Tom Watson has a great piece in Forbes on a talk with Chelsea Clinton at the Clinton
Global Initiative. I attended one of the CGI meetings three years ago in New York, and it was solid and serious. Here’s the some of his piece:
Chelsea Clinton has a bunch of titles. In the universe of blended politics and philanthropy created by her parents, she is an emerging spokesperson both for the family brand and for her generation’s role in several key causes of the day.
On paper, she’s Vice Chair of Clinton Foundation – which is now formally the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation. She serves as honorary chair of the Clinton Foundation Millennium Network, which focuses on the social sector work of young people. She created the Clinton Foundation’s Day of Action program. And she serves on the advisory board of the Clinton Global Initiative.
Safe to say, her name is now firmly on the door of the family business. And by all accounts, her role is only growing both in the management and direction of the Foundation, and in several key areas of its work.
What’s notable when you attend a CGI meeting is how the Clintons — apart from their political role — genuinely seem to enjoy serving and bringing people foward-looking, thoughtful people together to discuss problems and possible solutions. It’s a world apart from the anger, name calling fests on cable, talk radio, or on many weblogs. You almost get culture shock walking into meetings where issues are seriously dissected and discussed with an eye on seeing how problems can be solved and lives made better.
In a small conference room steps from the main stage at the ninth annual Clinton Global Initiative in New York, however, she’s both approachable and open – and totally on message, fielding questions from a small gathering of bloggers on a range of subjects – including her own unique role in what is a unique organization.
“Role models really matter,” says Clinton, now 33, in discussing how young people come to be political or socially active. “It’s hard to imagine yourself as something you don’t see.”
The activism and involvement of young people is a main theme of the discussion. “Maybe somebody here can tell me if I’m a millennial or not, I get a lot of different answers.”
By the broadest definition – young Americans born after 1980 who started to come of age roughly around the time of the 9/11 attacks – she just squeaks into what may be the most analyzed generation in U.S. history. She clearly feels some responsibility in that regard, saying that her work with the CGI University end of the operation shows how much “demand there is for young people who want to serve.” (I spoke at CGIU three years ago, and was astounded by the energy of the 1,800 students, all working on social ventures and nonprofit projects).
Clinton speaks passionately about the need to expand those opportunities for service, particularly by increasing the Federal budget for AmeriCorps, which is nearing its 20th anniversary and gets half a million applications a year for 80,000 slots.
And then the conversation turns to gender, and the strong shift of both the Clinton Foundation and CGI’s focus in the last few years to equality and opportunity for women and girls around the world – in sync with her mother’s work at the U.S. State Department.
GO TO THE LINK TO READ THE REST OF IT
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.