ONE Campus winners meet in DC to help plan next challenge

Jul 13th, 2011 4:59 PM UTC
By Field

On behalf of the students chosen for the ONE Campus Challenge (OCC) grand prize, hello from Washington, DC! Because of all of the hard work done by both the University of Michigan (UofM) and the University of Florida (UF), we were able bring nine students from these universities to share this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

On Day One, we met at the ONE headquarters in DC for our first briefing session. As we discussed the itinerary for the week, you could feel the excitement in the room grow as events like “ONE photo shoot,” “2011-2012 planning session” and “White House tour” were mentioned. When we were sitting around the conference table with other dedicated ONE members and coordinators, it finally hit home — I’m making a difference on a higher level regarding an issue I’m most passionate about.” As my mom would say, it’s definitely something to write in my diary!

Before I got to DC, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect — but during our first meeting it quickly became clear. We’re here to raise the bar on the ONE Campus program by creating the best possible resources and environment for next year’s challenge. Our goal is to make sure that every campus is maximizing their impact and improving the effectiveness of individual members. We’ve already given good feedback on what we’ve found to be the most successful actions as well as ones we would like to see on the list. We’re working towards creating the best balance between advocacy and education and encouraging more interaction between campuses and their members of Congress. It’s a lot to cover, but we all came ready to bring the ONE Campus Challenge to a higher level.

I know all of us from UofM and UF came to DC with some great ideas about next year’s challenge and I can’t wait to see what ONE Campus schools will be accomplishing in the coming months.

-Mary Kate Cartmill, Campus Leader, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

TAGS: From ONE Members, ONE, ONE App, ONE Campus Challenge