CCNY’s eight Clinton Fellows tackle education at Clinton Global Initiative

This year’s Clinton Global Initiative University meeting at the University of Chicago, Oct. 19-21, attracts more than 1,000 innovative student leaders from around the world for a conference themed “Turning Ideas into Action.” The participants include eight of The City College of New York’s best and brightest – all but one from the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership -- invited to attend after earning Clinton Fellowships in the spring.

CCNY’s eight Clinton Fellows -- three of them from the Class of 2018 -- and their majors are:

• Khandker Ahamed, CUNY BA, Division of Humanities and the Arts;
• Raneem Elsayed,  history/international studies;
• Jessica Jorge, psychology/international studies, Class of 2018;
• Mahmoud Khedr, CUNY BA;
• Nancy Larcher, history/political science, Class of 2018;         
• Swathi Mettela, anthropology;
• Faria Tasnim, international studies/sociology, Class of 2018; and
• Danny Tsoi, economics.

Of any of the five focus areas they are required to commit to at the Clinton event, the CCNY delegation will tackle education. Environment and climate change, peace and human rights, poverty alleviation, and public health are the other topics.    

Ahamed, Tsoi and Khedr will talk about their Zahn Innovation Center award-winning mental health education curriculum for high school students developed by their student start-up FloraMind. It is designed to promote self-care and break the stigma around mental health. It won the $25,000 Zahn Social Impact Prize.

Elsayed will discuss how she teaches design thinking to high school students. The goal is for them to pass the concept on to elementary students.  

Jorge will introduce “Uxakah Learn,” an afterschool program for girls to empower them to speak about social justice issues in their communities.

And Larcher, Mettela and Tasnim will share research on their oral history program at CCNY to explore the lives of students at the diverse campus.

More than $750,000 in funding will be available to select CGI U 2018 students to help them turn their ideas into action.

About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its role at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. In addition, the Center for world University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.2% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight professional schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself.  View CCNY Media Kit.