Clinton Global Initiative

Congratulations to the 2023 CGI U Cohort from CSUN! On March 3, the CSUN cohort will join hundreds of student leaders and converge on Vanderbilt University in Nashville for the CGI U 2023 Annual Meeting!

The CGI U network includes undergraduate and graduate students who are committed to actionable change - you would join a growing, global community of young leaders. Through its Commitment to Action model, CGI U challenges you to develop, test, and implement your ideas at local, regional or global scales.

Applicants must be at least 18 years of age, in good standing at CSUN and enrolled at CSUN at time of application.

Mentoring: all CGI U students are assigned a mentor who will help guide you as you work to implement your CTA. Mentors have academic or professional expertise in your area.

Training: All accepted CGI U students are expected to be available for the entirety of the scheduled dates of the four online modules. Accepted students are required to attend and fully participate in all online module activities. The average time commitment is 3 hours per module.

Look for informational workshops for the 2024 application cycle in Fall 2023.

Before you apply, please contact Dr. Jeanne Robertson, the CSUN faculty mentor for CGI U.

Please use the application preview to draft your responses before you begin the application. 

Each person may only submit one application. If you are applying as a group, the group leader must complete his or her application first and select 'Group' as the application type in Section I to provide details about group members. Groups can consist of up to CSUN students, each of whom should submit an application. It is possible that not all group members are invited to participate. We reserve the right to not invite all members of each group that applies. If your group has more than three students, we ask that you select the three students who can best represent your project to apply.

Application Deadline: 

Early admission: Fall 2023

Regular admission: Winter 2023

Review and Selection: January 2024

Admissions: TBD

Student Orientation: TBD

Brandon Coprich
Graduate Student, Department of Music
Project Title: The Music Education Global Access (MEGA) Project

In 2022, Brandon Coprich committed to using his Masters of Music Industry Administration degree and new network of industry professionals to launch a nonprofit educational organization to rectify the diminishing presence of music education in the Los Angeles area and beyond. Using his own childhood musical experience in LA, he has begun creating a multi-tiered music education program to support underfunded school districts. California recently passed Proposition 28 in 2022, establishing a huge increase in funding for arts education in K-12 schools. Brandon’s life-changing “troubadour” method seeks to serve more communities and allow more children to have access to high-quality ongoing music programs. Our goal is to have placements in 25 schools or after-school programs within a year and expand to more schools and international programs working with his professional music company partners in year two.

Nichole Hinesley
Graduate Student, Department of Health Sciences
Project Title: Teaching reproductive health education to improve outcomes for justice-impacted people in America. 

Vulnerable populations have higher instances of STIs, unwanted and teen pregnancies, and experience cycles of poverty. Lack of formal education contributes to poor social outcomes and increased public health concerns. Statistically, justice-impacted people confined in US jails and prisons are more likely to come from low socioeconomic environments with limited education about reproductive health. Nichole Hinesley will create a digital course on reproductive health concepts for distribution to justice-impacted people confined in jails and prisons. Nichole will partner with Prison Professors, a 501c3 non-profit organization committed to improving outcomes of America's prison system. By donating this course to the non-profit for distribution through its digital platform, Nichole anticipates that more than 1 million justice-impacted adults will have access to the course within three to five years. Such outreach reduces health disparities that proliferate among vulnerable populations.

Alia Khan
Graduate Student, Public Administration 
Project Title: Multicultural Application Toolbox (MAT) 

Alia Khan is passionate about promoting diversity through community outreach. She is committed to parental engagement in their children's education   Her commitment to action is to provide resources to Parent Teacher Associations to increase awareness of cultural diversity and make programs more inclusive and representative of the multicultural environment. Her project will assist Parent Teacher Associations on how to bring diversified families into their children’s learning environment. She is a mother of two and enjoys spending time in nature.

Leo Pikor
Graduate Student, Public Administration 
Project Title: Equity improvement for minorities 

My commitment is to demonstrate opportunity in distressed minority communities of Los Angeles. Every community deserves successful living with essential practices of equality. Educating the people with metrics of success to achieve goals monitored by collaborators. Minorities will be enhanced by knowledge of educational programs of trust and diversity brought into their community for dignity and building blocks in a formal manner measured monthly over a two-year period. My intended participation is to commit to help with global changes and at home in my own community with a smart goal action plan to achieve agenda and a program purpose through completion of CGIU program. The level of accomplishment will be a reference for leadership as I will need and want in my entrepreneurship contributions. The principles of CGIU will enhance the variety of or professional experiences as a commitment I hope to attain.

