YOUNG INITIATIVE 2015-2016
INTRODUCTION Under the leadership of Professor Sanjeev Khagram, the Young Initiative contributed to some of the defining events of the 2015-2016 academic year, such as TEDxOccidentalCollege. The hard work of the students and faculty, supported by the Young Initiative, have made this year another productive and successful year for Occidental College and helped advance our vision to be a leader among liberal arts colleges in the study of global affairs.
ABOUT THE YOUNG INITIATIVE The Young Initiative at Occidental College is funded by an endowment that supports the John Parke Young Chair in Global Political Economy together with programs and research designed to promote national or international economic, social, financial or political policies or actions of general public and social benefit. This fund is dedicated to John Parke Young, who graduated from Oxy in 1917 and was a distinguished international economist, former chair of the College’s economics department and the son of the Rev. William Stewart Young, one of Occidental’s founders and a 50-year member of the Board of Trustees.
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a message from
THE CHAIR 2015-2016 was another successful year for the Young Initiative, although it was another year of tumult on campus, with the occupation of the administrative building, as well as in the world, more broadly symbolized by the Syrian refugee crisis. On the brighter side, the 193 member states of the United Nations adopted the bold and transformative 2030 Agenda, which includes 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals consisting of 169 concrete targets on issues ranging from poverty alleviation to women’s empowerment to fostering peace to combatting climate change. The Young Initiative correspondingly prioritized its program around the Global Sustainable Development Goals and contributed heavily to the College-wide theme for the year: Sustainability. Among the many accomplishments of the last year, including the Sustainable Development and Future of Diplomacy Speaker Series, the second TEDxOccidentalCollege was held in late spring. This year’s TEDx was held in the beautiful and intimate Choi Auditorium and broadcast live on the Global Digital Crossroads platform. The student organizing team did a marvelous job, supported by my faculty co-chairs, Associate Professor Sophal Ear, Lecturer Sherry Simpson-Dean, and myself. The Young Initiative also sponsored three excellent faculty-led conferences on China’s International Relations in an Era of Slowing Economic Growth; Sexualities, Gender and Human Rights; and School Choice and Education Quality. Oxypreneurship continued to grow from strength to strength, including another successful J-Term, and I was delighted by the record number of applications and increasing number of Young student grants that were focused on research in addition to internships.
Dr. Sanjeev Khagram John Parke Young Professor of Global Political Economy Director, Young Initiative on the Global Economy
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TABLE OF CONTENTS FALL 2015 SPEAKERS
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SPEAKER SERIES 5 FUTURE OF DIPLOMACY SPEAKER SERIES
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SPONSORED CONFERENCES
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CHINA’S SLOWING GROWTH
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SEXUALITIES, GENDER AND HUMAN RIGHTS
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SCHOOL CHOICE AND EDUCATION QUALITY
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YOUNG STUDENT GRANTS
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FACULTY GRANTS AND ACTIVITIES
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OXYPRENEURSHIP
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OXYPRENEURSHIP HIGHLIGHTS
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J-TERM 2016
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TEDXOCCIDENTALCOLLEGE 2016
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TEDX SPEAKERS
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U.N. USA & MODEL U.N.
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PEOPLE
YOUNG INITIATIVE LEADERSHIP
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YOUNG INITIATIVE PROGRAM ASSISTANTS
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FINANCIAL SUMMARY
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FALL 2015 SPEAKERS
EMMANUELA GAKIDOU November 11, 2015
Measuring the Impact of Public Health Interventions and Policies Emmanuela Gakidou is professor of global health and director of academic development and training at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Gakidou’s research involves impact evaluation and methods development for analytical challenges in global health. She is passionate about training the next generation of leaders in the field of health metrics and evaluation.
STEPHEN WALT November 19, 2015
Follies, Foibles and Fiascos: Why Does American Foreign Policy Keep Failing? Stephen Walt is one of the world’s leading political scientists. He has authored several academic and non-academic articles about Iran’s nuclear program. He spoke at Occidental about the historical struggles of U.S. foreign policy and offered suggestions for future adjustments. Walt has written several books on U.S. foreign policy, including the renowned The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, co-authored with his colleague John Mearsheimer.
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SPEAKER SERIES With the advent of the United Nations’ Global Sustainable Development Goals, the understanding of how stakeholders across sectors and societies can work together to achieve transformative progress became even more important. Professor Sanjeev Khagram invited a series of speakers to Occidental College to address the Global Goals and collaborative and innovative approaches to achieving the Goals.
