Greetings from your one and only COA for SoCal and Hawaii, Nare! A proud student at the University of Southern California (Go Trojans!), I’m majoring in Fine Arts and Psychology, and I’m the co-leader of the ONE team at USC. I live in the beautifully sunny Los Angeles and enjoy long moonlit walks on the beach.
Oh, and of course I love fighting poverty with the ONE team, meeting all of my amazing volunteers and hearing their crazy stories and experiences with the cause. When I grow up, I plan to be a tightrope walker in a travelling circus so I can spread joy and happiness to everyone I meet. Through my patented scientific formula, this joy will also somehow end all wars and cure world hunger.
To kick off Dayton’s annual Food Stamp Challenge, ONE WSU held a Poverty Banquet to show how extremely difficult it is for people to live on food stamps alone. About 25 people came and we served boxed Mac & Cheese to the majority, while only two people were served hot pizza, and three people got nothing at all. We wanted to show our campus how America eats and what domestic poverty feels like. We had speakers from ONE partner organization, Bread for the World, as well as the Department of Job and Family Services, Montgomery County. The speakers told our group about US poverty in relation to world poverty and what it was like to live on food stamps.
For 7 days, we lived on about $1.27 per meal which is on average, what food stamps amount to in Ohio. It was miserable! Together, as ONE, we can fix this. We need to fix this because although we think it is horrible in the United States, people in third world countries do not get offered food stamps, and sometimes have to eat mud to keep their bellies full. As ONE, we need to do something about this.
It was the summer of 2005, my first semester as a college student. I couldn’t wait to begin my new life and explore all of the options that college life could give! One month after starting school, on July 7, 2005, 52 British civilians were killed in the 7/7 London Bombings. Over a third of my family lives in and around London, so when my mother called me that morning, I was in shock. Luckily, all of my family were safe, but certainly shaken. Then, less than two weeks later, I found out the terrible news that nearly stopped me in my college-tracks- a friend of mine, while in Turkey, was killed by a bombing on her the last day of her holidays. Four other tourists were killed, and 14 were injured.
I nearly dropped out during my first semester because of each of these events. But I came to realize, that there was something that I wanted more– I wanted to know why people would do this, why they would go to such lengths to carry out these actions. But perhaps most of all, I wanted to know what I could do, because now that I was personally affected, I was not content with sitting by and pretending that nothing was happening in the world.
That was perhaps the moment that I decided to continue with my political science studies, specifically conflict resolution and international development. And that is where I discovered the ONE Campaign. I was searching possible organizations to work with once out of college, and this seemed to fit with exactly what I wanted to do. While its direct aim was to fight global poverty and AIDS, it also deals with increasing debt relief, lessening government corruption, increasing international affairs budget and increasing development aid to the world’s most vulnerable countries. Although I kept up with most of the progress and actions of the organization, I have not had the opportunity to work with it until now, my senior year at UF. And now that I am completely obsessed with the ONE Campaign, I hope to inspire others to find something that they can also care about so passionately. Even if it is not the campaign, I believe it is crucially important for our generation to work toward addressing and solving the most crippling issues of our time. Whether that be the environment, economics, technology, or whatever we choose, I believe my generation has the opportunity and obligation to stand up, take notice and speak out for what we believe should change. Never again do I want to be affected by such traumatic and tragic events, and I would never want to have to console a friend regarding the same circumstances.
I believe we CAN make a change, and our time is NOW! My freshman year was not easy, and adjusting to these changes in my life was incredibly difficult, but in some way they gave me such an increased sense of clarity. I know now, and especially through working with the ONE Campaign, that young people can change their surroundings, and can truly have a positive impact on those less fortunate than ourselves. So if you are reading this, ask yourself, what are you passionate about, and what can you do to change your world?
Details: 10,000 points to the school with the best event around World AIDS Day, December 1st.
Deadline: Midnight PST on Sunday, December 7th, 2008
Although World AIDS Day is Monday, December 1st, you get two full weeks to plan and hold your event on any day before December 7th. You can hold a rally, show a film, visit a local high school, pretty much anything goes. Check out our World AIDS Day webpage for some suggestions and resources.
We’ll be judging based on the coolness of your event, and also how many signers you get signed onto ONE’s latest petition. We’re calling on President-elect Barack Obama to make a clear statement in his inaugural address that he remains committed to helping the world’s poorest people, including providing life-saving AIDS vaccines and preventing new infections.
Congratulations to the University of Southern California, our “Call Congress” challenge winners with 9 calls to their Senators and Representatives. The Trojans barely beat out Franciscan University of Steubenville, which registered 8 calls, and Missouri State, which logged 6.
We got 76 calls reported total. That may seem like a small number, but it really amounts to a strong push for the letter asking Obama for a robust FY10 International Affairs Budget. Congressional calls can have a major impact. That’s why we award a whopping 1,000 points per phone call.
So USC is taking home not only the 10,000 points and prize pack for winning the challenge, but an additional 9,000 points for making 9 phone calls. That ought to shake up the leaderboard a bit.
Thanks to everyone who made a call for this challenge. Great job, all!
This past Saturday, The ONE Campaign- Baylor joined hundreds of other organizations from the university to make a difference in the lives of those living in our community. Each semester, organizations powered by hundreds of students take a Saturday afternoon to “Step Out” into the community to serve those in need. Groups are assigned tasks such as cleaning up parks and rivers, working with the elderly, and holding block parties in low income areas.
This year, ONE worked with Student Government as well as Baylor Students for Social Justice to paint a house used by Mission Waco, a large non-profit organization in the area geared towards helping those in poverty. ONE members painted a house used by Mission Waco to house men who have successfully completed a drug or alcohol recovery program. Members worked all afternoon painting while joining hundreds of other students as ONE to help those in need.
Sic ‘Em ONE!
-Justin Kralemann, President of the ONE Campaign-Baylor
This week, Photo of the Week goes Greek with Baylor University’s Kappa Delta chapter. In addition to posing for this great group shot with our signature ONE bands, the Kappa Deltas are helping Baylor’s OCC team raise money for Malaria No More – a ONE partner organization determined to end deaths from malaria.
Hey all! My name is Stephanie Parrish and I’m a sophomore at the University of Michigan, GO BLUE! I am the Campus Outreach Ambassador for the states of Michigan and Wisconsin! I’m majoring in African Studies and Public Policy and will hopefully be pursuing a minor in Gender and Health. Outside of the ONE Campus Challenge, I am a representative on Student Government, a dancer in the University of Michigan Dance Marathon, a member of the World AIDS Week planning committee, and the Publicity Chair for the LGBT Commission here on campus! I’ve developed some kind of obsession with trying to understand the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa and working to solve it.
In my free time, I love to yell at the top of my lungs at Michigan Football games (yes, even after this historical season) and play soccer. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at snparris@umich.edu! ONE love! =)
I’m Sarah Atwill and I’m the Campus Outreach Ambassador for Arizona and New Mexico. I’m currently a sophomore at the Arizona State University studying History and Political Science. I am involved in the Undergraduate Student Government, Residence Hall Association and the ONE Campaign at ASU. Outside of school and extracurriculars I love sleeping, eating pizza and doing yoga.
The OCC Blog is a daily log of the ONE Campus Challenge, a competition among American college students
to prove that their campus has the most creative and effective extreme poverty fighters in the country.
The site is operated by ONE volunteers and campus leaders.
The content of each post represents the views of that post's author and does not necessarily reflect the
views of the ONE Campaign. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any posts
expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
Understand how the ONE Campus Challenge works by reviewing the rules. All participation in the challenge is subject to the terms and conditions in the rules.
