Who'll stop the rain

Greetings!! I have been back at St. Michael's for two weeks now and I am starting my third week of classes today. I think that I am finally back in the general swing of things, and I wanted to tell you all about the Student Global AIDS Campaign conference that I went to this past weekend. The Student Global AIDS Campaign (or SGAC) is dedicated to fighting and preventing global HIV/AIDS. Held at Harvard, more than eighty students attended the two day conference, ten from St. Michael's. Cambridge is a beautiful area and I was more than happy to make the trip. We took down one van and my professor and fellow SMC Blogger, Trish Siplon, drove.

At the conference we learned ways to build power, about strategizing and how to recruit more SGAC members. It was so exciting to be around so many students from big name universities who care about the same issues as us. What was even more great is that even amongst schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Darmouth, St. Michael's is looked at as one of the most active and successful SGAC chapters in the United States. I feel honored to be a part of this group and so proud of all of the hardworking students that earned St. Michael's that title.

I learned more about global AIDS and the specific numbers that activists are looking for in President Obama's budget, which comes out next week. Global AIDS funding is going to be cut and the many people worldwide who depend on this money are going to suffer. There are many players in this battle and the stakes are extremely high. If you want to learn more about HIV/Aids this website is an excellent resource: http://takeanumber.org/ . Thanks for listening, I hope that everyone can find a cause that they are passionate about and others who agree!