Category: News

By Jessica Ernandes Naecker

August 21, 2014 | Since University of Texas at Austin held the first business plan competition in 1984, student prize contests spurring social innovation and entrepreneurship have become hugely popular. There are now hundreds of prize contests for undergraduate and graduate students from scores of universities, companies, and nonprofits. A McKinsey & Company report found that funds available for these innovation prizes have been escalating: between 1999 and 2009, the amount of money for the large prizes tripled to exceed $375 million.

But do contests that reward students or others for their society-improving ideas work? Are they worthwhile?

The McKinsey report warned that quantity doesn’t always equal quality, noting there are “many overlapping prizes and growing clutter.” In a 2013 SSIReview.org article, Kevin Starr, director of the Mulago Foundation, went further, calling the prize contests “exploitative.” He argued that the contests waste the time and energy of the applicants who don’t win and fail to provide them with adequate learning experiences.

Although five years old, the McKinsey report provides useful data on how the contests work and don’t work. The McKinsey authors surveyed the organizers of 219 prize contests and reported that they were succeeding in three categories: 1) defining excellence, 2) influencing public perception, and 3) strengthening communities of problem solvers. But they also found that contest organizers felt their competitions were the least successful in educating contest participants.

With this in mind, I spent the last two years studying what UC Berkeley—which has held an annual student innovation competition since 2006—could learn from its own experience and others. Some background about Big Ideas@Berkeley: it’s one of the oldest and most international student innovation prizes; it’s open to graduate and undergraduate students; it has about 10 contest categories—from Clean and Sustainable Energy Alternatives and Financial Literacy, to Global Poverty Alleviation and Information Technology for Society; and it’s increasingly popular. Last year, 187 applications were submitted by more than 600 students.

Big Ideas appears to be attracting students not just for the prize money and the attention the ideas might win, but also for the learning and feedback opportunities the competition provides. As far as I know, it is the only student innovation contest that is organized around a yearlong, academic process. Over the course of the year, students commit to participating in two application rounds, honing their ideas with help from advisors, judges, and mentors. Although some promising startups have emerged from Big Ideas, mostly the contest has introduced young people to project management, leadership, critical thinking, and grant writing—i.e., to the nuts and bolts of social impact organizations.

According to a survey of 187 applicants from the 2013-2014 contest cycle, those who participated in the first round of the contest (most of whom did not move on to the contest’s second round) reported increases “to a great extent” in skill development in areas such as leadership, critical thinking, and project management. For those who made it to the second round, 64 percent of participants expressed the highest level of satisfaction for skill development. In regard to mentoring, 96 percent of participants said having an advisor was either useful or highly useful.

Compare these data to the McKinsey report. Of 48 large-purse contest organizers surveyed, only 35 percent indicated that their contests had been somewhat or significantly successful at educating individuals.

Of course, universities have more resources to help students entering contests than, say, foundations or businesses. They are already in the business of educating students. But as many have pointed out, contests are designed to foster society-improving organizations and the United States doesn’t necessarily need new ones. It certainly doesn’t need more nonprofits. (Guidestar reports there are currently over 2.2 million of them.) What it needs is well-educated civic innovators: people who can work in teams to solve the huge variety of problems the world is presenting to us.

So my advice for those starting new prize contests—especially for students, but ideally for anyone—is simple: include a learning and feedback process. That way, the hundreds, or in some cases, the thousands of applicants who enter your contest have a better chance of making an impact with their idea or, more likely, with someone else’s.

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Jessica Ernandes Naecker is a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, and a graduate student researcher at the Blum Center for Developing Economies.

The 2014 Global Poverty and Practice (GPP) Minor graduation ceremony hosted by the Blum Center for Developing Economies was a celebration of students’ successes, a chance for students and their families to express appreciation for one another, and an opportunity for the GPP Class of 2014 to pledge their shared commitment to poverty action across the world.

This year, seventy-one students representing twenty-five majors graduated from the Minor. At the GPP commencement ceremony on May 21st, Professors Clare Talwalker, Cecilia Lucas, Khalid Kadir, and International Area Studies Director Max Aufhammer distributed certificates to graduating seniors. Faculty and student speakers stressed the need for graduates to challenge deeply rooted assumptions and structures of power, recognize the privilege a college education affords, and ensure that poverty action be firmly rooted in the communities it seeks to serve.

“The work we have done is exhausting, and I hope that it will continue to be, for true change is a process,” shared Bernadette Rabuy, a Political Economy major selected to be the 2014 student commencement speaker. “It is a process that comes about through the countless everyday actions of numerous individuals, everyday actions that are a commitment to a lifestyle that is less comfortable than ignorance or apathy.”

It is this commitment to social change that unites the diverse GPP Class of 2014 as they pursue varied career paths. While some students will be traveling as far as Honduras, China, and Bangladesh to apply their studies through research, teaching, and microfinance work, others will be serving local communities in sectors like public health, labor rights, and food justice. Many others are pursuing traditional careers in business, law, or healthcare, carrying with them the critical perspectives on poverty and inequality that GPP has helped them develop.

The graduates’ dedication to public service and global change-making has garnered numerous accolades. Rebecca Peters, who double majored in Society and Environment and Interdisciplinary Studies, was awarded the University Medal as UC Berkeley’s top graduating student and will pursue graduate studies at the University of Manchester and University of Oxford as both a Marshall and Truman Scholar. Peace and Conflict Studies major Kati Hinman has been named a John Gardner Fellow and will spend the coming year working with an organization focused on community mental health and treatment for trauma survivors. Priyanka Athavale, a double major in Molecular and Cell Biology and Public Health, has been awarded a Fulbright Research Fellowship to continue her studies of barriers to improved nutrition and health practices in urban slum communities in Mumbai, India.

As the newest GPP graduates – members of a new generation of poverty activists and conscientious citizens – leave UC Berkeley behind to face the greatest global challenges of our time, the Blum Center wishes them continued courage, compassion, and humility.

For more photos, visit the GPP Minor Facebook page.

By: James Zhao

November 8, 2013 – Dr. Ananya Roy’s animated voice resonates throughout Wheeler Auditorium as the projector displays a constant stream of tweets from students. A hand is raised on the left side of the lecture hall, then another on the right. Roy hastily walks around, making sure voices are heard. These are the sights and sounds of Roy’s class of 700 students on “Global Poverty: Challenges and Hopes in the New Millennium,” a core course in the Global Poverty and Practice Minor.

These are not the typical lectures your parents remember from their college days. On select days, students in GPP 115 are invited to react to readings, videos, and provocative questions over Twitter, labeling their comments with #GlobalPOV. “Tweeting allows students to participate in the public dialogue around poverty issues—something that classroom discussions don’t usually allow them to do,” said Roy, a Professor of City and Regional Planning, Distinguished Chair in Global Poverty and Practice, and the Education Director for the Blum Center of Developing Economies. As a matter of fact, earlier this fall, class tweets caught the attention of economist Jeffrey Sachs, who sent back words of encouragement to Roy’s students.

