A COOL Conference

The Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL) held its twentieth annual conference at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on March 12-14, 2004. The conference slogan was "Connect. Act. Change." The three words describe some of the common goals of the approximately 1,500 students from 197 colleges and universities around the country who attended the event. Many of the students in attendance at the 2004 COOL Conference were on their spring break from classes at the time, indicating a strong commitment and dedication to COOL's purpose.

The mission of COOL is to "educate, connect and mobilize college students and their campuses to strengthen communities through service and action." Founded in 1984 by recent Harvard graduate Wayne Meisel who symbolically began a call to action on college campuses by walking from Maine to Washington DC. Along the way he visited more than 70 campuses encouraging students to get involved in their communities and counter the prevailing perception of student apathy and materialism. Meisel learned that students were not apathetic. Indeed they were deeply committed to communities but often lacked support from campuses to get involved. Passionate about the potential of a national student movement, COOL was founded to be the equivalent of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for service.

Greg Ricks, COOL Alum and Vice President of Social Entrepreneur Relations at SEA-Change Foundation said, "COOL has been an inspiring catalyst to so many students who have gone on to become leaders in the field of non-profit social change." The annual conference is one way COOL continues to inspire students and fulfill its mission statement.

This year's COOL Conference was the first since the merger with Idealist.org: Action Without Borders. The mission of Action Without Borders is to connect people, organizations, and resources to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives. The partnership between COOL and Idealist.org has spawned a new Idealist on Campus program. The new program focuses on supporting students to build coalitions and alliances on campus and in their communities that support the growth, deepening, and quality of civic engagement.

Keynote Speaker Cheryl Dorsey spoke about making a community impact through innovative methods as a social entrepreneur. Dorsey is the President of an organization called Echoing Green, which has awarded more than $20 million in start-up capital to more than 370 entrepreneurs worldwide since 1987. Her message was that there is more work to be done to continue to find new ways to help strengthen our communities and solve social problems.

The college students in attendance are each making change on their own campuses and in their own communities in many different ways. Community involvements of the attendees ranged from tutoring elementary school children through the AmeriCorps program to serving as an intern for Oxfam America.

The conference provided the opportunity for students to obtain information and make connections at more than 200 workshops, an Opportunities Fair, and various other activities. Workshop topics ran the gamut from Environmental Justice to Service Learning. More than 60 nonprofit and service organizations, both national and local, were represented in the Opportunities Fair, which provided students with the ability to make job, intern, and volunteer connections all in one place.

For more information on COOL and future COOL events, visit http://www.cool2serve.org. The upcoming 2005 COOL Conference will be held at the University of California at Berkeley.