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WARIGIA BOWMAN January 25, 2016
Censorship or Self-Control? Hate Speech, Information Technology, the State and the Voter in the Kenyan Election of 2013 Warigia Bowman, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, earned her doctorate at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Her research is multidisciplinary and informed by the fields of anthropology, history, political science and public policy. Bowman is keenly interested in rural development issues, both in the United States and in Africa, and spoke about her recent research regarding hate speech and the use of text messaging in the 2013 Kenyan elections.
SANJEEV KHAGRAM March 1, 2016
Harnessing the Data Revolution to Achieve the Global Sustainable Development Goals Sanjeev Khagram is the John Parke Young Chair in Global Political Economy at Occidental College and the coordinator of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. Khagram is known worldwide for his interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral leadership on globalization, transnationalism, sustainable development and human security. He explained his research and role in creating the Global Data Partnership. 7
PHILIPP SCHONROCK March 15, 2016
The Role of Civil Society in Achieving the Global Sustainable Development Goals Philipp Schonrock is the director of Centro de Pensamiento Estratégico Internacional, Colombia. Schonrock’s writing includes a number of essays about development cooperation, and many of his articles are featured across different Latin American press outlets. He spoke about his recent project to increase regional dialogue and information-sharing for the dissemination of good practices of sustainable development cooperation models in Latin America and the Caribbean.
PETER EIGEN April 11, 2016
Transparency and Sustainable Development Peter Eigen is the founder of Transparency International, an organization that has worked with governments, citizens and businesses for more than 20 years to stop the abuse of power, bribery and secret deals. Eigen’s TED Talk, “How to Expose the Corrupt,” has been viewed nearly 650,000 times. He spoke about the founding of Transparency International and its contributions to an international norm of governance. 8
FUTURE OF DIPLOMACY SPEAKER SERIES As President Barack Obama prepares to leave office and the election season begins in full force, how will the next president of the United States influence American policy abroad? How is our diplomatic corps addressing current challenges from a changing geopolitical landscape? Ambassador Derek Shearer invited current and former diplomats to discuss the present and future of American diplomacy in his “Future of Diplomacy� speaker series.
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JEFFREY DAVIDOW January 26, 2016
A Conversation on Immigration, El Chapo, Trump’s Wall, the Future of U.S.-Mexico Relations After Obama and U.S. relations With Cuba and Venezuela Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow is a career senior foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State. Davidow served as ambassador to Zambia, Venezuela and Mexico. At Occidental, he spoke about the increasingly complex nature of the relationship between the United States and its Latin American partners. He is the author of The Bear and the Porcupine: The U.S. and Mexico.
JEFFREY BADER
February 25, 2016
The U.S. and China After Obama Ambassador Jeffrey Bader served as director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council and as ambassador to Namibia. During his three-decade career with the U.S. government, Bader was principally involved in U.S.-China relations at the State Department, the National Security Council and the Office of the United States Trade Representative. In 2001, as assistant U.S. trade representative, he led the United States delegation in completing negotiations on the accession of China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization. He spoke about the current dynamic relations between the U.S. and China and expected changes to the relationship for the next U.S. presidential administration. Bader is the author of Obama and China’s Rise: An Insider’s Account of America’s Asia Strategy.
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JOSEPH NYE March 16, 2016
American Power and the Next President Joseph Nye served as assistant secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, chair of the National Intelligence Council and deputy under secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology. Nye discussed the American fixation on crisis and shared his thoughts on what the next U.S. president should focus on during his or her first days in office. He is the author of Soft Power, The Power to Lead and The Future of Power.
PHILIP GOLDBERG March 22, 2016
America’s Challenges in the Pacific Ambassador Philip Goldberg is the current U.S. ambassador to the Philippines. Ambassador Goldberg is a career foreign service officer, also serving as ambassador to Bolivia and for the Department of State in Kosovo, Chile, Colombia, and South Africa. His lecture focused on the idea of the U.S. rebalancing the Pacific, rather than a pivot.
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GEOFFREY WISEMAN March 23, 2016
A Conversation With Geoff Wiseman on Assertive Public Diplomacy Geoffrey Wiseman is the professor of practice of international relations and public diplomacy at USC. As a former Australian diplomat, he served in Stockholm, Hanoi and Brussels and as private secretary to Foreign Minister Gareth Evans. In 2007, Wiseman served in the U.N. secretary-general’s executive office, working on nonproliferation and disarmament of weapons of mass destruction. His lecture focused on the choices states make when deciding how to behave with their adversaries.