Twitter also allows students to express honest and controversial opinions with some degree of anonymity in a class that deals directly with poverty, race, and gender. “Personally, I’m terrified of talking up in a class. 700 is a lot of people,” said Alex Berryhill, a student in Roy’s class. “Through Twitter, students who are not as comfortable with speaking out in class can simply tweet what they would have said anyways.”

Roy strategically schedules tweeting sessions on days when she believes a particular topic will generate a lot of debate. As the tweets come pouring in, it’s clear that students find real freedom of expression in this space. “If the point is gender empowerment why are all the chairmen and CEOs of the Grameen Bank MEN?” demands ‏@madisongordon24. “Why is it that Starbucks is thriving yet the part of Ethiopia where they get their beans from is in famine?” asks @ivn_lo.

With the help of artist Abby Vanmuijen, one of Roy’s former students who had filled her class notebook with drawings of the discussion topics, Roy has launched the #GlobalPOV Project and brought her lectures to life in thought-provoking live-action sketch videos that are posted on YouTube. Each of the videos begins with a question focused on a social or political issue. Will hope end poverty? Who profits from poverty? Can we shop to end poverty?

Roy is now screening these videos in class as a way to connect class readings with real-world controversies and to engage the Millennial Generation, who are used to consuming information this way. The #GlobalPOV Project videos are more than just supplementary material to the class, however; available online for anyone to view, they engage viewers around the world on real, pressing, and controversial issues. The videos invite viewers to join the conversation and help democratize discussions of poverty and inequality. As Matt Wade, one of Roy’s Graduate Student Instructors, puts it, “[#GlobalPOV provides] a moment to speak directly to power, an opportunity of becoming-public, not heretofore available to students and people outside of the circles of development expertise.”

The use of social media does not come without nuisances and problems, however. Students are barraged with words and visuals, which makes it more challenging for some to process information. In addition, although Roy spends plenty of time curating content, anonymous tweeting can add irrelevancy. In spite of occasional smart comments about her choice of clothing or shoes, Roy and her teaching assistants are pleased with the freedom of speech students exercise. “One can absolutely use Twitter to ridicule incompetent public officials, bad ideas, injustice, moments of inhumanity, with all due vitriol,” said Wade. Students’ candid and provocative comments outweigh the nuisances.

Despite the availability of YouTube and Twitter to engage a large auditorium full of students, Roy is dissatisfied with existing in-classroom technology. The iClicker, used in many large lecture settings to ask students multiple choice questions, is extremely irrelevant for a class like “Global Poverty” that dives into complex and controversial issues. Twitter allows students to express opinions, but restricts them to 140 characters. The videos may capture the attention of the students, but they don’t make it possible for everyone in an auditorium to have a thoughtful discussion.

Roy hopes that in the future, new technology will allow more reflective interaction with a large group of students. For now, she will continue pioneering the use of social media in traditional classroom settings to explore how far she can take it.

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Join the discussion on Twitter and watch the videos on the #GlobalPOV YouTube channel!

New Courses Will Link Scholarship and Community Action

By: Luis Flores and Rachel Voss

April 18, 2013 – Dr. Khalid Kadir, Blum Center Lecturer, and Dr. Sean Burns, Blum Center Director of Student Programs, have been honored as 2014 Chancellor’s Public Scholars by the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) Program.  Each will design and teach a new course in Spring 2014, emphasizing public scholarship and student engagement in community-based projects. These courses will be cross-listed as enrichment courses in the Blum Center’s Global Poverty and Practice (GPP) Minor.

ACES, a collaborative program between the American Cultures Center and the Cal Corps Public Service Center, aims to transform how community-engaged scholarship is valued on campus. Much like the GPP Minor, ACES seeks to enhance student learning through a combination of teaching and practice, encourage innovative thinking that impacts communities, and transform how the academy approaches ideas relevant to communities in struggle. ACES courses satisfy a campus-wide American Cultures requirement, exposing the entire undergraduate student body to important social histories and issues.

“It is wonderful to have the core faculty of the GPP Minor also actively involved in ACES,” said Dr. Ananya Roy, Education Director at the Blum Center and Professor of City and Regional Planning. “This breaks down the divide between critical poverty studies and practice—often imagined to be concerned with the Global South—and American cultures—often imagined to be concerned with ‘home,’ not ‘elsewhere’.”

Kadir’s and Burns’ awards solidify the Blum Center’s place at the forefront of efforts to transform the relationship between UC Berkeley and the local—and global—community. Working in collaboration with ACES and the Public Service Center, the Blum Center aims to stretch and invigorate Berkeley’s commitment to community-relevant scholarship and impactful community-campus partnerships.

Kadir’s and Burns’ selection follows Blum Center Lecturer Dr. Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales’ participation as a 2013 Chancellor’s Public Scholar. Negrón-Gonzales, whose ACES course focused on “Educational Justice: Undocumented Migrant Students & Struggles around ‘Citizenship’,” has also received the Chancellor’s Service-Learning Leadership Award for her work on this course.

Kadir, who received his PhD in Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley, first linked social science perspectives with technical problems while writing his dissertation on waste water projects in developing countries. Kadir now teaches a course in the International Areas Studies program on political economy and is a core faculty member in the GPP Minor. Kadir’s new course—among the first ever at UC Berkeley to combine technical and social perspectives with community engagement—sits at the intersection of environmental justice, social justice, and engineering. He hopes it will build engineering students’ understanding of both the possibilities and limitations of technically-based solutions.

“The goal is to help students look beyond the technical orientation of engineering approaches and learn to recognize the ways in which problems that may appear technical are at their roots deeply embedded in social justice,” said Kadir. By partnering with community groups addressing air pollution and soil contamination in Richmond, California, as well as drinking water contamination in unincorporated townships in the Central Valley, Kadir’s course will encourage students to combine interventions with local community engagement. “This class should contribute new scholarship and help shape a cadre of engineers who view problems through a more holistic lens,” he added.

Burns, who holds a PhD from UC Santa Cruz’s History of Consciousness program, published a biography on Bay Area activist Archie Green that was awarded the 2012 CLR James Award for Best Book from the Working Class Studies Association.

Burns’ new course, “Social Movements, Urban Histories, and the Politics of Memory,” examines a range of national and transnational progressive social movements which have had a prominent and influential impact in the San Francisco Bay Area. “The course will not only analyze what others have written and said of these movements, it will also organize community-based documentation projects which seek to expand public understanding of these histories, their legacies, and the contemporary experience of these communities and struggles,” explained Burns.

