My sophomore year, I was the Head of the Speaker Series Committee in the Global Leadership Program. I was responsible for finding and booking speakers relevant to our topic.  My two events explored different aspects of human rights and were well-attended by the school community as well as the Toledo community.  
During my Uganda-Rwanda trip in March 2015, I met Jamie Van Leeuwen, Senior Advisor for the Governor of Colorado and Founder/Executive Director of the Global Livingston Institute (GLI).  GLI is a non-governmental organization in East Africa designed to engage students and community leaders to develop innovative solutions to poverty.  Jamie has also headed up Denver’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness and served as Director of Development & Public Affairs at Urban Peak, a Colorado non-profit agency serving homeless and at-risk youth.  Jamie and I spoke at length about his work in these two countries, and my career goal of participating in global engagement and impacting change in the world.  

I decided that Jamie would be an excellent speaker for my Spring event, and three short weeks later, he presented his message of "Listen. Think. Act." to the Toledo community.  His presentation, which was very impactful and well-attended, is below.
Picture

​For my Fall event, I hosted and moderated a speaker panel called "Fight for Your Rights: A Panel Discussion on Equality and Justice".  

It featured five speakers with diverse backgrounds: 
- Getro Jean-Claude, Advocate for Toledo CAN (Change A Need), a service organization that provides resources for basic needs around the world, including education, water, food, and shelter.
- Ms. Renee Palacios, Executive Director of Family House. Her work focuses on domestic violence and child abuse advocacy, poverty, homelessness, and community supports. 
- Dr. Mary Krueger, Director of the Women’s Center at Bowling Green State University. Her areas of expertise include sexual/domestic violence.
- Catherine Hoolahan, Ohio Civil Justice Attorney. Her area of concentration is human trafficking.
- Dave Crafts, Executive Director of Equality Toledo. He has served on expert panels and guest lectured across the country on topics such as hate crimes in the LGBT community, inclusion, safe space creation, and coalition building.