NICHOLAS BURNS
March 31, 2016
U.S. Global Leadership and the Next President Ambassador Nicholas Burns is a professor of diplomacy and international relations at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Burns spent 27 years as a career foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, and served as ambassador to Greece, as well as under secretary of State for Political Affairs. He spoke about the three most prominent issues on which the next administration should focus: Putin and Europe, the “burning” Middle East and China and Asia.
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YOUNG INITIATIVE 2015-2016 SPONSORED CONFERENCES
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CHINA’S SLOWING GROWTH What does it mean for the emerging economies?
Hosted at USC, this joint conference focused on the “China Boom” period (2003-2013), in which both China’s demand for raw materials and its economic interaction with emerging economies rose to historic highs. Experts from around the globe gathered to discuss a multitude of issues concerning the political and economic consequences of China’s slowing growth as of 2013. Sophal Ear, associate professor of diplomacy & world affairs, shared his insights on the complex relationship between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Highlights of the discussion included China’s growing presence in the South China Sea, the diversity in the range and structural nature of economic engagement between China and various ASEAN states, and the implications of China’s bilateral agreements on multilateral integration in the region.
PARTICIPANTS Deborah Brautigam Johns Hopkins University
Carla Park Freeman Johns Hopkins University
Shaun Breslin University of Warwick
Beverley Loke Oxford University
Yunnan Chen Johns Hopkins University
Sothea Oum Ngee Ann-Adelaide Education Centre, Singapore
Victoria Chonn Ching USC Alexander Day Occidental College Sophal Ear Occidental College
Niklas Swanström Institute for Security & Development Policy, Sweden Jue Wang Leiden University Carol Wise USC 14
SEXUALITIES, GENDER AND HUMAN RIGHTS Histories and Futures What can we learn from the struggles and successes of the world’s leading human rights academics, policymakers and activists on becoming change agents? In this day-long event organized by diplomacy & world affairs Professor Anthony Chase and presented by the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program, the Young Initiative and the DWA department, the Occidental community heard firsthand from those who have battled at the front lines for transformational sociopolitical change within the confines of the bureaucratic world stage. A panel, a lecture and a discussion addressed overlapping issues on inclusive justice and sustainable development. These events highlighted the participants’ collective endeavors leading up to Amnesty International’s inclusion of sexuality and sexual orientation in the global human rights dialogue, the importance of grounding social justice movements on human rights truths, and the need to recognize the intersectionality of intra- and interinstitutional change.
PARTICIPANTS Anthony Tirado Chase Occidental College
Ali Miller Yale University
Laura Ferguson USC
Cynthia Rothschild U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
Susana Fried Yale University Sofia Gruskin USC 15
Ignacio Saiz Center for Economic and Social Rights Meg Satterthwaite New York University
SCHOOL CHOICE AND EDUCATION Perspectives From Urban Centers This full day workshop convened researchers and practitioners from UCLA, Stanford, USC, Vanderbilt and Partnership for L.A. Schools to present their empirical work and expert perspectives on the impacts of school-choice policies at home and abroad. It was attended by researchers and graduate students from Los Angeles-area universities and research centers, community members from organizations such as Parent Revolution, Occidental faculty and Occidental students representing a variety of departments (economics, urban and environmental policy, diplomacy & world affairs, sociology and education). The presentations touched on many aspects of school choice, including the impact of vouchers, magnet schools, private schools and transportation on student choices, effort and outcomes. Together, the projects suggested large variation in the impacts of choice policies and implied a more nuanced approach to understanding the contextual factors associated with each policy. The presentations also garnered a robust discussion about the fragmented state of school choice in Los Angeles, raising potential solutions and areas for further research.
PARTICIPANTS Andrew Dustan Vanderbilt University
Emily Penner Stanford University
Ayesha Hashim USC
Juan Saavedra USC
Diana Ngo Occidental College
Chase Stafford Partnership for Los Angeles Schools Jia Wang UCLA 16
YOUNG STUDENT GRANTS
John Parke Young sought to promote the study of the global political economy and global affairs. The initiative is committed to supporting this vision by providing student grants for independent research, internships and conference attendance around the world. This year, a record number of 41 students applied, and the Young Student Grant Committee managed a competitive selection process, awarding grants to 20 students for their projects. Grants for the year totaled $58,449. Once complete, recipients submit a report and present their activities and findings using Occidental’s Global Digital Crossroads as a platform.