Making student engagement central to his course, Burns stressed that the class “will encourage students to see themselves as both history makers (people with political agency) and historians (people committed to and skilled in the practice of historical documentation). These skills and sensibilities are essential for engaging in poverty action and, like Khadir’s course, importantly complement the range of work we are taking up in the Global Poverty and Practice Minor.”

Blum Center Joins Partnership to Bolster Student Action on Global Poverty

By: Rachel Voss and Javier Kordi

This year, eighteen UC Berkeley students will attend the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI-U) annual gathering, hosted by President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton from April 5th-7th in St. Louis, Missouri.  The conference will include knowledge-sharing and networking opportunities for students committed to tackling the world’s most pressing problems and will feature keynote speakers such as Muhammad Yunus, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jack Dorsey, and Stephen Colbert.

Each year, thousands of students from around the world submit applications to CGI-U outlining a “Commitment to Action”—a concrete one-year plan to address a critical challenge in one of five categories: Education, Environment and Climate Change, Peace and Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, or Public Health.  Finalists are invited to the CGI-U gathering, which provides attendees inspiration and guidance.

“The CGI-U conference and community helped me to carry out my commitment to increase access to financial education for microfinance borrowers in Nairobi, Kenya, by providing me with the opportunity to learn from professionals around the world and network with other like-minded student,” emphasized UC Berkeley alumna (’11) and previous CGI-U attendee Lauren Herman. “With the evaluation, leadership and fundraising skills that I gained, I made my commitment to global change a reality.”

The UC Berkeley students invited to the CGI-U conference were selected for their passion, energy, and the strength of their Commitments to Action, which address a wide range of social and environmental challenges.  For example, graduate students Javier Rosa and Todd Duncombe are expanding their “Build My Lab” project within the Tekla Labs initiative, a global on-line community to connect scientists, educators, and hobbyists who design and use home-built laboratory equipment.  Senior Caitlin Francoisse has been invited to present her locally-focused project, “Sexual Health for Youth,” which she started in the women’s section of the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center after receiving the prestigious Strauss Scholars Award in 2012.  Francoisse has committed to expand her project to the male detention center by building the base of Berkeley students volunteering within the program.

In addition to this year’s strong UC Berkeley student participation, the Blum Center for Developing Economies will this year represent UC Berkeley in the inaugural year of the Clinton Global Initiative University Network.  Colleges and universities in this new nationwide partnership will provide support and guidance to their respective students who have made CGI-U Commitments to Action. As CGI-U spokesperson Ragina Arrington explained, “Our hope is that these students will be better equipped to carry out their Commitments to Action, as they will have both more formal, fiscal university support for their projects, as well as greater access to on-campus university mentors who are ready to serve as a resource to them.”

Since 2007, the Blum Center at UC Berkeley has inspired and supported student engagement in issues of global development, aiming to educate and empower the next generation of poverty scholars through curriculum, field practices, mentorship, and partnership initiatives like CGI-U.  “CGI-U grows out of a set of urgent concerns and aspirations which also motivate the Blum Center’s work with Big Ideas@Berkeley, the Global Poverty and Practice Minor, and the Development Impact Lab,” noted Sean Burns, Director of Student Programs at the Blum Center.  Burns feels this new partnership will be an opportunity for the Blum Center to extend its well-known mentorship and networking capabilities to the greater UC Berkeley student community.

Junior Ngan Pham’s CGI-U initiative exemplifies this campus ecosystem of support.  Pham is part of the Global Poverty and Practice Minor and is currently a finalist in the Big Ideas@Berkeley contest. Her project, “ServeFund,” prepares low-income students to be competitive and financially eligible for internships and public service opportunities—experiences that employers highly value in today’s job market.  Pham will attend the CGI-U conference just days after the American Youth Summit in Washington, DC, where she will help the Obama Administration draft a National Young Americans Report.

“We are incredibly proud of the impact Cal students are making through our programs and opportunities like CGI-U.  For us at the Blum Center, the aim is to integrate and align these opportunities so we can boost the impact and significance of our students’ work,” Burns said.

Stay tuned for updates on Build My Lab, ServeFund, and other CGI-U commitments through the Blum Center’s Facebook and Twitter.

Eight students from the Blum Center for Developing Economies at UC Berkeley will participate in the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI-U) hosted at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. starting on March 30th. All are part of the Blum Center’s “Global Poverty and Practice Minor,” the largest undergraduate minor on the Berkeley campus.

Students are selected to attend CGI-U based upon the quality of their “Commitment to Action” – a specific plan of action that addresses a pressing challenge — on their campus, in their local community, or across the world. Three of the Blum Center students have also been honored by an invitation to present their action plans to the audience.
Presenting their work will be:

Lauren Herman, a recent Cal graduate who majored in Peace and Conflict Studies, made a commitment to create informational material for Kenyan borrowers who are vulnerable to predatory lending. An attendee at last year’s CGI U, she will return this year to share the progress she’s made since last year’s commitment. Her work aims at helping Kenyan borrowers, who are often unaware of the loan conditions and their rights as consumers. To address this problem, Lauren has been working on a consumer education manual. This new resource will assist clients in making informed decisions about their participation in microfinance. It will be distributed in collaboration with consumer advocacy groups and microcredit borrowers in Nairobi.

Komal Ahmad, a fourth year student majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies and Jacquelyn Hoffman, a fourth year student majoring in Gender and Women’s studies, made a commitment to addressing inequitable distribution and injustice in the food system. Their organization, Bare Abundance (BA), collects excess food from on-campus dining halls and restaurants to redistribute to those who don’t have healthy food. They have developed an after-school program operating in Oakland and staffed by current UC Berkeley student volunteers. School children learn about the importance of a healthy lifestyle through BA’s experiential method, where participants prepare and consume the healthy food collected through the BA network. Komal and Jacquelyn aim to expand their afterschool program and hope to create food redistribution initiatives on other college campuses.

Attending for the first time will be:

Stephanie Ullrich, a fourth year student with a double major in Peace and Conflict Studies and Media Studies & Rebecca Peters, a third year student majoring in Society and Environment , made a commitment to a 3-part water initiative. They will create a Water Sustainability, Science, and Development minor at UC Berkeley to educate students on global hydro-politics, health and sanitation; they will expand membership in the Berkeley Water Group, an interdisciplinary student group that addresses problems related to water, sanitation, and hygiene; and they will create an academic water research journal and social marketing campaign to improve outreach.

Joanna Chen, a third year student majoring in Urban Studies, made a commitment to work with local NGOs to preserve the ecology of rural China. She will offer workshops on the environmental rights of villagers in rural areas. By engaging marginalized groups in education about their rights to a safe environment, Joanna hopes to spur local activism and encourage policy reforms that will protect the vulnerable environments of China.

