For the eighth year in a row, FIT students have been accepted to the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U). Namra Khan, Fashion Business Management ’22, and Nicole Windram, Fashion Design ’21, joined a cohort of 600 changemakers from around the globe to participate in a yearlong curriculum and attend the annual meeting, March 23–26. Speakers at the meeting included former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Kamala Harris, voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, and many others working on climate change, racial justice, and restoring faith in democracy. Videos of the conference are available on demand here. The CGI U curriculum includes one-on-one mentoring and webinars on leadership development and implementing social impact projects.
Khan and Windram’s commitment to action is called Waste x Change. They are on a mission to promote sustainability in the creative industries and on FIT’s campus through education, action, and community events. So far they have hosted brand transparency programs, social media campaigns, and mending and styling workshops to encourage FIT students and industry professionals to change their relationship with clothing and to work toward combating the fashion industry’s role in the climate crisis. They are planning on partnering with other student organizations and college departments, and they hope to offer in-person events in the fall.
Past CGI U participants spearheaded numerous sustainability and diversity initiatives on campus, including the natural dye garden, FIT Hives, and POCreatives (now known as Spotlight FIT).