association, and the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity collaborated with campus groups to organize the event.The theme for this year’s symposium was Putting a Face on Poverty with all speakers, events and panels focusing on the root causes of and solutions to global and local poverty.

The symposium was kicked off on Monday with a musical performance as well as a panel discussion and keynote address by New York Times columnist and author of “India Calling: an Intimate Portrait of a Nation’s Rebuilding,” Anand Giridharadas. Giridharadas spoke to the crowd Monday night about his book and what he feels are some of the ways global poverty in affecting people—specifically in India. He drew on his experiences growing up in Cleveland, Oh., and moving to India to write about life, culture, politics and poverty in the country his parents had left.

“Exposure to the world is the new Master’s degree,” Giridaradas said.Giridaradas feels that Americans need to be shapers of the world and encouraging the crowd to travel and collect global experience and knowledge.

Tuesday’s events consisted of panel discussions with Georgia College faculty such as history professor William Risch and sociology professor Stephanie McClure as well professionals including Rick Perera who served as a press officer for C.A.R.E. Tuesday’s keynote speaker was Jeremy Enriquez who serves as a consultant for development issues in Belize. Attendants to Tuesday evening’s events viewed a performance of “In the Blood” and “Good Fortune,” a documentary exposing the problems involved with sending international aid to Africa.

Wednesday marked the end of the symposium, welcoming Derreck Kayongo, an advocacy field coordinator from C.A.R.E., who spoke about his experience as a Ugandan refugee in Kenya and the importance of American advocacy on behalf of developing communities. Kayongo urged the crowd to use their skills to change the realities of global poverty and to understand the effects of their choices on the global south.

Gregg Kaufman, coordinator of Civic Engagement Projects and the American Democracy Project, has been meeting with organizers every other week to arrange speakers, events and the schedule for the symposium.

“We have spent about a year working on it—we started just after the symposium last year,” Kaufman said. “It was a very collaborative process—very grassroots.”

Kaufman explains that the theme was chosen to illuminate the realities of poverty on a global skill that includes central Georgia.

“There are a number of Georgia College community partnerships here that receive funding from federal, state and private projects addressing root causes of poverty,” Kaufman said.

Senior Spanish major Meredith Carpenter is one of more than 1,000 students who attended the symposium events.

“I think the symposium gave me a better worldview and helped me understand what our role is coming out of college as global citizens. I feel like I learned a lot about issues in the world that we might think don’t affect us even though they actually do,” Carpenter said.

Kaufman has already begun working with campus organizations to work on next year’s symposium which will focus on global health.

Posted by Mandy Boddy on Feb 10 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.