Thuy Ngan Pham, a third year student majoring in Molecular Toxicology, made a commitment to develop a network to raise awareness and gather funding for student-run service organizations. SAnoda, a citizen organization, will develop an online database to connect students and faculty to the needs of the UC Berkeley service community. By linking student initiatives to their much-needed funding, SAnoda aims to increase the efficacy and frequency of social action.

Bernadette Rabuy, a second year student majoring in Political Economy, made a commitment to improve access to healthcare for villagers in Vadamanappakkam, India. Working with Project RISHI (Rural India Social and Health Improvement), she will help implement ‘RISHI Plug-Ins’— informational public service announcements meant to connect households with the self-help services of the village.

About the Blum Center for Developing Economies: Propelled by the energy and talent of faculty and students committed to helping the nearly three billion people who live on less than two dollars a day, the Blum Center is focused on finding solutions to the most pressing needs of the poor. Blum Center innovation teams are working to deliver safe water and sanitation solutions in eight countries; life-saving mobile services throughout Africa and Asia; and new energy technologies that emphasize efficiency while reducing negative environmental impacts. The Center’s Global Poverty & Practice minor is the largest undergraduate minor on campus, giving students the knowledge and real-world experience to become dynamic participants in the fight against poverty. In addition to choosing from a wide variety of new courses, students participate directly in poverty alleviation efforts in over fifty developing countries.

In IAS 120, Students of the GPP Minor Learn the Skills to Spread Global Awareness

By Luis Flores

“It’s a practical course,” explained Royce Chang about professor Tara Graham’s Field Reporting in the Digital Age: Using Media Tools for Social Justice. “I don’t think we get enough of that here at Berkeley.”

Professor Graham’s course trains students in Berkeley’s Global Poverty and Practice minor to use the Internet and social media as tools for global engagement. The course is an all-inone tool kit for global awareness.

Last year, students received training in everything from film, photography and creative writing to web design. “The course was valuable because it trains you to look for things and to look for the best and most ethical way to go about acquiring material,” remarked Royce. Professor Graham is teaching the class again this semester.

Royce, a history major concentrating on ancient Greece and Rome, is currently working on developing media content for One World Futbol at Berkeley, an NGO that is working to spread global and community awareness among local K-8 students through sports. He continues to believe that no matter the initiative, the spread of awareness is a vital part of enacting positive change. To this goal, online media is a valuable tool.

Ryan Silsbee, another of professor Graham’s students last year, has since graduated and is completing a four-month organic agriculture apprenticeship with Real Time Farms in Hawaii. The importance of the media skills learned in professor Graham’s class are obvious by looking at his website: a clean site with vivid photographs, concise, creatively written updates and interactive maps and guides. His site allows readers to engage with his mission of promoting healthy and organic agriculture. “Spreading information and just getting people interested in where their food comes from and how it is grown is the first step,” Ryan said.

The theoretical courses in the GPP minor set Ryan on a path to change American agriculture, and Professor Graham’s course gave him the tools to start making those changes. “I want people to step out of their busy lives, take a look at agriculture in the United States and decide for themselves if they think something should be changed,” he explained.

Many of professor Graham’s students, like Danika Kehlet, were first able to put these skills to use during their summer practice initiatives. Armed with a small flipcam, Danika set out to chronicle her work promoting female development in Quito, Ecuador. Her lively blog illustrates her experience through the use of videos, photo collages and engaging blog entries.

This semester, Professor Graham is training a new group of GPP students in a similar course: Using Media Tools for Global Poverty Action. Practical courses like these are training the next generation of tech-savvy global citizens. Exposure to the development possibilities of social media is empowering and inspiring students.

“It is very inspiring to know that something I create, write, photograph, film, or document can change the way people view their world,” Ryan said. “If enough people see it, you can change society.”

World Day of Social Justice

by Brittany Schell

February 20th marked the annual World Day of Social Justice. “Social justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among nations,” states the website of the United Nations. “We advance social justice when we remove barriers that people face because of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.”

In 2007, the UN General Assembly declared February 20th of each year the “World Day of Social Justice,” to recognize groups around the world working to fight poverty and promote gender equality, access to health care and other initiatives that advance development and human dignity.

Here at the Blum Center, our students and faculty work actively toward these goals. Each year, we offer fellowships to students studying in the Global Poverty and Practices minor at UC Berkeley to help fund their summer fieldwork experiences.

Fieldwork has ranged from supporting tenants’ rights in New York City to providing access to clean water in India; improving child nutrition in Guatemala and addressing poverty in Vietnam; working with opium addicts in Afghanistan and HIV/AIDS prevention work in Ghana; and even building community bread ovens in Tanzania. Our students have helped advance the foundation of social justice through hands-on work, making concrete differences in communities across the world.

Last summer, 40 students received fellowships from the Blum Center. Check out the map to see the wide range of countries where our fellows volunteered their time and energy.

Big Ideas @ Berkeley 2011 Spotlight: BareAbundance

By Javier Kordi

Upon entering Berkeley’s all-you-caneat dining halls, students undergo a strange biological transformation: their eyes seem to swell, far exceeding the size of their stomachs. Seven servings later, a tray full of half eaten entrées stares back at their defeated gazes before getting disposed of in the garbage. This propensity to waste is not limited to university dining halls. Every day, 260 million pounds of food are wasted while 50 million Americans go hungry. Witnessing this incongruity first hand, Global Poverty and Practice students Komal Ahmad, majoring in International Health and Development, and Jacquelyn Hoffman, majoring in Gender and Women’s studies, created BareAbundance—an organization that addresses the inequitable food distribution that causes millions of Americans to suffer every day.

When food is neither consumed nor sold, or is nearing its expiration date, the organization sweeps in to intervene before it is tossed into a landfill. Receiving excess healthy food from a wide network of sources, BareAbundance redistributes this excess to people in need. Last year, BareAbundance signed a contract with Cal Dining, securing the excess foods from four dining halls and 10 on-campus cafes and restaurants. Currently, this food is being delivered
to an afterschool program at New Highland School in East Oakland, where 70 percent of students are on free or reduced lunch.

Komal, one of the founders of BareAbundance, explains that the after-school program is about more than providing food; it’s also about food education. For a community lacking access to farmers’ markets, the nutritional model of the food pyramid is sometimes hard to meet. In addition to providing much-needed sustenance, the after-school program teaches “food driven values through an experiential method where [the students] consume and cook the food.”

Take one of the program’s three-day examples: children were first given donuts and asked to write about how they felt in their journals. Initially abounding with energy, the children reported stomachaches and lethargic feelings a few hours later. A similar feeling was reported the next day when the kids ate pieces of cake. On the final day, the children were given a luscious piece of fruit. They wrote in their journals that, not only did it taste good, but it also provided sustained energy without a sugar crash. This technique trains children to recognize the importance of a healthy diet through direct engagement.

