Best of 2013: Students Attend CGIU

Omaha – It was a special year for UNO in 2013 with countless events, achievements, special guest visits and national recognitions for students, faculty, staff and alumni.

The year was particularly special for graduate student Sister Rosemary Arrah and undergraduate students Benadette Ngamelue and Larisa Akah, who earned a trip to the 2013 Clinton Global Initative University (CGIU) conference in St. Louis. Started in 2007 by former president Bill Clinton, the CGIU conference is held annually for university students to share projects and ideas that can help shape the world's future.

All natives of Cameroon, a poverty-stricken country in Central Africa, Arrah, Ngamelue and Akah proposed a project that would help bring a library to youth in Cameroon.

“Books are very expensive; parents would rather buy food for their children than books,” Akah explained. “We believe that the children are willing to read, they only need access to books and opportunity.”

After the conference, the project continued with approximately 5,000 additional books being donated in addition to the 8,000 that were in place by the time the conference was held. Many of those books are now in two school libraries in Cameroon with a goal of creating four more libraries, including one in Nigeria, by the end of 2014.

In order to help the cause, Arrah and several other students will be submitting another commitment to action for CGIU 2014 for the creation of the three more libraries in Cameroon and one in Nigeria. Decisions on which proposals are selected should be made shortly with the conference taking place in April, this time in Phoenix.

More information about the cause can be found at http://www.readingdrive.org.

Related Links:

Omaha World-Herald Story on CGIU Visit
KETV Story on CGIU Visit
CGIU Conference Website

Previous 'Best of 2013':
Regents Approve Arena