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YOUNG STUDENT GRANTS Fall/Winter 2015
Spring/Summer 2016
Tristan Cooper ’16 Internship – Team Tassy Port Au Prince, Haiti
Maya Allen ’17 Research – Solutions to Femicide in Guatemala Through Education Antigua, Guatemala
Julia d’Amours ’17 Conference – Lemkin Summit 2016 Washington, D.C. Mika Kato ’17 Internship – Team Tassy Year Youth Program Port Au Prince, Haiti Cesar Martinez ’17 Research – Alternative Media Circulation in Cuba: Alternative Paquetes and the Reappropriation of El Paquete Semanal Havana, Cuba Daniel Tobin ’16 Research – Exploring a Multidimensional Environment Index: The Case of Costa Rica San José, Costa Rica
William Butenschoen ’18 Fellowship – Social Entrepreneurship at Sustainable Harvest Portland, Ore. Hannah Cohen ’17 Internship – U.S. Department of State Washington, D.C. Isaac Dalsheimer ’18 Construction Projects with Fundación Aprender Las Salinas and Tola, Nicaragua Nicholas Descamps ’17 Internship – U.S. Senator Steve Daines Washington D.C. Madeline Dimarco ’17 Research – Comparing Dutch and American Youth Perceptions: Negative Political Rhetoric of Muslim Immigrants Amsterdam, The Netherlands Mario Erpinar ’16 Internship – U.S. Department of State Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
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YOUNG STUDENT GRANTS Spring/Summer 2016 continued Jenna Feldman ’18 Internship – Machon Kaplan Summer Program Washington, D.C. Naomi Hong ’18 Internship – IMS Legal Professional Corporation Tokyo, Japan Trevor Litwin ’17 Research – An Investigation Into the Scottish Independence Referendum of 2014 Dublin, Ireland; Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland; London, England Cynthia Magallanes-Gonzalez ’17 Research – Migrant Women From Africa South of the Sahara in Rabat and Casablanca, Morocco Rabat and Casablanca, Morocco Marilena McCarty ’18 Internship – U.S. Consulate Naples, Italy Angela Peckham ’17 Research – Ethnography of Female Muslim Refugees: Insight into Resettlement Los Angeles, Calif. Luis Robles ’17 Internship – European Division at the International Republican Institute Washington, D.C.
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Anastasia Ryseff ’17 Research – Police Discrimination Against Minorities in France in Relation to Terrorism Paris, France Rizwan Sardar ’16 Research – Prospects of Economic Growth With Climate Change: A Greenlander’s Perspective Nuuk, Ilulissat, Sisimiut, Aasiaat, Greenland Nettie Stein-Miller ’17 Internship – U.S. Department of State Valletta, Malta Michael Tonetti ’16 Internship – Fundraising and Development for E2E Foundation Medellin, Colombia Jarron Williams ’18 Research – Luce-China Environment Grant Hong Kong Ruoxi Zhang ’18 Internship – CIEE Summer Program Seville, Spain
FACULTY GRANTS AND ACTIVITIES The Young Initiative continues to support an array of activities conducted by the faculty at Occidental College, particularly in the diplomacy & world affairs department.
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SANJEEV KHAGRAM
Sanjeev Khagram further advanced his global and cross-sectoral leadership and applied-research activities during the 2015-2016 year. He convened and coordinated two new major global multi-stakeholder initiatives, traveling to more than 15 countries engaging governments, international organizations, civil society groups and private-sector companies from around the world. The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data harnesses the data revolution to achieve sustainable development in countries all around the world. The data revolution involves a range of new sources and characteristics of data — big data, citizen-generated data, earth-observation data, among many others — that, combined with more traditional official statistics and administrative data, can be marshaled to improve government decision-making, empower citizens and foster innovation and entrepreneurship. The International Open Data Charter is a new global normative framework with six principles for all government data to be open by default so that citizens can access quality information to make better decisions and engage more effectively with their leaders. Khagram continued to be active on campus as well. He was a key member of the search committee to hire Occidental’s first-ever chief diversity officer, and played an instrumental leadership role during the fall protest/occupation. He coordinated the Global Sustainable Development Speakers Series and continued as faculty chair of Oxypreneurship and TEDxOccidentalCollege. He continued to work on his book manuscripts, one on the future of global governance, the other a primer on transnational studies. He is also now writing a major article on data as the oil of the 21st century and harnessing the data revolution for sustainable development. Khagram continued to mentor dozens of students and taught a new and innovative course on global sustainability.