Last year, BareAbundance was selected as a winner of Big Ideas @ Berkeley, a campus-wide innovation competition managed by the Blum Center. A recipient of the Social Justice and Community Engagement award, the organization received funding for transportation, food storage, website creation and publicity, allowing it to grow dramatically. Komal humbly described how the Big Ideas @ Berkeley grant “legitimized our organization…our idea.” It compelled the founders to make their model of food redistribution a reality: as Komal said, it was “both a pat on the back and a kick in the ass.” In the future, Komal hopes to establish a nationwide food recovery network to save and distribute excess food from college campuses around the country.

ECAR Safe Water Initiative: A New Solution to an Old Problem

By Javier Kordi

Abandoned arsenic water filters litter the village of Amirabad, India like archaic ruins. For years, the community has seen foreigners come and go, bringing the promise of clean water and leaving behind hollow philanthropic gestures. Arseniccontaminated ground waters have created the largest mass poisoning in human history. In Bangladesh alone, 40 million people are exposed to arsenic through their tube wells. From Latin America to Asia, arsenic-laden water has plagued the lives of millions.

Working in conjunction with the Blum Center for Developing Economies and the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, professor Susan Addy and her team of scientists have brought something new to the water table: a sustainable model for water purity—the Electrochemical Arsenic Remediation project (ECAR).

ECAR differs from its predecessors in its mode of arsenic extraction. The elusive arsenic particles cannot be removed with traditional filtration—they will not settle or get retained. ECAR works by literally grabbing these particles and dragging them to the bottom of a water basin, separating them from the clean H2O. It is a simple procedure.

First, a steel plate is placed into a tub of water. Then an electrical current is passed through the steel, creating millions of rust particles. As the rust
expands, it electrochemically binds to arsenic. The rust-bonded arsenic settles to the bottom of the basin and the final step—adding Alum, a water
coagulant—allows the amalgamation and separation of the poison. The 100 liter prototype produced clean water that was indistinguishable from bottled water, using only as much energy as a CFL light bulb.

But even the most brilliant of technologies cannot succeed if they are not embraced and maintained by the local community. “The technology is maybe 20 percent of the problem,” professor Addy said. “The social situation, making it work sustainably, is maybe 80 percent of the problem.” Often times, water projects fail because they are a one-time gift from a donor. Working with financial institutions, a social marketing firm and local governments, the ECAR project will make the delivery of clean water part of the community’s livelihood. The product of ECAR (clean water) will become a good, to be sold and profited from in an open market, thus creating an economic incentive for continued production.

Professor Addy explained the plan for this year: “We’ve got two pilot projects planned this year that will serve water to about 2,500 students, maybe one to two liters per day, operating for several months.” As children learn about water safety in their classrooms, the neighboring water plant will transform the school into a community center—a nexus for health and education. Ultimately, the plant will provide jobs for the local people. While providing free water to children, the excess that is created can be sold to the community. ECAR aims to become a self-sustaining water plant, both economically and technologically. Because the government has an interest in increasing student enrollment, professor Addy believes there is potential for partnering with India’s Ministry of Education to further subsidize the project.

At the end of February, two scientists, Christopher Orr and Siva Rama Satyam, will depart from Berkeley to spend six months in India testing out the new 500 liter prototype. After working with a manufacturer in Mumbai, the prototype will be shipped to Jadavpur University in Kolkata for a few months of testing. If all goes well, this prototype will be moved to the school in Amirabad, India, where it will provide six months of free water to local school children. According to Sivarama, local governments and communities are eager to adopt the technology, particularly after the success of the initial model. With continued successes, the full implementation of ECAR and the cleansing of the water table will soon be a reality.

Design for Sustainable Communities Course

By Brittany Schell

Professor Addy also teaches a course at UC Berkeley, Design for Sustainable Communities. The class gives students hands-on experience in the design and implementation of projects meant to improve the sustainability of communities in developing countries.

The students work in teams throughout the semester on practical projects, with guidance from professor Addy and other experts. The class, a mix of graduate and undergraduate students from various majors at Berkeley, meets twice a week to discuss their own projects as well as explore the methods of successful innovators.

“One of the most pressing challenges of the new century is to harness the extraordinary force of technological innovation…and make its benefits accessible and
meaningful for all humanity,” professor Addy said to begin class, quoting former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Cost effective, creative solutions to problems like unemployment and the lack of water and electricity in villages—like professor Addy’s ECAR water initiative—provide a new area of opportunities for businesses and social entrepreneurs. It’s innovation for the 90 percent, she told her students.

by Luis Flores

Berkeley – The Center for South Asia Studies, in conjunction with the Blum Center for Developing Economies, hosted current Pakistani Ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani for a discussion on the challenges and opportunities in U.S. and Pakistan relations. Richard C. Blum, a personal friend of the ambassador, introduced Haqqani. “We have probably never had a better ambassador to try and manage what is obviously an interesting and difficult relationship,” said Blum. “To the extent we make progress, the gentleman deserves some credit.” Haqqani, also a scholar and a journalist, led a deeply sobering and academic discussion on the current state of U.S.-Pakistan relations.

“I’ve been ambassador for three and a half years and have only dealt with 364 crisis so far,” joked Haqqani, acknowledging the difficult relationship between the two nations early in his lecture.

Haqqani began by explaining the mutually beneficial relationship between the two governments that began in the 1940s. The ambassador explained that following the Pakistani independence in 1947, the new state was looking for a major supporter while the United States was in search of allies near the Soviet Union. The subsequent mistrust between the two allies is a result of what Haqqani dubbed “parallel narratives.” While the Pakistani narrative of the alliance is one of betrayal and abandonment, the American narrative is one of mistrust and corruption. “The real task of diplomacy is to get people to tamper down their anger and find solutions to the problem,” noted Haqqani.

The Ambassador then drew a connection between the two nation’s historic partnerships during the Cold War to the current one after 10 years of operations in Afghanistan. Haqqani asserted that Pakistan and the United States share the common interest of a stable Afghanistan but differ greatly on strategy. “We think the Americans would benefit more from reconciling various elements within Afghan society, including religious elements that are represented by a segment of the Taliban, not because people like me agree with their world view, but because it’s a part of their society,” explained Haqqani. “Afghans are not going to behave like the 51st state of the American union anytime soon.”

Haqqani’s planned remarks were purposefully brief in order to allow for many audience questions. Almost immediately, a student questioned Pakistan’s own democratic legitimacy. “I think what America leaders seek in Pakistan, which is full and complete democratic rule will come about as our institutions become more assertive and strong,” answered Haqqani, clearly expecting the question. “It’s an evolutionary democracy, not one that will happen overnight.”

