steven knapp. he has, i want to tell you a little about him. he has a long history of supporting students. he was a professor of english literature at the university of california at berkeley. [ cheers and applause ] dean of the college of arts and sciences at pro vost at johns hopkins university, up the road in baltimore. as president of george washington, he's made it a priority to increase student opportunities for public service. in order to be accessible and better serve the students here, he chose to take up residence on the campus, the first president of this university ever to do that. maybe he was just trying to avoid the well-known washington, d.c., traffic. [ laughter ] but it looked to me like he was trying to remain open to the students. he's made a lot of green renovation to the residence, demonstrating a strong commitment to sustainability, and trying to make the university a model for sustainability. this kind of complete view of public service, how it permeates every decision he makes, makes president knapp not just a good pres

under the president knapp's leadership the university established the center for civic engagement and service to develop the next generation of public service leaders and last year the steven and diane robinson knapp fellowship, entrepreneurial learning was established. a fellow ship inspired by the deep commitment to service in the community engagement that g.w. students exhibit every week. i'd also like to thank the sponsors who enable us to have this meeting free of charge for all attendees. the victor pench foundition, peter peterson, microsoft, laureate international universities, john and irwin jacob, the prospect fund and b all allen hamilton. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> tonight there are more than 1,000 of you here, for more than 300 universities, more than 80 youth organizations, 82 nations, and all 50 states of the united states. you have already made 915 commitments to change your schools, your communities, and the lives of people across the world. you represent your generation. young people who have a greater ability to enact change than any before you. in the past year more than 30,000 students, faculty and administrators have become engaged in the co

please welcome the president of george washington university, steven knapp. [applause] >> thank you. thank you president clinton for that very kind introduction and above all thank you for the inspiring leadership that has launched this extraordinary initiative. let's all recognize that leadership if we could. [applause] ladies and gentlemen is truly an honor to host the fifth annual clinton global initiative university and i'm pleased to acknowledge that presence of quite a number of distinguished guests. our distinguished panel is. we have a number of university trustees of our university you are present here as well as our presidents and mertes, lloyd elliott and steven joel trachtenberg. above all, i'm delighted to welcome the more than 1000 students who successfully completed -- competed to participate in this year's cgi you. as the president mentioned you come from some 82 countries, all 50 states of this united states. you represent some 300 colleges and universities. now, the president was very kind to mention the fact that the founding vision of our