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ANTHONY CHASE
The Young Initiative was again an incredibly significant boost to Chase’s academic work. Funding for trips to Atlanta and New York to present his developing project on “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Rights” was essential to keeping his research moving forward. Even more essential was Young support for four academic outputs this year. His Handbook on Human Rights and the Middle East is due to be published at the end of 2016. This monster project — 35 chapters by 35 contributors! — is the culmination of much of his lifetime of scholarship, and he is grateful to Young for allowing this project to come to fruition. Second, Young supported his working paper, “The Organization of Islamic Cooperation as a Case Study of the Role of International Organizations in Advancing Human Rights.” This was developed under the aegis of a research project at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, and Young money was essential to his participation. He is now revising the working paper into the lead chapter for a volume that has been contracted by University of Pennsylvania Press. While in Denmark, Chase was also interviewed for the Universal, which was published as “New Frontiers of Human Rights Scholarship With Anthony Chase” by Lisa Haagensen in vol 1, 1 (2016). Finally, his article “Human Rights Contestation: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity” was published this year in the International Journal of Human Rights. Again, the work that went into this piece was subsidized by Young Initiative funds. This work also had a presence on the Oxy campus. Chase organized a full-day event at Oxy on Sexualities, Genders, and Rights: Intersecting Histories, including a panel on Sexuality and the Sustainable Development Goals.
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AMBASSADOR DEREK SHEARER With the support of Young, Ambassador Shearer organized and hosted the Young Future of Diplomacy Lecture Series with ambassadors Jeffrey Bader, Phil Goldberg and Nick Burns as speakers, as well as Harvard professor and father of Soft Power, Joe Nye, and former U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow. Ambassador Shearer traveled to Harvard and Brown to speak at Harvard’s Kennedy School on the role of foreign policy in the presidential campaign. Later, he traveled to Amsterdam to speak at a Nexus Institut conference on the state of American democracy and America’s role in the world; to Oxford, England to speak at St. Anthony’s College on foreign policy and the U.S. campaign; and to Berlin for programs organized by the U.S. embassy. Additionally, Young supported ongoing research on sports and diplomacy, the topic of his forthcoming book.
SHERRY SIMPSON-DEAN
Dean was integral to the Young-sponsored J-Term. She helped plan the event and supported the student ledership, as well as presented and instructed during many of the entrepreneurial workshops, such as the Lean Start-up. Dean was also a co-faculty adviser with Associate Professor Ear and Professor Khagram for TEDxOccidentalCollege.
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DIANA NGO
With the generous support of the Young Initiative during 2015-2016, Ngo hosted a workshop in spring 2016 on School Choice and Education Quality: Perspectives From Urban Centers, and worked on a collaborative research project examining the determinants of students’ school choices in Mexico City (with Andrew Dustan of Vanderbilt University). The Young Initiative Grant supported undergraduate research assistance (Brady Fuller ’16 and Frank Jiawei Ye ’17) that has substantially advanced the project and provided invaluable research experience for the students. The preliminary results of the project were presented at the school-choice workshop, and the project was presented at the Western Economics Association’s International Annual Conference in Portland in July 2016. The analysis is being written up into a paper titled “Expanding School Choices by Decreasing Travel Time: The Introduction of the Suburban Railway in Mexico City.”
LAURA HEBERT
The Young Initiative supported Hebert’s teaching, research and professional activities in 2015-16 in a number of ways, including by providing funds for conference travel, technology upgrades and computer software, the purchase of books and subscriptions and membership in professional associations. Among the highlights of the year, Hebert completed a content analysis of hundreds of human trafficking-related journal articles, which was made possible through research assistance funded by the Young Initiative. The findings of the content analysis are appearing in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Human Trafficking in an article titled “Always Victimizers, Never Victims: Engaging Men & Boys in Human Trafficking Scholarship.” The Young Initiative also supported Hebert’s participation in the 2016 Western Political Science Association’s annual conference in San Diego, where she served as a discussant on a panel on “Bodies of/and Violence in Law, Policy and Media,” and presented a paper titled “Imperiled & Invisible: Male Migrant Labor & the U.S. Military Contracting System.” This paper is part of a larger book project, Gender and Human Rights in the Age of Mobility, which will be the focus of her sabbatical during 2016-17. 24
SOPHAL EAR
Ear primarily used the Young Initiative to help organize TEDxOccidentalCollege, including inviting Boniface Mwangi to open the conference, as well as to help organize and participate in the Oxy-USC conference China’s Slowing Growth: What Does This Mean for the Emerging Economies? Additionally, he used his Young faculty grant to continue to fund his editing and publishing of refereed journal articles in the Asian Education and Development Studies journal on combating corruption in Cambodia and a forthcoming co-authored article in the Journal of Southeast Asian Economies on decentralization in Cambodia. Ear was quoted in The Economist, the New York Times, Reuters, Voice of America, Al Jazeera America, the Straits Times, the Cambodia Daily, Khmer Times and elsewhere, and he appeared in the pilot episode of “Adam Ruins Everything,” which screened on TruTV, to speak about how the existing model of giving has failed and what can be done about it.
