The mission of the Global Engagment Summit is to build the capacity of the next generation of global leaders to produce responsible, sustainable solutions to shared global problems.  To do this, GES brings together students from around the world to participate in five days of intense skill building and cross-cultural exchange.

We believe that better education is the missing gap between awareness and action and between “good intentions” and real responsible, effective, and sustainable global change. This is why we dedicate ourselves year round to developing the best immersive capacity-building event possible.

The Global Engagement Summit is a five day event that takes place at Northwestern University every year.

Designed to fill the gap between "awareness" and "action," GES connects young people with experienced global change-makers through workshops and small-discussion groups, helping the student participants develop project ideas for responsible, effective, and sustainable global change.

GES is a program that understands challenges; rather than shirking from or ignoring the complications and potential problems of global engagement, we work to understand them. One of the ways we overcome challenges is by utilizing existing assets – that means both our assets and the assets of the communities we partner with.

We believe deeply in the potential of every individual to utilize their passions and assets to be a part of positive global change. Our job is to help individuals move beyond “good intentions” by enabling those passions with skills, knowledge, and connections to peers and experts.

We prioritize real relationships and community connections; we’re excited about the sustainability and authenticity of small-scale global relationships between individuals and communities in which all parties understand what they have to give and what they have to receive.

We believe that better education is the missing gap between awareness and action and between “good intentions” and real responsible, effective, and sustainable global change. This is why we dedicate ourselves year round to developing the best immersive capacity-building event possible. Finally, we are not content to rely on past successes but work constantly to improve our capacity to help maximize the positive potential of the next generation of global change-makers.

Upcoming: In its third year, the Global Engagment Summit will be held in April 2008.

GES (formerly the Internatinal Youth Volunteerism Summit) began a few years ago when a group of Northwestern students began to confront the limits of their ability to be a part of real, long-lasting global change. They had the passion, energy and ideas. They even had some budding connections with global communities. What they lacked were educational spaces to develop the specific skills, knowledge, and resources to translate awareness to action.

The event they envisioned would bring together driven young people from around the world – not to convince them that they should care, but rather to help them actually become young agents of global change by connecting them directly with experienced nonprofit leaders, development practitioners, and global community leaders. They imagined an event which would move away from impersonal lectures and instead focus on dynamic workshops and discussions. They wanted to plan an event which had the full investment of its participants and which facilitated real productive outcomes. IYVS was born.

In 2006, more than 40 Northwestern students came together to put on the first International Youth Volunteerism Summit. With the support of university offices ranging from the Office of the Provost to the School of Education and Social Policy, the IYVS team brought together participants from more than 20 countries (including nine flown in from Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, the UK, Yemen, and the Ukraine), more than 30 American universities and more than 35 innovative global nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations. Over the course of the four day event, students participated in panel discussions, workshops, small group discussions and a variety of social events which enabled them to connect directly with experts and peers alike. At the end of the event, each student was invited to submit the project proposal they had been working on over the course of the weekend for potential support.  We awarded our first prize packages, together worth more than $10,000, to Ryan Richards and Rolf Garcia-Gallont, IYVS delegates who had each proposed innovative projects focusing on various aspects of educational and economic empowerment in Guatemala. In the true spirit of the Summit, these projects will not only benefit their Guatemalan community partners, but will create new volunteer and exchange opportunities for Northwestern students and IYVS alumni.

In 2007, the second summit was held.  Again, participants came from all over the world, including Singapore, India, Mexico, Ecuador, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, France, and all over the US.  At of the end of the summit, projects were welcome to particpate in the IYVS-GlobalGiving Project Challenge, where projects raised money on GlobalGiving.com.  The top two projects- a Sustainable Water Initiative in Costa Rica, and HOPE HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe- earned permanent spots on the site.  Additionally, ProjectFOCUS, with an overwhelming amount of donors and support, earned a place as well.  Project evaluations and support will ensure that these projects continue sustainably and effectively. 

The International Youth Volunteerism Summit was founded to improve young people’s ability to connect with communities to postively contribute to global problem solving. In our two years of program planning and implementation, we’ve realized that the name we chose is somewhat limiting.

The reality is that we live in a global world, not an international one. We are interested in increasing citizen-level change that enables partnerships between people, regardless of national borders.

We also recognize that ‘volunteerism’ is only one method of engaging, and that what we care about is the connection that happens between people, whether it’s an ‘exchange,’ a ‘volunteer’ trip, a collaborative project or something entirely different.

With this in mind, next year we will be moving from ‘International Youth Volunteerism Summit’ to ‘Global Engagement Summit.’ We hope you join us!

APPLY: Global Engagement Summit April 16-20, 2008

Application at: www.theges.wordpress.com
International Delegate DEADLINE: November 15, 2007
American Delegate DEADLINE: December 31, 2007

GES is able to offer some air travel scholarships on a case-by-case basis.

Are you a globally-minded leader passionate about world change?

GES builds delegates’ skills and capacities to engage in responsible, effective, and sustainable change around the world.

Last year’s summit involved undergraduates and recent graduates from over 20 countries and 50 universities, with more than 25 global nonprofits for five days of exchange and capacity building.

Over $50,000 dollars Have gone to support delegates’ projects!