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The News from the Network section of IdealistOnCampus.org is a space to highlight the interesting and innovative programs, people and events connected with the Idealist On Campus Community. As a resource for the rest of our constituency, these individuals and organizations who have made a tremendous impact are invited to share how they've turned a concept into reality and continue to work each day to build a better world.

National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness
By Jen Hecker

To the average Washingtonian, it was just another rainy November weekend, but to the 350 students who converged on the Seattle University campus, the weekend was anything but typical.

On November 11-13, students from across the United States traveled to Seattle for the 18th Annual Conference of the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness. The conference, which draws some of the top activists, organizers, and advocates from across the country, has been considered the premier training for student activists working on hunger, homelessness, and poverty related issues. This year's conference was no exception.

For several months leading up to the conference, Seattle University students diligently worked with the staff of the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness to prepare for the annual event. Every year, the National Student Campaign awards the conference to a school that demonstrates outstanding student leadership and an administrative commitment to work with the community to address these larger social problems. After hosting Tent City 3, an encampment of 100 men and women experiencing homelessness, Seattle University was a deserving choice.

The Seattle University student organizing committee represented a diverse group of students including representatives from the Center for Service to Campus Ministry to the student government - some were first year students while others were weathered veterans. Some students called and emailed schools nationwide to invite them to attend. Others developed the conference program that boasted 60 workshops focused on developing leadership and organizing skills that were run by groups like Oxfam America, Bread for the World, RESULTs, Campus Progress, and the National Coalition for the Homeless. Conference attendees also had the opportunity to hear from keynote speaker Paul Loeb, author of such renowned books as The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guild to Hope in a Time of Fear and Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. Loeb is a strong advocate for citizen responsibility and student empowerment. Most attendees would agree, however, that the conference highlight was closing ceremony speaker Farlis Guerero, a Seattle University student and Nobel Peace Prize nominee who gave an honest and inspirational talk about her childhood in Colombia, where she witnessed the atrocities and brutality of a civil war that has raged for decade. Guerero talked about the importance of finding one's voice and about how thinking of her small village would fill her with the inspiration, power, and fire to push beyond what she thought was possible.

Even though the conference had to end, the spirit of the weekend lives on, as the conference helped to launch several national and regional programs. Through the regional strategy sessions, students developed listservs and planned coordinated days of action. North Park University students announced their efforts to organize a national sleep-out, Take to the Streets, scheduled for March 31st (www.tothestreets.org), and countless schools registered to participate in a national food and fundraising drive during the months of March and April in conjunction with the Feinstein Foundation's Annual Challenge.

If you want to learn more about the National Student Campaign, future conferences, or the national student anti-hunger and homelessness movement, call 800-664-8647 or visit www.studentsagainsthunger.org.