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For me the goal is to have a higher percent of our students, in any department, go out across the world and believe in themselves and have the confidence to become entrepreneurs.
— Dr. Sanjeev Khagram
OXYPRENEURSHIP A cornerstone of the Young Initiative, Oxypreneurship is a studentled, multi-stakeholder hub that strives to inspire and increase student engagement in entrepreneurship through a wide range of events, from motivational speaker series to problem-solving and experiential workshops and forms of community outreach. At the start of this academic year, Occidental College was ranked in Forbes’ list of America’s Top 50 Entrepreneurial Colleges of 2015, a strong testament to the entrepreneurial environment Oxypreneurship strives to create. This year, Oxypreneurship faculty advisers and students successfully hosted and contributed to two large events, the third annual J-Term and the second biennial TEDxOccidentalCollege conference.
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OXYPRENEURSHIP HIGHLIGHTS Collaboration L.A.: Startups, Youth Engagement and YOU This was a collaborative event between Oxy students, student leaders from surrounding college campuses, the Los Angeles mayor’s office, General Assembly and the Goldhirsch Foundation, dedicated to exploring youth engagement and empowerment in Los Angeles as well as enabling participants to find value in the tools of entrepreneurial thinking. The primary goal was to bridge the gap between passion and action among students at Oxy, allowing students to find outlets for their desire to take action by gaining access to opportunities in the L.A. area.
Incubator and Start-Up and App Workshops As an organization committed to helping students launch and grow student businesses, Oxypreneurship has continued to be a resource for students through its Incubator Team. The team works with a specific project to do market research on their intended demographic, branding and funding opportunities (launching a Kickstarter). This year, the team worked closely with several student start-ups, including a few that were launched during J-Term. They also conducted a series of workshops in collaboration with PBL, Oxy Consulting Group, Engineering Club and the Blythe Fund to educate students about the hard skills involved in developing an entrepreneurial venture.
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Oxypreneurship Speaker Series Every semester, Oxypreneurship works to bring dynamic and engaging speakers onto campus. This year was no different. Our lineup included Greg Faxon, a highperformance coach who catalyzes radical and lasting results for entrepreneurs all over the world by helping them find and do work that unleashes their full potential; in partnership with SAE fraternity, Joan Wickham, a politics major at Oxy who then earned her master’s in public relations at USC and is now the manager of advertising and public relations at Sunkist; Dave Berkus; Fred Hameetman; Ron Hahn; and more.
Board of Trustees and Alumni Engagement Oxypreneurship continues to stay engaged with alumni, parents and other well-wishers. This year, it hosted several events during Family Weekend and Homecoming and Alumni Reunion Weekend, including a field trip to Eureka FEST, an entrepreneurial festival in Irvine hosted by Oxy alumnus Peter Polydor, as well as hosting a Spitz wrap competition that brought onto campus two of Oxy’s own successful entrepreneurs, Bryce Rademan and Robert Wicklund, who founded the innovative restaurant concept Spitz.
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J-TERM JANUARY 12-18, 2016
STUDENT LEADERS: Ronald Chan, Joshua Schlisserman, Ashley Leon, Christy Wong J-Term program (launched in 2014) is a testament to the faculty and students’ dedication to student engagement in business and innovation. With the support of the Young Initiative, Res Ed and the Hameetman Career Center, Oxypreneurship hosted its third annual J-Term, an immersive, team-based program focused on a liberal arts approach to entrepreneurship. Student participants were able to customize their workshops to suit their interests and specific entrepreneurial needs. The program was also packed with opportunities to connect with community leaders in social and for-profit entrepreneurial ventures throughout Los Angeles. The week culminated in a final collaborative entrepreneurial project supported by the program’s mentorship network. By the end of the week, students were equipped with skills in design conceptualization, the process of ideation and the theory of a lean start-up. With 23 students participating this year, it was the largest program yet, and was able to generate its own revenue.
