Students from across Harvard gathered in an HSPH classroom on September 20, 2010, to watch a live webcast of TEDxChange’s “The Future We Make,” an event convened by Melinda French Gates on the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Development Goals and viewed by thousands around the world. The speakers, including Gates and Hans Rosling, professor of international health at Karolinska Institute in Sweden and co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation; Mechai Viravaidya, aka Thailand’s “Mr. Condom,” founder and chairman of the Population and Community Development Association; and Graça Machel, Mozambique’s former minister of education and culture and current head of the Foundation for Community Development, explored what the future holds for health and development around the world. The webcast was followed by a lively discussion led by HSPH faculty members Stephen Marks and Alicia Yamin, and Matt Andrews of the Harvard Kennedy School.
Cecil Haverkamp, coordinator of strategic partnerships and global health practice at HSPH, helped organize the event in collaboration with colleagues across HSPH and the University. He sees the potential for these events to be a recurring feature at HSPH.
“It linked HSPH to a major event in international affairs (the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit), involved students and faculty from different schools and disciplines across Harvard and provided an opportunity to have a critical look at (and behind) a highly publicized aspect of international cooperation. We think that this combination of factors makes for not only entertaining interaction but also a learning experience that conventional class room formats can not offer,” he said.
More information
TEDxHSPH (see the webcast link in the left sidebar)