By Christina Smith

Two students traveled to Washington, D.C., Feb. 6-9 to represent the University’s ONE chapter at the Power 100 Summit, a four-day series of speeches and presentations concerning various global issues.

Kaytee Lozier, a senior print journalism major, and Katie Kindbergh, a senior political science major, won the free trip to as the University’s ONE chapter co-presidents. According to Lozier, only one representative per chapter usually attends, but since she is a ONE organization intern and Campus Outreach Ambassador, she was already attending the summit. Because the University’s chapter earned enough points to rank in the top 100 schools in the ONE Campus Challenge, Kindbergh was also able to attend as the University chapter president.

According to a ONE organization press release, students at the conference joined with members of Congress and leaders of international organizations, including Shoe4Africa, the German Marshall Fund and the FEED project. Speakers included actor Anthony Edwards, model and designer Lauren Bush, Ambassador Mark Green and ABC’s Jake Sasseville.

The purpose, as Lozier and Kindbergh described, was for the leaders of these organizations to showcase their leadership strategies and how they managed to build their organizations.

“I learned how to be more effective in leading,” Kindbergh said. “The speakers and members of the organizations showed how they created events and how they did things in the beginning.” She added that it was especially inspirational to hear these stories from younger leaders, people who are “closer to her age.”

The co-presidents also learned that “if you start small, you can build big.” The conference taught them interesting and creative ways to hook people in and get others involved in the ONE organization at the University.

“You can expect to see different and better things from ONE this semester,” Lozier said. She credited the interesting things to come from the approaches she learned at the conference.

Both Lozier and Kindbergh urge student interested in becoming leaders and starting organizations at the University to stay persistent. “Don’t get discouraged if people don’t want to go along with you right away,” Lozier said.

Kindbergh added that it’s important to “have fun with what you’re doing” and to never give up. “If you can touch a few people, it’s a good first step,” she said.