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TEDxOCCIDENTAL COLLEGE 2016 APRIL 2, 2016
ORGANIZING TEAM: Ty Hranac (co-organizer), Jemma Parsons (co-organizer) Adrianna Housman (designer) Aabha Sachar (co-speaker curator) Emiko Schwab (co-speaker curator) Gabrielle Seiwart (co-speaker curator) Abel Tiong (co-director of budget & finance) Jessalind Tsui (co-director of budget & finance) Sam Kowitch (creative director) Nikolai Birch (co-production manager) Josephine Pesce (co-production manager) Jonathan Kanellakos (co-event coordinator) Annie Chien (co-event coordinator) Will Sheerin (marketing chair) Nicole Lin (webmaster) FACULTY DIRECTORS: Sophal Ear Sanjeev Khagram Sherry Simpson-Dean With the support of the Young Initiative, the McKinnon Center’s Choi Auditorium became a hub of innovation, insight and inspiration. The second biennial TEDxOccidentalCollege set the stage for a broad range of issues of global development and sustainability, addressed from the unique perspectives of experts, activists, policymakers and Oxy’s very own students. The conference was built on the idea that the international community can turn the rapid acceleration of developmental, sociopolitical and environmental change to its advantage. This momentum may be used to fuel global efforts to solve the world’s far-reaching issues, from inequity to environmental degradation to poverty.
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TEDx SPEAKERS Boniface Mwangi, “Love Is the Answer” Senior TED Fellow Boniface Mwangi is an award-winning Kenyan photo-activist, one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2014 (New African Magazine) and a Next Generation Leader in 2015 (Time). He is known for his journalistic role as “the eye of Kenyans” during the 2007 post-election violence. In line with his leadership in Pawa 254, a collaborative hub geared toward innovative ways in achieving social change, Mwangi’s talk focused on how “Love is the Answer” in today’s quest for global, sustainable development.
Gaea Morales, “Will You Roll Down the Window?” (Class of 2018) Sophomore Gaea Morales is an international student born and raised in Manila, Philippines majoring in diplomacy & world affairs with a focus on the convergence of gender rights, democracy and sustainable development in climate change policy. Her performance poem engaged the inextricable yet often invisible link between gender rights and climate change reform. In engaging the intersection from a broader justice perspective, she explored how we as individuals can identify where we choose to stand — and live — in the sustainability discourse.
Valerie D’Costa, “Think Circles, Not Pyramids.” Valerie D’Costa served for almost a decade as head of infoDev at the World Bank, following her work as the director of the International Division at the Info-Communication Development Authority of Singapore. In her talk, D’Costa highlighted the need to include the citizens of developing countries in conversations regarding the design of developmental solutions. She urged the international community to think about circles, rather than pyramids, of influence, where citizens — those who are most vulnerable and most affected — lie at the center and not the bottom.
Donovan Dennis, “When Caring Isn’t Enough: The Climate Crisis and You” (Class of 2016) Donovan Dennis is a geology major from Great Falls, Mont. Donovan is a self-proclaimed glaciophile, loving everything related to glaciers, ice sheets and paleoclimatology, and he acts on this passion through his research. In his talk, Donovan addressed what happens “When Caring Isn’t Enough” by using the example of melting glaciers in Chile and the catastrophic consequences. He enlightened the audience on the importance of sustainable living and sustainable science for the sake of the environment and marginalized societies worldwide. 31
Ani Zonneveld, “Islam: As American as Apple Pie” Ani Zonneveld is the founder and president of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), a grassroots, faith-based humanrights organization. She is an educator, community organizer, strategist and unapologetic human rights defender. In her talk, Zonneveld challenged the seemingly definitive line dividing Muslim and American identities by masterfully intertwining American and Islamic values to highlight the possibility for harmonious coexistence, despite differences.
Carlos L. de la Rosa, “Bioliteracy and Sustainability: Can’t Have One Without the Other” Carlos L. de la Rosa is the director of La Selva Biological Station, the largest, most productive research station in the tropics. His experiences in various field stations has allowed him to develop a philosophy on the role of nature and biology in every person’s life, which has in turn fueled his advocacy for bioliteracy among youth. In his talk, de la Rosa argued that valuing biodiversity precedes the development of environmental ethics and personal responsibility. Therefore, bioliteracy is the key society needs in order to live in harmony with the planet.
Norsheer Ahmed, “Brilliance Oppressed” (Class of 2017) Norsheer Ahmed, an incoming senior biophysics major, is the co-founder and co-president of the student organization People of Color in STEM. The organization seeks to support and promote the interests of students of color on campus who identify with STEM curriculum. In his talk, he shed light on the institutionalization of racism and sexism in STEM and how it has allowed for the oppression of minority voices, thus hindering the collaborative problem-solving necessary for humanity’s most pressing global issues.
