Students sponsor AID events at Georgetown and NYU

Students sponsor AID events at Georgetown and NYU

by Katie Xiao
Outstanding Student Leaders Digest (published by AIDemocracy.org)
August 3, 2006

One of AID’s most successful co-sponsors in 2006 is Georgetown student Jessica Remington, who first learned about Americans for Informed Democracy from a classmate who had attended an AID leadership workshop about organizing campus events. Upon contacting AID about the possibility of co-sponsoring an event with her organization OneWorld Youth Project, Remington was immediately struck by how approachable and structured the organization was.

“AID values the opinions and random e-mails from university students,” said Remington. “AID also really builds community through networks and e-mail updates and uses very smart tools to drive that community into action.”

With their common focus on global inequity and the Millennium Development Goals, OneWorld Youth Project and AID successfully co-sponsored a stimulating day of workshops at Georgetown that was entitled “The Look Beyond Summit.”

Remington became involved with the OneWorld Youth Project in 2004, when she traveled overseas to establish learning partnerships and to exchange documentaries with 35 schools in Africa and Asia. Outside of OneWorld Youth Project, she is also involved with the UNICEF organization at Georgetown, one of the other sponsors of the summit.

Remington will be a sophomore this fall at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. She is considering a culture and politics major, with a concentration on Africa. Although she developed a social justice outlook from an early age, she was never involved with nonprofit work until she joined the Jane Goodall Institute in middle school and attended a world summit on sustainable development in South Africa. “It completely changed my life,” said Remington.

New York University graduate student Sultan Torshkhoev was so successful at sponsoring an AID event—bringing in more than 600 participants to a conference on the Millennium Development Goals—that he was asked to sponsor another AID event shortly after, during which he brought in another 250. Torshkhoev first heard about AID when AID was accepting applications for the conference on Global Poverty at Yale University. Since international development is his future career interest, Torshkhoev was intrigued by the event on global poverty and hoped to meet like-minded people with whom he could share knowledge and experiences. He was also impressed by AID’s structure and organization, which he said is rare among non-profit organizations that are managed by students.

At the Yale event, Torshkhoev met several young people from universities across the country who were passionate and enthusiastic about global issues and wanted to contribute to the AID’s mission. AID gave them an opportunity to exchange contact information and made them feel prepared organize an event of their own on Millennium Development Goals at NYU’s campus.

“Despite being one of the most groundbreaking and innovative program developed by UN in recent history that could change the lives of millions around the world, we found that many people are not aware of the subject matter,” said Torshkhoev about the MDGs. He hoped that the event would bring awareness of the MDGs to the minds and hearts of the young people studying at different universities who will shape the future of the world. The whole process of the event preparation was a great experience for Torshkhoev, who said it helped him develop communication and negotiation skills, as well as learn how to work with a team.

“The whole process was a purely team effort with everyone in the organization committee fulfilling the assigned roles in a timely and efficient manner,” said Torshkhoev.

AID contacted him this Spring to ask if he would be interested in organizing an event at NYU’s campus dedicated to fighting the spread of AIDS. He immediately agreed. His advice to students who are considering organizing events on campus is to be really passionate and dedicated to the goal and objectives. “Once you have that, you can overcome any obstacle you may encounter,” said Torshkhoev.

Torshkhoev is a graduate student at the New York University Wagner School of Public Service. He is expecting to graduate in May 2007 with a Master’s degree in Health Policy and Management with an International specialization. Prior to NYU, he attended medical school in Russia and worked at military and civilian hospitals in Chechnya for 4 years, an experience that created his interest in International Development and Social Justice.

To complement his classwork with community activities, he served on the board of the NYU Public Health Alliance last year and founded a NYU student group with four of his classmates this year that promotes, advocates and educates people about Global Health issues.

Before coming to USA, he traveled primarily in Europe. He hopes to extend his travel experience to Africa and Asia. His specific future career goals include Health Care Delivery and Public Health.