Check out highlights from last year's conference:

The conference was featured in an article in the UW-Madison Badger Herald: http://badgerherald.com/news/2007/11/02/uw_students_take_on_.php

From Davis to Milwaukee
_{-- By Andrew Nelson and Ramneek Saini - 11/2/07, 7:33 p.m. --}

Hey kids, what's up? It's Andrew and Ramneek! I (Andrew) am from Milwaukee, WI and I head up the Hunger & Homelessness campaign with WISPIRG at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I also coordinate an organization called Darfur Action Coalition of Milwaukee. Ramneek is from Davis, California and she is the statewide coordinator for the CALPIRG Hunger & Homelessness campaign there. She likes surfing and shopping for cool shoes. I myself wish I could surf and already own a pair of cool shoes. We both met this summer at a Student PIRG conference in DC.

Well, the first day of the conference is here and after a short intro session we're getting right to work. The first breakout group we partook in was entitled "Humanitarian Crisis." This session was focused on the crisis in Darfur, the Tsunami that hit southeast Asia, and the crippling effects of Hurricane Katrina. Sarah Zipkin is from Oxfam and she spoke on activism involving workers rights and the assistance in rebuilding our nation's Gulf Coast. She was inspiring to both me and Ramneek. My campus in Milwaukee will be working with her to send students down to New Orleans for an alternative spring break. Rebecca, the president of Action in Sudan here in Madison, works on all types of international humanitarian crises. Her student perspective was helpful to all the students in the room and inspired us to always have a firm grasp on the issues we are fighting for. The last panelist was Dr. Scott Straus, a professor at the university who works on violence, human rights, and African politics. Dr. Straus focused on the consequences of genocide and is known for his book on the Rwandan genocide, which shows his passion for the issue. He helped us learn more about providing sustainable humanitarian relief to the people affected by genocide. Overall, the session was a great learning experience for all the students from across the nation.

The next breakout we went to was "Economics, Development, and Trade." The purpose of this breakout was to educate students about how we can bring social change internationally, nationally, and locally. The first speaker was Mike Batell who is an organizer with Bread for the World. He underlined that solutions are possible to hunger and homelessness and that we have cut hunger in half in the past 30 years. He shared his experience about working in Tanzania and that the U.S. can help stop the spread of malaria in Africa with very little aid. He talked about our federal budget and that the U.S. is not providing much development assistance to other countries. The next speaker was Katie Danko from Oxfam and she talked about the Farm Bill which is currently on the Senate floor. She educated students about the bill and inspired everyone to take strong action towards the bill by calling our senators. The last speaker was Christopher Quinlan who has been working with Heifer International for the past 6 years. He talked about how to help communities in need and provide their own sustainable relief. Moreover, the session was very helpful because it put a lot of things in perspective for everyone. We are very excited to go to the sessions tomorrow and further increase our knowledge. Peace out!

Welcome to the Conference
_{-- By Stacey Hafner - 11/2/07, 4:45 p.m. --}

Day 1- November 2, 2007
_{-- By Cathy Collentine - 11/2/07, 3:23 p.m. --}

The conference has just started and things are going well. We were serenaded at the opening ceremony by a UW-Madison Women's Acapella group, Tangled Up in Blue, and they were great! The turnout is good so far and everyone is from great places all across the country. I think I have talked to more people from outside of Wisconsin in the last 4 hours than in the last 4 months!

The Associate Dean of Students, Argyle Wade spoke - it always impresses me at how much people here support student activism. It is refreshing when adults (a world I feel like I still haven't entered) notice that although we are still students, we have the passion and the idealism to make big changes, think big thoughts and move mountains. After the opening ceremony finished, we split off into 4 panels on the different issue tracks. I really can't believe that the conference is underway!

As one of the students on the coordinating team for the 20th Annual National Student Conference on Hunger and Homelessness, this experience started a few months ago. I was studying abroad in Quito, Ecuador through my home university (UW-Madison). Ecuador, like many South American countries, is still experiencing poverty in numbers that are staggering in comparison to the United States. This was apparent every day that I lived and traveled in this magnificently diverse and hospitable country. I met people from all walks of life, but those that most affected me, those that made this conference and these issues even more of a priority in my life, were the children I saw selling gum to help put food on their tables

In April, I received an e-mail from some of my friends back home saying that our campus had been chosen to host a national conference on hunger and homelessness. They were still looking for a coordinator for the event, but were already getting excited about it. I was hesitant to accept at first, but looking around me at the poverty that children were living in right outside my front door made me realize that this was something that I needed to do. I realized that I am a daughter of privilege. I have had to work for where I am in life, but have had many advantages that others don't have and it is my duty to give back. I am passionate about caring - about causes, the environment and other people. It is what I do and this conference seemed like a great way to bring people who know what it is to really care about something together and put our passion into focused actions working towards real solutions. This conference is the start of that action for many of us. I can't wait to learn all that I can about these issues and other people from across the country. Out of this conference will come action and I am so excited that the foundation leading towards that action is already being built!

Cathy works with the WISPIRG Hunger & Homelessness Campaign and is the National Conference Team's Student Coordinator. She is a senior at UW-Madison and a Madison native.