Victor Ulloa-Reyes
Graduate Student, Department of Chicano and Chicana Studies
Project Title: Grizzly Califas- Climate Activism in the Southwestern U.S. 

My CTA centers on documenting Climate Activism by highlighting the efforts of at-risk communities and bridge the gap between Environmental Science and Activism. This film will serve to reduce the common feelings of depression associated with Eco-Anxiety and inspire change. This film would highlight the contributions of the frontlines of communities in the Southwestern U.S. and connect the environmental science portions. This docuseries will highlight the actions of Environmentalists, and Community groups to increase public awareness, garner funding, and recruit volunteer support. An example is the efforts by Tree People and their improvements to their own communities' air quality and beauty. I will organize a team, mostly of students in these communities, to help gather information and translate it into a film. Expected outcomes from this project include an Increase in Climate Activism and environmental recreation, a decrease in eco-anxiety, and the pushing of better climate policies.

Katie Velasquez
Undergraduate Student, Department of Health Sciences
Project Title: Healthy Young - Promoting the consumption of healthy foods 

The advancement of digital technologies has led to the bombardment of advertisements for non-nutritious food high in sugar, salt, and fat. This led to poor dietary choices, poor health, and obesity. In addition, fast food companies target children through toy tie-ins with children’s motion pictures. I propose to address this social health issue with an organization called Healthy Young, to create a healthier world. The program will include the following activities: messaging youth to promote the consumption of healthy foods, using college and professional athletes to promote healthy food brands to educate youth, leveraging social media (e.g., Instagram, Tik Tok, tv, gaming apps) to create a health communication campaign, hosting live events and creating an athlete mentorship program. A pilot campaign will be conducted among youth ages 10-18 in local communities to test for effectiveness.

2021 Cohort

Sara Bruene
Graduate Student, Sociology
Title: Migration and Food Insecurities of Central America
Sara committed to reframe the climate-driven food insecurities that displace individuals and recontextualizing migrant experiences in the Dry Corridor of Central America. She will gather 30 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Central American migrants living in Southern California. She will partner with a public Media Group of Southern California to create a film documentary that will provide the historical, social, and environmental background and share their stories to the public. She expects to build awareness of global climate change, by highlighting the global-scale connections between the actions of the most developed countries with the outcomes in the Dry Corridor region. 
 

Sahara Damon
Undergraduate in Political Science.
Title: Restaurant's for No Food Waste
Sahara is creating an app and program to combat both food waste and hunger in Los Angeles. She will create an app that restaurants in the LA area can use to notify volunteers whether they have extra food that is still good for donation. Volunteers would get the app notification and drive to the restaurant to pick up the food and disperse it to homeless populations at a set drop off spot.

Aymie Guerrero
Graduate Student, Educational Psychology and Counseling
Title: Student-Parent Center
Aymie Guerrero committed to establish the Parent Scholar Center at California State University, Northridge, where Parent Scholars could access resources to help them graduate within four years. This center houses a ‘one-stop shop’ for resources available to Parent Scholars both on campus as well as in the surrounding neighborhoods. Specifically, the center aims to help students locate and access campus resources to alleviate food insecurity (food pantry, WIC, and the pantry in the Women Resource Center) and other barriers to success (free printing and free school supplies) as well as encourage fitness and wellness (Oasis Wellness Center and Student Recreation Center). We also provide information of important off-campus resources such as food pantries, WIC offices, and social services. The Student-Parent Center expects to increase the number of student-parents who graduate in four years by supporting their mental and physical health and alleviating the anxiety and stress of navigating and acquiring essential resources.

Esther Ramirios
Graduate Student,Educational Leadership & Policy Studies
Title: Mom, Dad Go to School Too: Parent Scholar Policy Data
Esther will develop and implement an institutional framework for assessing the needs of parent scholars and parent scholars of color at CSUN. This will provide a stronger data infrastructure for underserved students. She will develop a new parent-scholar survey (or embed new questions into an existing data collection instrument) and lead a parent collective group of students to work on an autobiographical "product" that describes their experiences at CSUN. The goal is to combine both the survey results and the autobiographical product into a report or presentation and share it with stakeholders on campus to inform their efforts in recruitment, retention, and graduation around parent- parent scholars of color.

