News
Students in the News:
Samantha Wilson, a junior Global Studies major and Religious Studies minor organized the first World Benefit at UCR last year when she was a CHASS senator for the Associated Students of UCR. That event raised nearly $1,500 for Human Rights Watch and its campaign to aid women in Darfur who were separated from their homes and families. She was active in this year's festival, which raised $2,500 for UNICEF’s campaign against malaria. (http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1813).
She was also active in the Clinton Global Initiative University last
month. (http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1778). This event, a new project of the Clinton Global Initiative, requires college students to make commitments that tackle global problems with practical, innovative solutions. Samantha was one of three UCR students to attend. Her project, the “Child Leader Project," is a partnership between herself and Activists for Social Alternatives-Grama Vidiyal (ASAGV), a South Indian micro finance institution in Tamil Nadu. Together, Samantha will form a team of UCR students to work with staff from ASAGV for a “Leadership Program" designed for students who were formerly child laborers at a school sponsored by the micro finance institution.
This project has recently received $10,000 of funding from the Donald Strauss Scholarship Foundation. (To see more details about this project and other projects sponsored by UCR attendees of CGIU, click here: http://www.honors.ucr.edu/CGIU.htm.)
Samantha has participated in the UC Education Abroad Program in India and is looking forward to returning to the subcontinent this summer and winter to conduct her project. This experience will also be the primary source of her Honors Program Upper Division Thesis Project: her field work and research will examine the social impacts of micro finance institutions, and the particular issues for those institutions in South India with an emphasis on feminist perspectives of the micro finance movement.
Upon graduation from UCR, Samantha intends to commit time working abroad in the Peace Corps prior to pursuing further education in international development or human rights law. When asked why she chose the Global Studies program at UCR, she replied, “Although I originally thought political science would provide me the best route for making a difference, I realized that really being equipped to make global social change requires understanding and immersing oneself in language, religion, history, and culture. The Global Studies department knows this and encourages students to become global citizens through these explorations."
