April 2010 – Ann Costello, Director of the Golisano Foundation; University of Rochester Warner School professors Martha Mock and Susan Hetherington; Elizabeth McAnarney, chair and professor emerita of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center; Dr. Joe Burke, President of Keuka College; and Dr. John Martin, President of Roberts Wesleyan College attended the third annual meeting of Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), hosted by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his foundation.
The Rochester contingent attended a special session for university presidents on empowering the next generation of global citizens. Dr. Martin and Dr. Burke showcased their current campus-based programs for students with intellectual disabilities. Costello, highlighted post secondary education options for students with developmental disabilities, and featured efforts being made on this front in Western New York. Students with and without disabilities also attended the conference and received a special certificate from the President.
The 2010 CGI U Meeting, was held April 16-18 at the University of Miami, and brought together college students, university presidents, and leaders of the nonprofit community to tackle global issues of education, environment and climate change, peace and human rights, poverty alleviation, and public health.
The UR professors’ participation at CGI U was supported by the Institute for Innovative Transition, housed at Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities (SCDD), with funds made available from the Golisano Foundation.
This past summer, the Golisano Foundation hosted a group of university and college presidents, representing nearly a dozen local higher education institutions, who have joined forces and formed a new consortium, the Western New York Consortium on Campus-Based Opportunities (WNYCCO), that has allowed these institutions to work together to provide a range of inclusive supports and programs to students with developmental disabilities. The WNYCCO is an initiative of the Institute for Innovative Transition, a partnership of the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education and Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities.
“Our goal for attending CGI U is to increase national awareness at the university-president level about students with developmental disabilities and to showcase our work in the area of transition,” says Mock, director of the Institute who also holds joint appointments at the University of Rochester’s Warner School and in the Department of Pediatrics in the Medical School. “Upon our return, we hope to be able to form new partnerships and bring new ideas to strategically implementing an inclusive post secondary initiative statewide as part of the new Think College NY! Initiative.”
Building on the successful model of the Clinton Global Initiative, which brings together world leaders to take action on global challenges, President Clinton launched CGI U in 2007 to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world. To learn more about the CGI U, visit cgiu.clintonglobalinitiative.org/Page.aspx?pid=3093