Jedediah Jenkins, “How to Slow Down the Passing of Time” Jenkins is the executive editor of Wilderness magazine and a contributor to the Paris Review, and is currently working on a book chronicling his bicycle trip from Oregon to Patagonia. His talk discussed the passage of time, tapping into the sentiment that as we get older, time is somehow exponentially quicker. Jenkins outlined the scientific reasons for this sensation, and suggested ways — linked to identity, breaking routine, fear and optimism — to slow it down and regain the sense of childlike wonder.
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TEDx SPEAKERS Kumi Naidoo, “Freezing Finance to Combat Climate Change” Kumi Naidoo is a human rights activist from Durban, South Africa. He was Greenpeace’s international executive director from November 2009 to December 2015, is the founding executive director of the South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO), and led the Global Call for Climate Action. His talk aimed to break the dichotomy between the environment and development. Naidoo argued for the creation of a paradigm that pressures lending institutions, and the financiers they source, to be more environmentally conscientious and aware. He believes this pressure to divest must come from the international community as a whole.
Emily Linebarger, “The Paradigm of Pity” (Class of 2016) Emily Linebarger is a just-graduated economics and diplomacy & world affairs major from Tahlequah, Okla. Her long-term plan is to pursue a doctorate degree in international development. In her talk, Linebarger argued that pity is a barrier to genuinely compassionate engagement in the world’s issues, and promoted superficial “calls to action.”
Joan Scheckel, “The F Word” Joan Scheckel is a producer, director, writer, photographer and teacher. She is the founder of Joan Scheckel Filmmaking Labs (JSFL) and the creator of “The Technique.” In her talk, Scheckel elaborated on “The Technique” through her commentary on “feelings.” She argued that openness to the volatility and dynamism of emotions is the key to successful story writing and acting.
Mimi Nartey, “African Women’s Soccer and Empowerment: Memoirs of a Black Queen” Nartey holds an adjunct faculty position at Occidental College. She is a women’s empowerment scholar, and her primary research focus is disease prevention and health promotion in sub-Saharan Africa. Her talk inspired all to “think outside the box” in sustainable development problem-solving. Nartey used the example of sports, and illustrated how sports yields important empowerment outcomes in the lives of women in developing regions. 33
Jacques Lesure, “Apathy Factories� (Class of 2019) Jacques Lesure is an incoming sophomore from Decatur, Ga. Lesure gives back by helping youth with college-access consulting, and is the creator of the website What About the Black Kids, where he produces content that addresses the intersection of education, race, culture and politics. His talk was an eye-opening commentary on how failing schools serve as catalysts for apathy, the crisis of equitable education and lack of access and opportunity as violence.
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U.N. USA & MODEL U.N. This year marked the third annual OxyMUN Model United Nations Conference. Held every spring at Occidental and co-hosted by the United Nations Association Pasadena Chapter under the leadership of Sherry Simpson-Dean, this conference welcomes high school students from the surrounding area to spend a day speaking, writing and debating as representatives from countries around the world. The topics ranged from the crisis in Syria to the conflict in Sudan to nuclear disarmament, with the special addition of a model U.N. habitat task force, where students represented different cities and came together to discuss the future of sustainable cities under the new Sustainable Development Goals framework. The secretariat of the conference consisted of several Oxy students, many of whom are part of Oxy’s Model U.N. team and had recently returned from the WestMUN conference in Santa Barbara.
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YOUNG INITIATIVE LEADERSHIP SANJEEV KHAGRAM
John Parke Young Professor of Global Political Economy Director, Young Initiative on the Global Economy
SHERRY SIMPSON-DEAN Scholar-in-Residence, Young Initiative on the Global Political Economy Senior Fellow, McKinnon Center for Global Affairs Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Diplomacy & World Affairs
CHAMNAN LIM
Assistant Director, Administration & Programs McKinnon Center for Global Affairs Young Initiative on the Global Economy
MARISA MACASKILL
Assistant Director, Administration & Programs (until February 2016) McKinnon Center for Global Affairs Young Initiative on the Global Economy
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YOUNG INITIATIVE PROGRAM ASSISTANTS
Young Initiative programming and events are supported by a diverse group of student leaders on campus.
SHILPA BHONGIR Class of 2016, economics major WILLIAM BUTENSCHOEN Class of 2018, diplomacy & world affairs major EMILY LINEBARGER Class of 2016, economics and diplomacy & world affairs major GAEA MORALES Class of 2018, diplomacy & world affairs major DANIEL TOBIN Class of 2016, diplomacy & world affairs major ANDREA TUEMMLER Class of 2018, economics and diplomacy & world affairs major CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON Class of 2017, diplomacy & world affairs major
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