<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>Im Lauren and Im going to be a junior next year (DC 09) with you at Yale in the fall. I know the summer before I arrived on campus I was totally overwhelmed with the number of organizations I could participate in. Looking back I see that it would have been really helpful to know about some of the big ones before the activities bazaar on old campus. So I thought Id post to let yall know about a political organization that does more than debate. </p>
<p>Im sure youve been around a lot of people that like talk politics, but did you ever want to do more than sit around and discuss opinions? Ever think it would be cool to get law makers and policy implementers to actually listen to your ideas? Thats exactly what the Roosevelt Institution does. Roosevelt is the nations first student think tank, and rather than just talk, we get requests from law makers, NGOs and non-profits to come up with the best policy on issues that they are dealing with right now. </p>
<p>Roosevelt is divided into 6 policy centers, each focusing on a pressing topic todays politics. There are the following centers:</p>
<p>Education
Public Health
International Development
Security and Foreign Policy
Economic Policy
Environment</p>
<p>Each center has one or more projects for the semester, tackling an issue head-on. The group collaborates with professors, Yale Political Union groups (both conservative and liberal), peers, experts and educators to come up with the best, non-partisan solution, that will ultimately end up in the hands of say, a Connecticut lawmaker, and (if things vote the right way in the Legislature) will eventually be enacted into law. </p>
<p>Or, take this example: </p>
<p>Last year the leader of the Center on International Development, Emily, met the head of the Clinton Foundation at a Roosevelt event and got a job in Rwanda for the summer. After a summer of seeing firsthand HIV-AIDS in Africa, Emily came back in the fall to work with her center on finding a new approach to tackling the epidemic. Emily and the International Health Center’s research showed that chronic malnutrition and HIV/AIDS reinforce each other, creating a vicious circle of decreasing health for many Africans. Given the inherent unsustainability of short-term food aid to Africa, the Center suggested creating community gardens so that the Rwandans had a long-term means of ensuring they had enough food to mitigate and prevent the effects of HIV/AIDS. So the center started a non-profit of their own in Rwanda to create community gardens for HIV-AIDS infected people. After doing fundraising and working with the Center on the Environment to make a much-needed easy-to-use manual on effective gardening, the two centers have gotten a number of community gardens up and running in Rwanda. Now there are Rwandans gardening and helping themselves fight the HIV-AIDS infection. These centers didnt just sit around and talk about how to tackle the HIV-AIDS epidemic in Africa, they actually did something about it.</p>
<p>Sound like something youd be interested in? It’s never too early to get involved. If you want to learn about the centers and their plans for the coming year contact my Co-President and Policy Director Greg Geusic (<a href=“mailto:gregory.geusic@yale.edu”>gregory.geusic@yale.edu</a>) and he’ll put you in touch with the center directors. The center directors are working this summer to set up new projects and make contacts with lawmakers and experts in the field, and you can help.</p>
<p>Or, if you want more general info please email me (<a href=“mailto:lauren.russell@yale.edu”>lauren.russell@yale.edu</a>) or visit our website, <a href=“http://www.rooseveltinstitution.org%5B/url%5D”>www.rooseveltinstitution.org</a>. Also, if you have any questions about Yale political groups in general, Id more than happy to answer questions. </p>
<p>Please dont hesitate to contact us; were really excited for 2011 to get involved. </p>
<p>Lauren Russell</p>
<p>Co-President, Admin Director
Roosevelt Institution
Yale Chapter
<a href=“mailto:lauren.russell@yale.edu”>lauren.russell@yale.edu</a>
rooseveltinstitution.org</p>