Quickly following up on the audience’s concerns over democracy were questions on Pakistan’s non- secular education system. Again, the Ambassador, revealing pragmatic tendencies, stressed the importance of reform as a process. “The damage has already been done,” said Haqqani of those educated in the old system, “they will not change their minds just because a new government has been elected.” The Ambassador likened social progress in Pakistan to the long process of African-American equality in the United States. “[New governments] are moving Pakistan in a way in which the exclusive, hard-lined, narrow interpretation of faith will no longer be the dominant view in the country…Over time, over time,” said Haqqani, reiterating his stress on slow progressive reform.

Questions were often difficult and at times reflective of the American narrative explained by Haqqani. Nevertheless, the Ambassador remained calm, academic and optimistic. “This is a difficult relationship, but it is not yet a broken relationship,” said Haqqani. He closed his lecture by restating something he says to all his American audiences. “America is a great nation, they do a lot of things very well but the two things they don’t do well are patience and history… in the case of Pakistan you need to have patience and you need to understand the insecurities that come from history,” closed Haqqani, surely provoking deep reflection in the audience.

by Luis Flores

Berkeley – “We may sound impressive and like a big deal today,” joked Richard C. Blum, closing a presentation by the staff of the American Himalayan Foundation, “but we started with an idea.”

As part of the Global Poverty and Practice Lecture Series, the Blum Center for Developing Economies was delighted to host Erica Stone, President of the American Himalayan Foundation, who shared her experience as a leader of a major non-profit organization in a presentation entitled, “Do Good, Be Kind, Have Fun: What it’s like to Run an NGO and What it Takes to Create Positive Change.” Stone, also a 5th degree black belt, a former chef at Chez Panisse, and a UC Berkeley graduate, began by explaining the inherent complexity of running an NGO. “I balance the reality on the ground, which is messy… with taking care of the people that make our work possible: our donors” she explained. The AHF, which operates in three relatively unstable countries, manages to improve the lives of 300,000 people by remaining close to the communities they support. “We always work with local partners,” explained Stone. “We don’t come in and say ‘we know what you need’… they tell us.”

Joining Stone in her presentation were AHF Vice President Norbu Tenzing, Field Director Bruce Moore, and Program Director Eileen Moncoeur. Each explained their experience working for the AHF and shared a project of particular interest to them.

Stone was especially proud to discuss the foundation’s “Stop Girl Trafficking” initiative. On average, 15,000 girls from the poorest regions of Nepal are trafficked and nearly 80 percent of them contract HIV. “Why are girls trafficked?” asked Stone rhetorically. “Three reasons: poverty, poverty, and poverty!” The American Himalayan Foundation representatives (L-R): Tenzing Norbu, Erica Stone, Eileen Moncoeur and Bruce Moore.

AHF is preventing young girls from being trafficked by funding primary education for the girls. The skills they develop give them value in the eyes of their communities along with the confidence to decide their own futures. Starting 12 years ago with only 50 girls, the AHF now funds the education of 8,500 girls with an impeccable success rate. “We have not lost one girl, not one girl, since we started this program,” Stone proudly affirmed.

Program Director Eileen Moncoeur shared the success of the Hospital and Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children in Nepal. The fate of disabled children in Nepal is tragic. “If they can’t function, they can’t go to school, they can’t work in the fields, they can’t help at home, many of them are ostracized… these kids really live lives of isolation and in many cases humiliation,” explained Moncoeur. After nearly 20 years of working with the visionary Dr. Ashok Banskoa, the AHF has helped fund the treatment of 38,000 patients.

While impressed by the organization’s achievements, their approach to providing aid also resonated with the audience. “I think there are a lot of hard-chair academics that sort of sit here and talk about what people in other places should do and I found it really inspiring that they do connect with Nepal and talk to the local peoples,” reflected Tanay Kothari, a freshman interested in the Global Poverty and Practice minor.

The curious audience of students, faculty, and staff was clearly motivated by the achievements of the AHF. Veronica Chin, a fifth-year double major in Applied Mathematics and Chinese, attended the lecture after enrolling in a course with Professor Ananya Roy. She was inspired by Richard C. Blum’s challenge: “don’t be afraid to dream, don’t be afraid to start something new.” Veronica, even with job offers lined up, is determined to work with NGOs. She is even considering deferring her job offers to get involved now.

The next lecture in the Global Poverty and Practice Series, scheduled for October 24, will feature a panel discussion on “Microfinance: Poverty, Profits and Promises” led by Blum Center Education Director Ananya Roy. This panel will examine current microfinance strategies and debate their effectiveness in addressing the challenges of poverty.

Berkeley – Dr. Ananya Roy, Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning has been appointed as the inaugural chairholder of the Blum Center Distinguished Chair in Global Poverty and Practice. This position was made possible by a $1.5 million anonymous gift, along with a matching gift from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, given as part of Berkeley’s Hewlett Challenge.

Roy currently oversees the education program for the Blum Center for Developing Economies which provides students with insight into the patterns of poverty and different forms of poverty alleviation. In her capacity as Blum Center Education Director, Roy has overseen the development of the highly popular undergraduate minor degree program in Global Poverty and Practice (GPP). The GPP minor, established in 2006, is now the largest minor on campus with over 400 students currently enrolled.

The chairholder appointment will allow Roy to continue making major and sustained contributions to the educational program and curriculum of the Blum Center, especially for the Global Poverty and Practice minor program. Additionally, she will focus on the integration and continued development of graduate programs into the Blum Center’s educational portfolio and on developing collaborations with faculty across the Berkeley campus whose teaching and research are focused on poverty alleviation.

In announcing the selection, Blum Center Faculty Director and College of Engineering Dean Shankar Sastry noted that she was the ideal selection. “Ananya has inspired students from across the campus to think about life in a much larger global context. She has helped both undergraduates and graduate students realize the role they can play in addressing some of the world’s most critical issues and empowered countless students to be a force for positive change.” Roy’s five year appointment as Distinguished Chair in Global Poverty and Practice will run through June 30, 2016.

In 2006, Roy was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest teaching honor UC Berkeley bestows on its faculty. Also in 2006, Roy was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Mentors award, a recognition bestowed by the Graduate Assembly of the University of California at Berkeley. In 2008, Roy was the recipient of the Golden Apple Teaching award, the only teaching award given by the student body. Most recently, she was named 2009 California Professor of the Year by the CASE/ Carnegie Foundation.

Dr. Ananya Roy, Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and Education Director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies.

About the Hewlett Foundation Challenge: The $1.5 million in matching funds from the Hewlett Foundation is part of a $113 million Hewlett grant to provide UC Berkeley with a major new source of endowment funds to attract and support world-class faculty and graduate students and to allow the campus to compete with the nation’s best private schools. The Hewlett challenge grant will match dollar-for-dollar other private donations to UC Berkeley for the Hewlett chairs, and the ultimate result will be $220 million in new endowment funds for the campus.