Jennifer Rivers
Graduate Student, Masters in Social Work
Title: LGBTQ+ Continuing Education for Healthcare Providers
Jennifer will write legislation for the state of California mandating 2-3 hours of LGBTQIA+ specific continuing education requirements for every healthcare provider to keep their medical licenses current. These requirements would need to be fulfilled every two years.

Miriam Sanchez and Ryan Skaggs - TEAM
Sanchez: Graduate Student, Tseng College, Public Health
Skaggs: Graduate Student, Tseng College, Public Health
Title: Community Connections
Community Connections is a Sacramento-based 501c3 non-profit formed after receiving seed funding as part of the Clinton Foundation’s COVID-19 Student Action Fund in June 2020.  They are co-led by CSUN online Master of Public Health students Miriam Sanchez and Ryan Skaggs. Throughout the COVID pandemic, they have been successful mobilizing local students, building a software platform for volunteer collaboration with local non-profits, and supporting social causes including the Asian American and Pacific Islander hate crimes, maternal and child health, senior services, disaster response, and the drive to end homelessness through fundraising, advocacy, and volunteer recruitment. They are thrilled to continue

2022 Cohort

Tara Goines
Graduate student, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
Title: A Brighter FUTURE: Providing Families Useful Teaching with Unlimited Rewards and Endeavors

This commitment to action is new in that it has the potential to support all communities. There are four specific issues that will be addressed: (1) student support in the home, (2) equitable educational opportunities for families, (3) increased staffing for local school districts, and (4) increased enrollment in community colleges.  The initial plan will focus on the community of Lancaster, CA.  I  will evaluate success through a mixed method, which will include:  student academic and social emotional data in the school setting, local community college enrollment and completion of coursework, and interviews from teaching staff, families and students.

Kaylee X. Josefina
Graduate student, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
Title: Repository for All

Kaylee X. Josefina committed to creating an online repository of research project templates, aimed primarily for community college students and students from non-traditional backgrounds. This repository will encourage research activity in a way that is engaging, affordable, and suitable for students new to research. In addition, this repository will also post informational guides on navigating the hidden curriculum of university life, and highlight the work of student researchers from non-traditional backgrounds (such as BIPOC, first generation students, transfer students, women, LGBTQ+, etc.) With her online repository, Kaylee aims to demonstrate that undergraduate research can be accessible, approachable, inclusive, and fun, while also offering a resource that will help students build confidence and take greater initiative in the future.

Pyi Maung
Graduate student, Public Administration, Sector Management and Leadership
Title: Meal Delivery for the Homeless

This CTA is new and specific to San Fernando area and research shows that it has not been tackled before. By tapping into one of the largest school systems, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), this new initiative aims to cut down leftover food waste, tap into existing a larger food source, bear no additional cost to the tax payers and be able to deliver quality food to the homeless people in the local neighborhoods

Ama Serwaa
Graduate student, Public Administration, Public Sector Leadership
Title: Vagrant No More: Bringing Mental Health Services to Rural Ghana

Ama is committed to building Vagrant No More, a mental health organization seeking to destigmatize, educate and provide aid to the mentally ill in rural Ghana. Vagrant No more hopes to raise awareness and provide aid enriched with supportive services so that the mentally ill can become economically self-sufficient. Ama’s commitment to action shines light on access to health care, economic empowerment, educational access, telehealth, good health, and wellbeing to the underserved communities in rural Ghana. With her funding, she will serve 100 people in its first year by providing aid and organizing entrepreneurial ventures for the target group to become economically self-sufficient. Join Ama’s call to action by visiting the organization’s site www.vagrantnomore.com to spread your support.

Pammela Sweet
Graduate Student, Linguistics/TESL
Title: African-American Vernacular English in the Judicial System

My project is a set of videos designed to educate juries and member of the legal system on the meaning of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) terms which will positively impact trials and thus lead to fair and equitable sentencing for AAVE speakers, as well as educating court reporters on terms that change meaning in different contexts.  My project is similar to videos to prevent sexual harassment that have become mandatory at work places and universities. Unlike those, these videos are very specific to empaneled jurors and court reporters whose judgment impacts sentencing.  I am currently working to assemble the best team to implement these ideas.