Almendarez to attend CGIU

RIVERSIDE — Fallbrook High School graduate Jessica Almendarez, 20, is one of three University of California, Riverside students chosen to participate in the inaugural meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University in New Orleans March 14-16.

The program is a new project of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and is designed to challenge college students and universities to tackle global problems with practical, innovative solutions. Former President Clinton established the CGI in 2005.

The UCR students will attend the three-day meeting at Tulane University, where participants will be asked to commit to a project that will make a difference or change lives.

Almendarez, a sophomore English major, said she wants to attend the event “because I believe in their statement that our generation is more than capable of overcoming global problems.”

Almendarez was a member of the UCR women’s soccer team in 2006 and 2007, is a member of the Exceptional Scholar Athlete Team and is involved with the student service organization These Numbers Have Faces. The organization addresses the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa on an individual level and currently provides educational mentoring and HIV/AIDS awareness to members of a youth soccer club in South Africa.

“These Numbers Have Faces and those involved in it are able to aid in the encouragement of South Africa’s youth to effect positive change,” Almendarez said.

Almendarez said she hopes to raise $4,000 to provide a year’s tuition for a member of the JL Zwane Football Club to attend a university “and become one of the growing numbers of individuals aspiring to diminish the lack of education caused by the apartheid era.”