About the Blum Center: The Blum Center for Developing Economies at UC Berkeley links world-class faculty, inspiring new curriculum, and innovative technologies, services and business models to create real-world solutions for developing economies. The Center educates students, builds partnerships, and rigorously evaluates innovations in order to create scalable and sustainable contributions toward the alleviation of poverty. For more information on the Blum Center and its programs please refer to its website: http://blumcenter.berkeley.edu/, or contact them via email: blumcenter@berkeley.edu.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

President Clinton addresses CGIU delegates. – Lisa Veliz, 2010

UC Berkeley | March 29, 2011 – The Blum Center for Developing Economies and its Global Poverty & Practice Minor will be well represented at the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI-U) hosted at the University of California, San Diego later this week (April 1-3).

Education Director, Professor Ananya Roy, will participate in a panel entitled “Seeking Shelter: The Power of Safe and Affordable Housing.” She will join other experts to discuss the relationship between housing and poverty, highlighting smart housing projects that are addressing the shelter needs of the poor while also taking into account both social and environmental needs. Roy will also hold “Office Hours” a new innovation for the annual CGI-U meeting, that allows student delegates from across the country to conduct more in-depth conversations with panel experts.

Roy, who chairs the Blum Center sponsored Global Poverty and Practice Minor, will be joined by thirteen students from UC Berkeley who were chosen by the Clinton Foundation to attend the event.

To be selected to attend CGI-U, a student must develop a “Commitment to Action.” These commitments are specific plans to address a pressing challenge on campus, in the local community, or across the world. Students from UC Berkeley have made commitments in seven different countries on four continents to address the global challenges CGI-U has identified — Education, Environment and Climate Change, Peace and Human Rights, Education, Poverty Alleviation, and Public Health.

Examples of these commitments include:

Education:

Melissa Barker, a fourth year Interdisciplinary Field Studies student, has committed to help make University education more accessible to under-represented and low income student parents, by working on advocacy efforts aimed at increasing affordable child care options.

Akil Mehta, a fourth year Molecular and Cell Biology student, will work with forty disadvantaged youth in Orissa, India to develop and deliver science and mathematics curriculum from the Indian Institute of Technology using desktop computers and e-notebook software.

Sana Naeem, a fourth year Near Eastern Studies and Political Science student, will recruit and train mentors for Think College Now, a Title I elementary school in Oakland, CA.

Peace and Human Rights:

Huda Adem, a fourth year Interdisciplinary Field Studies student, will develop and deliver first aid courses to displaced Eritrean refuges in Kasala, Sudan.

Poverty Alleviation:

Lauren Herman, a fifth year Peace and Conflict Studies student, will build on her previous work in rural Kenya to create and deliver microcredit and financial literacy program for fifty women in urban Kenya.

Jacquelyn Hoffman, a third year Gender and Women’s Studies student, will develop Cal Community Kitchen to bring Berkeley students together to create nutritional boxed meals for low-income families using consumable left over foods from local restaurants.

Public Health

Preeya Desai, a third year Nutritional Science student, committed to developing a Kids Outreach Program, an afterschool program that introduces nutritional education and opportunities for physical activity in San Francisco, CA.

Tsung Mou, a fourth year Molecular and Cell Biology student, will work with medical students in Solola, Guatemala to establish a program that encourages and facilitates an internal flow of Guatemalan health care professionals to serve rural and low-income communities.

Tuyen Nguyen, a third year Public Health student, will address issues of dental health in Kathmandu, Nepal by developing a community health worker and tooth care distribution program.

Melanie Silvis, a fourth year Molecular and Cell Biology student, will work with low-income Asian American communities in the Bay Area to provide screening, positive patient support and outreach for the Hepatitis B Project.

CalSolAgua, a project that was born in professor Ashok Gadgill’s “Design for Sustainable Communities” class and which received some initial funding from the Blum Center, has been chosen as a finalist for the 2011 Unreasonable Institute competition. In order to win the competition, the project will need to be one of the first teams to raise $8,000 using the online donation portal.

Visit the Unreasonable Institute to find out more about CalSolAgua and what you can do to help this local project win the competition!

by Rachel Shafer

The Blum Center for Developing Economies announced the appointment of Maryanne McCormick as its Executive Director. She will be responsible for leadership, strategic direction, and all operations for the multidisciplinary education and research center.

“It is my great privilege to be a part of the Blum Center,” says McCormick, who joined the Center in March 2008 as development director. “I look forward to continuing to work with our trustees to support our amazing students and faculty who are committed to helping the nearly three billion people who live on less than two dollars a day.”

Prior to joining the Blum Center, McCormick served as associate director of outreach for the UC Berkeley Law School, where she retains an appointment. Before moving to California, she spent over a decade in Washington, D.C., working at the intersection of technology and public policy. She holds an M.B.A. and J.D. and is a member of the California bar.
“Maryanne has proven to be a remarkably effective leader and thoughtful manager during her tenure at the Blum Center, with a dedication to our cause that is unrelenting,” says Richard Blum, founder and trustee. “We’re all thrilled with this appointment.”

The Blum Center for Developing Economies links world-class faculty, inspiring new curriculum, and innovative technologies, services and business models to create real-world solutions for developing economies. As a thriving partnership of UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, UC Davis and UC San Francisco, Blum Center innovation teams are working to deliver safe water and sanitation solutions in eight countries; life-saving mobile services throughout Africa and Asia; and new energy technologies that emphasize efficiency while reducing negative environmental impacts. The Center’s Global Poverty and Practice undergraduate academic minor is now the largest minor on campus, with nearly 400 students currently enrolled and 230 alumni. The Minor explores the ethics of global citizenship and the role that UC Berkeley undergraduates play in understanding and addressing some of the most pressing issues of the 21st century. Students from a wide variety of disciplines undertake the Minor, to complement Majors ranging from Economics to Engineering to Public Health. Students take newly developed courses and participate directly in poverty alleviation efforts in over 50 countries.

“I can’t think of a better person to serve as the Center’s Executive Director,” says S. Shankar Sastry, the Blum Center faculty director and dean of the College of Engineering. “I look forward to continuing to work with Maryanne as we execute the center’s mission of cultivating unique and highly effective educational programs and innovation initiatives to alleviate poverty.”

For more information please see http://blumcenter.berkeley.edu/

Interested in Global Health? Hoping to take Public Health 112: Global Health this semester?

Sponsored by the Blum Center for Developing Economies and led by Professors Arthur Reingold and Suneeta Krishnan, this new course allows students to engage in various aspects of global health through interactive lectures by elite professors from Berkeley and other top tier universities. Students will have the opportunity to hear about the work that Nobel Laureates, scientists in the field, professors, and activists are currently engaged in within this broad arena of study via webcast twice a week: Tuesday and Thursdays from 12:00-1:30pm.

