MU's ONE Campaign chapter involves community, high schools
The MU chapter was founded last year.
Oct. 14, 2008
ONE Mizzou founder Tyler Sangermano, right, goes over literature with Hickman High School Global Issues Club co-adviser Brett Kirkpatrick on Monday. Sangermano proposed working with the club on several issues including promoting Poverty Awareness Week at MU and a human rights conference at Hickman.
(Click graphic to enlarge)
If the fight to end poverty begins with one person, Tyler Sangermano is that one.
On Monday, Sangermano, a junior philosophy major, spoke to the Global Issues Club at Hickman High School. Two faculty members and 17 students listened as she explained how the fight to end poverty could begin here in Columbia.
Sangermano is the founder of MU's ONE Campaign chapter. The ONE Campaign is a national campaign committed to raising public awareness and taking action against AIDS and extreme poverty across the globe.
In 2007, the ONE Campaign began a contest for university and college students across the United States called the ONE Campus Challenge. The different college chapters receive points for every activity they organize that raises awareness about poverty.
MU's ONE Campaign chapter's Poverty Awareness Week began Monday with an advertising table inside Brady Commons and Sangermano's presentation to the Hickman Global Issues Club.
"We are trying to get the community involved with ONE," Sangermano said to the group of high school students.
Sangermano suggested that the Global Issues Club at Hickman team up with the Global Issues Club at Rock Bridge High School to spread the ONE Campaign's message. Sangermano also presented the idea of a cross-town challenge, in which the two schools would compete to raise awareness about poverty. Sagermano said she would give points to both schools and hold a surprise event for the winning school at the end of the year.
Her ideas, however, were turned down due to time constraints.
Meredith Cristal, president of the Global Issues Club at Hickman, said the idea was good, but last year the two groups had trouble finding time to get together to plan any event.
Cristal said the club's biggest event is a Human Rights Conference, which takes months of planning. The event happens in April and features live music, free food, guest speakers and educational films. She said it would be difficult to participate in the ONE Campaign competition along with planning the Human Rights Conference.
Jami Thornsberry, faculty sponsor of the Global Issues Club, agreed.
"There is so much going on," she said. "Something would have to give."
Thornsberry also said that a competition between Hickman and Rock Bridge might cause students to lose sight of the ONE Campaign's mission.
"You would lose the message, which is to educate," she said.
Thornsberry said a competition, such as a canned food drive, would be better because it has a tangible end product.
Sangermano was not disheartened by her ideas' lack of acceptance.
"I'd rather collaborate with the school than try and start a competition," she said.
Sangermano's association with the ONE Campaign goes back to her own high school days. When she was a junior in high school, Sangermano said she saw a commercial about the campaign on TV. She signed up on the campaign's web site and became a member. She founded the MU chapter her sophomore year.
Even though a year has passed since Sangermano took on the role as chapter leader, the chapter has grown slowly. Sangermano said only about 10 students attend the chapter's meetings, which are at 7 p.m. every other Tuesday in Strickland Hall.
She said a lot of people are interested when they see the group set up at informational tables, but not many want to participate.
"People are enthusiastic at the tables, but no one shows up to the meetings."
Sangermano will travel to Rock Bridge on Wednesday to talk with its Global Issues Club.
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