Durham, NC – Shawn Selleck, ONE Chapter leader at Duke University joined more than 120 of the top student activists from colleges and universities all over the U.S. in Washington, D.C. during the first week of the year for the first-ever ONE student summit. The three-day summit offered students the opportunity to meet some of the political and policy figures who’ve led the fight against extreme poverty and disease, including Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Gene Sperling, Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Paul Begala, political contributor and Democratic strategist on CNN’s The Situation Room.

At the Power 100 Summit, students came together, learn about ONE and hear from well-known speakers, activists and political leaders. The goal of the conference was to create lifelong activists. In the short term, students learned techniques that have been effective on college campuses nationwide to raise awareness about the fight against global poverty and disease, as well as acquire new ideas and polish their skills for the coming semester.

“I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the Power 100 Summit. I would never have the chance to see or interact with the speakers we heard or have the other opportunities we were given anywhere else. I will definitely apply what I learned at the Power 100 to what we’re doing at Duke,” Shawn Selleck, ONE Chapter Leader at Duke said.

Students earned an invitation to the Power 100 Summit by being one of the student leaders at the top 100 campuses nationwide, as determined by the schools that rank within the top 100 schools in the ONE Campus Challenge (OCC), ONE.org/campus. Campuses earn their ranking by garnering points in challenges that advance and increase awareness of the movement to make poverty history. The schools with the most points after World AIDS Day (December 1st) were invited to elect one representative to come to the conference. The Power 100 Summit took place January 2-5, 2007, at the Capital Hilton.

Duke University took an early lead in the ONE Campus Challenge. The Duke ONE Chapter was successful in convincing Mayor William “Bill” Bell of Durham to sign a proclamation making Durham the first City of ONE in North Carolina in November. Just last Thursday, January 10, Shawn’s hometown of Mineral Springs followed Durham’s lead in becoming a ONE City. Duke has maintained a top 20 position in the Campus Challenge, and currently sits in 12th place. The next goal is to convince administrators to sign a similar proclamation to make Duke a “Campus of ONE.”

The second day of the conference, Jenna Bush spoke to the students about Ana’s Story, a book she wrote about her time interning in Latin America with UNICEF. She encouraged students to talk about the individuals affected by the problems they are working to address, rather than relying on statistics which frequently overwhelm the listener. After speaking to the Power 100 participants, she signed copies of Ana’s Story and posed for photographs with the student leaders.

Suprotik Basu, Public Health Specialist for the World Bank’s Booster Program for Malaria Control in Africa and newly appointed Managing Director for Malaria No More, urged the students to think about the implications of ending malaria, posing it as the public health achievement of this generation. Basu advised that it is feasible that the next president could end deaths from malaria, a disease that currently takes the life of more than 3,000 children each day, within ten years and with new tools and technologies that the disease could be eradicated in their lifetimes. Students were energized by the possibility and surrounded Basu after his remarks with questions.

Students also heard from Gayle Smith, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress; Steve Radelet, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development; Sam Worthington, President and CEO of InterAction;John Fawcett, Legislative Director for RESULTS: Creating Political Will to End Hunger; Patrick Schmitt, former Executive Director of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition; Adam Taylor, Director of Campaigns and Organizing for Sojourners; and Erin Thornton, Policy Director for ONE.

“Every day, I see first-hand the creativity and energy that students bring to ONE. Bringing the top student leaders together in DC for the Power 100 Summit was one of the best things ONE has ever done,” said ONE Student Outreach Coordinator Erin Eagan. “For the first time, we brought students together who’ve achieved great successes as organizers on their campuses, including some that have successfully recruited more than 1,000 students on their campus, petitioned their mayor to declare their city a ONE City or gotten ONE issues included in their school’s curriculum. Their accomplishments are as diverse as the students represented here and all have been on the frontlines of the fight against poverty in 2007.”

More than 20,000 students on 1,300 campuses nationwide are participating in the ONE Campus Challenge, a competition among schools across the country. In its first 12 hours, the Challenge signed up new members of the ONE Campaign on more than 1,000 college campuses across the United States. ONE’s use of cutting-edge Internet-based technologies gives students an unprecedented level of organization and involvement.

“To earn his spot at the conference, Shawn organized his peers to take actions that will create lasting change. They called their Members of Congress. They recruited other students and they asked presidential candidates what they are doing to address these issues,” said ONE spokesperson Kimberly Cadena. “This is a critical time in history, and students are seizing the opportunity to make big things happen as we move to end extreme poverty and eradicate unnecessary diseases such as malaria around the world.  Shawn is one of many student leaders across the U.S. who will accomplish great things individually in the coming semester, but together they will change the world in their lifetimes.”

Lighter moments of the conference included hearing from Douglas Walker, founder of the World Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS) Society who spoke about the power of viral marketing and refereed an impromptu RPS tournament for Summit attendees. Students also took a tour of Washington’s monuments preceded by dinner at the National Press Club with Tucker Eskew, Former Deputy Assistant to the President in the White House Office of Communications and founding partner of ViaNovo, and Nathan Naylor, White House veteran from the Clinton-Gore administration and current advisor on cyber security communication strategies to the Department of Homeland Security. Friday evening closed with a concert by Washington, D.C.’s, own Jukebox the Ghost, who joined the Power 100 participants to create a human ONE logo in the lobby of the Capital Hilton at the conclusion of their show.

“At the Power 100 Summit, the top ONE chapter leaders had the opportunity to meet each other and share their enthusiasm about what ONE is doing across the country. The take-away from this conference, in addition to friendships and restored enthusiasm, is a lasting passion for activism,” said ONE spokesperson Kimberly Cadena. “These students are among the 2.4 million members of ONE that believe that we can end extreme poverty and stop the spread of preventable disease. College campuses are a laboratory for effective activism and the ONE Campus Challenge provides students with the tools necessary to take advantage of every opportunity and to create many on their own.”

THE ONE CAMPUS CHALLENGE is ONE’s initiative to engage American college students in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease. It is a high-energy, creative organizing effort to funnel students’ innovative ideas and passion into the growing movement to make poverty history. For more information, please visit: one.org/campus.

ONE: THE CAMPAIGN TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans — ONE by ONE — to fight the emergency of global disease and extreme poverty. ONE is a coalition of millions of Americans and more than 150 of the nation’s leading relief, humanitarian and advocacy organizations. For more information, please visit: ONE.org.