This course allows students to relate the more theoretical components of poverty and health, as these professionals share their wealth of knowledge and applications of such information, through interventions, to real life situations. This course is supplemented with a variety of lecturers who represent the departments of Public Health, City and Regional Planning, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Global Environmental Health and Population and Family Planning. Some featured guest speakers include Kirk Smith, Eric Stover, Jason Corburn, Eva Harris, Malcolm Potts and Lia Fernald.

For access to complete lectures, visit:
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details_new.php?seriesid=2010-B-75595&semesterid=2010-B

The Global Poverty & Practice Minor is the largest Minor on the UC Berkeley campus, giving students the knowledge and real-world experience to become dynamic participants in the fight against poverty. Students take a variety of courses and participate directly in poverty intervention efforts around the world, allowing them to connect the theories and practice of global poverty alleviation. Students from all disciplines are encouraged to undertake the Minor and investigate the ways in which the requirements supplement their major field of study.

For Information about requirements for the minor, visit the Minor Requirements Page

or view the GPP Minor brochure.

Practice

The signature element of the minor is a practice experience, in which students work either locally or internationally for a minimum of 5 weeks to make a meaningful contribution to an organization and/or community. For more information about the Practice Experience visit the Practice Experience Page.

Read about some current student’s practice experiences here and see where students have completed their practice experiences below:

View GPP Minor Practice in a larger map

Declaring the Minor

Students wishing to pursue the Global Poverty and Practice Minor must submit a Minor Declaration of Intent Form. Students may declare without having taken any of the courses; additionally, there are no pre-requisites for the GPP Minor.

Declaration in the Minor will allow entry into the GPP105 core course, which is open only to declared students, as well as give priority for enrollment in Blum Center sponsored courses.

Declaration Deadlines

Spring 2013 Deadline: March 5, 2013

Contact Information and Office Hours

Advisors:
Chetan Chowdhry, Program Coordinator, 100E Blum Hall

Email: gppminor@berkeley.edu

Fall 2012 Drop-in Advising:

Monday, Wednesday: 10am – Noon; 1:30pm – 4:00pm

Tuesday, Thursday: 1:30pm – 4:00pm

100 Blum Hall

What do US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Nobel Laureate and Former US Vice President Al Gore, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson have in common?

They all are part of a month-long celebration at the University of California, Berkeley to commemorate the third anniversary of the launch of the Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies. 

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new home of the Blum Center will take place on Thursday, April 23 at 1:30 pm PST – with Center Founder and UC Regents Chair Richard C. Blum joined by Former Vice President Al Gore, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, College of Engineering Dean S. Shankar Sastry, and University of California President Mark Yudof. The ceremony will be followed by a reception where faculty and students will present a wide range of innovations aimed at making lasting change for the nearly three billion people that live on less than two dollars a day.

The Blum Center is a spectacularly successful multidisciplinary research and education center devoted to delivering real world solutions to combat poverty. Founded three years ago by San Francisco financier and philanthropist Richard C. Blum, the Center has exceeded even the most optimistic predictions.

“Of all the investments I’ve made in my life, what we’re doing here certainly ranks near the top,” said Richard Blum. “Our real impact is in training the next generation of global leaders committed to making lasting change for the poor.”

Over 1500 students have participated in the Center’s classes, symposium and events. A key element of the Center’s outreach to students is its unique undergraduate academic minor in Global Poverty & Practice, which gives students the knowledge and real-world experience needed to become dynamic participants in the fight against global poverty. In only three years, the Center has become a veritable magnet for a “Yes We Can” generation, eager to make a difference both in their local community and in communities across the world. More than 210 students are already enrolled in the minor, a level not anticipated until 2015, making it the fastest growing minor on campus. These students come from more than 30 different majors including Engineering, Architecture, Business and Biology. In addition to a continuously evolving portfolio of coursework and educational programs designed to educate students about global poverty, students participate directly in poverty alleviation efforts in more than twenty five developing countries.

“The faculty and students at the Blum Center can change the world,” said Nobel Prize winner and Former Vice President Al Gore said. “Their efforts can have a truly significant impact on global poverty for years to come.”

“I am extremely proud of the exceptional work being done at the Blum Center,” stated UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. “This initiative came together at the perfect moment to speak deeply to a major concern of our students and faculty.”

Interest and enthusiasm for the Blum Center is tremendous – and thus the growth of the Center
over the last three years necessitated the creation of
a home. Richard Blum generously offered to finance the restoration of the Naval Architecture Building and the construction of a new wing to provide that home. The project is being developed by a private, non-profit organization created and funded by Richard Blum. Construction is expected to begin later this year, with project completion expected to take 16 months.

“What the Blum Center has already accomplished in just three years is nothing short of amazing,” noted George Shultz, former US Secretary of State and now a Trustee of the Blum Center.

In addition to educating the next generation of global citizens, the Center currently supports sixteen innovation initiatives involving faculty and students from more than thirty departments. These projects are expanding access to safe water and sanitation, adapting wireless technologies to increase access to lifesaving health care services and deploying new efficient energy technologies that minimize harmful environmental impacts. After successful piloting, the Center helps to transition the projects to outside partners so that the innovations will have a real and lasting impact on urgent global problems.

The person behind all this is Richard Blum. For more than thirty years, he has been devoted to alleviating global poverty by supporting practical and engaged efforts that deliver real results. Focused primarily on global poverty and education, he is Founder and Chairman of the American Himalayan Foundation (AHF), which was established 25 years ago. AHF has 170 projects providing vital healthcare, education, and environmental and cultural preservation throughout the Himalayan region. Four years ago, Mr. Blum founded the Global Economy and Development Center at The Brookings Institution and the Brookings Blum Roundtable Conference, to develop policy research and new strategies to alleviate poverty. He is also a trustee and a member of the executive committee of The Carter Center, founded by former President Jimmy Carter, and serves on the boards of William J. Clinton Foundation and The Wilderness Society.

“Dick Blum shares my belief that we all need to make a lifelong commitment to poverty alleviation, one of the challenges my Foundation tackles in Africa and Latin America as well as through the work of students who attend the
Clinton Global Initiative University,” President Bill Clinton said. “I’m pleased to see the Blum Center grow into a space where even more young people can turn their ideas and energy into action and results that benefit the common good.”
“The Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies’ commitment to combat global poverty has great potential to bring about far reaching change,” stated President Jimmy Carter, an Honorary Trustee of the Blum Center. “A new generation of global leaders dedicated to making positive change and the innovative economic development of the poorest nations inevitably will contribute to the alleviation of suffering and the creation of a more peaceful world. These ideals can and must be pursued by this and coming generations.”

Earlier this month, the Blum Center was delighted to welcome Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to speak about the rule of law in developing economies. On April 25th, the Blum Center is proud to join The American Himalayan Foundation in sponsoring an address by His Holiness the Dalai Lama entitled “Peace through Compassion.” A lecture about global health and human rights by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, will round out the month on April 29th.