2004-2005 COOL Conference

Posted by on July 16, 2004

The staff of the Cal Corps Public Service Center is proud to announce that UC Berkeley has been selected as the host for the 21st annual COOL Idealist National Student Conference on March 18-20, 2005. The conference is the nations largest gathering of student leaders engaged in community service and activism; bringing together students from across the country to share best practices, build networks, and develop community. The program includes a variety of workshops and programs focused on skill development and social issues. The 20th annual conference was held this past March at the University of Pennsylvania and included 1,500 students, faculty, administrators, and guests. Details from last years conference are available online at: http://www.cool2serve.org/events/conference/2004/home.htm

Cal Corps will serve as the campus lead in welcoming and supporting the conference planning, as well as creating a network of student participants on-campus. Other campus partners already engaged in conference planning are the Career Center and Cal Dining, as well as a growing committee of student leaders from Berkeley and other Bay Area colleges and universities. We certainly will need the support of many campus and community partners to make this event a success.

The conference is a program of Action Without Borders (AWB), an international nonprofit that aims to connect people, organizations, and resources to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives. You may be familiar with their web site – Idealist.org – which includes the largest global network of nonprofit organizations, featuring jobs, internships, volunteer opportunities, events and more from over 40,000 organizations from 165 countries. Through a recent merger with COOL (Campus Outreach Opportunities League), AWB is increasing its programming for college students by creating a nationwide network of student activists. Further information about AWB is available online at: http://www.idealist.org/ or http://www.idealistoncampus.org/.

Founded in 1967, the Cal Corps Public Service Center engages the University and the community in reciprocal partnerships to create educational programs for students, to promote leadership through service, and to foster social justice and civic engagement. Further information about Cal Corps is available online at: http://calcorps.berkeley.edu/

We welcome the involvement of partners from the University, the higher education and service communities, and community and nonprofit organizations. For further information about how you can get involved with the conference, contact Dan Kessler at AWB at dan@idealist.org, or Devin Kinyon at Cal Corps at kinyon@berkeley.edu. To join the student planning group, contact Trish Tchume at trish@idealist.org.