What do you get when you invite more than 100 college students to Capitol Hill? A chance to strengthen the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease.

Earlier this month, student leaders from the top 100 campuses competing in the ONE Campus Challenge (OCC) came together for the Power 100 Summit, hosted by ONE, a global advocacy and campaigning organization. OCC is a nationwide competition among colleges and universities where students earn points by engaging in social activism.

The elite three-day conference consisted of speakers and workshops at George Washington University campus and culminated with a lobby day on Capitol Hill. Students were joined by members of Congress and leaders of international organizations such as Oxfam and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

One of the activities in the jam-packed conference included a screening of “Sons of Lwala,” a documentary that tells the story of two brothers, Milton and Fred Ochieng’, and their community’s efforts to bring health care to the small, rural village of Lwala, Kenya. Students were able to talk directly with the brothers after the film:

“We know personally the devastation of disease, and we know the tremendous power of people coming together to do something about it,” said Milton Ochieng’.

With the education and training they received at the conference, student leaders deepened their understanding of extreme poverty and preventable diseases like AIDS and malaria and acquired skills to be more effective advocates on their campuses. The goal is for them to return to their campuses energized and ready to engage other students in new ways, utilizing the ideas, relationships, and techniques they learned at the summit.

But can college students really make a difference in something as broad as global poverty? ER’s Dr. Greene believes they can:

“College students have tremendous energy and creativity to bring to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease,” said actor Anthony Edwards, board chairman of Shoe4Africa, an organization that specializes in creating unique health initiatives and promotes AIDS awareness.

That vote of confidence was echoed by model and designer Lauren Bush:

“We believe that students have incredible transformational power to create widespread awareness of global diseases and extreme poverty,” added Lauren Bush, co-founder of the FEED Project, which raises money to alleviate hunger through the World Food Program. “Small actions, done by lots of people, can make the world a better place, and that’s what these students are doing.”

Click here to learn more about the ONE Campus Challenge and Power 100 Summit.

– Robyn Tellefsen