Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and special advisor to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, will be a featured speaker at this year’s conference. Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP/GettyImages.
Northeastern University will host the fourth annual Millennium Campus Conference on Sept. 14–15, bringing together world-renowned speakers and 1,000 college students to discuss issues of sustainable development and extreme poverty.
The two-day conference will focus on addressing the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, which all 193 U.N. member states have pledged to achieve by 2015. These goals include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
The conference aligns with Northeastern’s focus on conducting use-inspired research that solves global challenges in health, security and sustainability, and dovetails with the university’s unique model of experiential education in which students work, study and conduct research in 92 countries worldwide. In hosting the prestigious conference, Northeastern joins an elite group of universities comprising Columbia, Harvard and MIT, which hosted the inaugural event in 2008.
Nate Bessa, a junior computer science and entrepreneurship combined major and the director of the 2012 conference, said that the event represents a unique opportunity for students.
“Students from around the world will hear from global leaders and hugely impactful organizations, and then be inspired to apply their education, abilities and passion to make a positive impact on someone’s life on the other side of the globe,” he explained.
The conference will feature presentations by a series of globally prominent speakers including 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee; Partners In Health co-founder and chief strategy officer Paul Farmer; and Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and special advisor to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon.
Northeastern president Joseph E. Aoun will deliver welcoming remarks at the start of the events on Sept. 15.
Sachs is looking forward to taking part in the conference. “This is the greatest chance to get together with 1,000 students or more,” said Sachs, speaking in a YouTube video posted to the MCC website. “I’m going to be there with lots of friends [and] lots of leaders in making the Millennium goals real, making them within reach and making sure we achieve them before 2015.”
In addition to powerful presentations from global leaders, the conference will feature workshops designed to prepare and empower students to address worldwide challenges.
The conference is organized by the Millennium Campus Network, a nonprofit network of university student organizations on 30 campuses in Boston, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.
To purchase tickets to this year’s conference or for more information, visit www.mcc2012.org. Northeastern students can purchase half-price tickets by using the code “neu10” at checkout.