After a thrilling week in New York City, I am back in the school-grind. On top of missing a whole week of class I had five essays due last Sunday-Tuesday – like, what?! Five essays and I had to work all last weekend. It was a rough week but I’ve finally reached the top of the mountain and I’m ready for a semi-relaxing weekend! I know I posted a LOT of pictures and anecdotes on facebook throughout the week, but now I want to tell the whole story of that amazing week! I’m still riding the high – I mean, everytime I walk in my bedroom and see my blazer with hanging with my Secret Service pin I get pretty excited 🙂

The Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting is a four day meeting in New York City that the Clintons host to bring together political leaders, CEOs, philanthropists, and NGO leaders to facilitate communication, idea-sharing and resource collaboration. There are large plenary sessions, breakout session, TV interviews, and time for commitment creation over the four days. I was able to attend the Clinton Global Initiative University meeting back in March (see this post!) and through that experience, was able to volunteer at the larger meeting this year! And wow, what a phenomenal experience. Below is Hillary Clinton opening the meeting on the first night.

There were several musical performances on the first night – Randy Jackson and Jason Mraz among them… And a star-studded attendance list – Leonardo DiCaprio (new UN Messenger for Peace – whatever that means…), Eva Longoria, Seth Meyers, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright – I admire her so much as the first female Secretary of State!

This is Agnes – one of the women I lived with for the week – she is an incredible woman from Uganda who created a rehabilitation center for victims of human trafficking, trains law enforcement to better identify human trafficking and raises awareness in Uganda of the issue. She also started the organization Huts for Peace where Ugandan women come together to compile resources and build homes for themselves. While we were in NYC, she was interviewed on Arise TV – check out the clip! (starting at 4:13). Agnes, you are amazing and it was an honor to meet you! I look forward to working with you in some way in the future!

One night we wandered down the block to Times Square. Took some fun photos with Elmo, Spongebob and Mickey Mouse and then meandered to some other fun spots in the city! Finally got “NYC tourist” checked off my bucket list 🙂

On day 3, Obama came and spoke! I was so excited 🙂 I’d never heard him speak, so I guess I checked that off my bucket list too!

Oh! I almost forgot – I better explain this next picture… My role throughout the week was to ensure that the press had escorts wherever they went throughout the hotel. Because all the attendees were so high-profile, we couldn’t let the press wander on their own. Most of the week, I was stationed at the press riser inside the main plenary room “guarding” the press 🙂 It was a blast and meant that I got to watch every plenary session too! Because of my role, I ended up working quite closely with Secret Service – together we monitored the press, scanned the crowds and tipped each other off when we noticed someone wasn’t where they were supposed to be (happened quite a bit with the press ha!) So here’s my imitation of me being a Secret Service Agent – it was an awesome experience and who knows, maybe that career is in my future now too!

The next photo is some of the speakers… Upper Left: President Clinton, President Michelle Bachelet (Chile), and His Majest King Abdullah Il ibn Al Hussein (King of Jordan!) Upper Right: Jack Ma, the Executive Chairman of Alibaba, the BOOMING Chinese e-commerce company (bigger than Amazon and Ebay combined!)

Bottom: Oh, yeah… then there was Matt Damon. Who casually followed me down the stairs. (I was not casual and freaked out and snapped this picture after I let him pass at the bottom of the stairs. And in case you’re wondering – and many people have already asked me this – yes, he is just as attractive in person as he is on the screen!)

President Clinton did a live TV interview with Charlie Rose – and they needed people to fill the seats in the background and I was one of them! Once it airs and I find the link, I’ll be sure to post it in here! I sat right on the aisle where he entered and exited so when he passed he shook my hand and said “thanks for being here!” (No problem, Mr. President!)

The next day they asked me to “fill the background” for Sanjay Gupta’s CNN interview with Hillary! I’ll try and find the link to that too!

More speakers… Upper Left: Prime Minister of Denmark. Upper Right: Katie Couric interviewing a panel on women and girls, including Chelsea Clinton (who gave birth two days later!) Bottom Left: Hillary and Melinda Gates. Bottom Right: Hillary and the Prime Minister of Japan.

And finally, the closing session – what a family! (Now +1!)

Oh, what a fantastic week and a fabulous group of volunteers! 

Anna graduated from WU a few years ahead of me and we happened to be volunteering together – so fun!

So bascially, this trip is like going to the grammys when you’re an academic, political nerd. I loved every second of it and obviously, had the time of my life! The trip ended on a pretty amusing note – (except not at the time) my flight Wednesday night was canceled so I ended up sitting in the hotel lobby for the entire night and took a 6am flight back to STL. It was quite miserable but hey, I made it to class at 10am Thursday on time and then went home for a much-needed nap!

Gosh, what an amazing week. I am blessed to have opportunities like these and take each one with an open, grateful heart! If you want to read about my time at the Clinton Global Initiative University, click here. You can also read some of my other Life Update post here. I can’t wait to see what is next on my horizon – it’s job-hunting season! I’ll share some of my plans on an upcoming post 🙂