The Education Task Force promotes education initiatives for those in need, locally and globally. The committee co-chairs work with other Claremont McKenna students and the Center for Human Rights Leadership to support organizations that seek to further education, from as nearby as the town of Pomona to as distant as Uganda.
In order to promote education locally, the committee is in the process of forming a partnership with Pomona High School. Eventually the Education Task Force will coordinate services such as SAT tutoring, motivational speakers, and other special events for the high school students, to be held on the Claremont McKenna campus. The Task Force is also organizing a student led trip to the Philippines in March 2010, to enable Claremont McKenna students to take part in poverty alleviation through education.
The Education Task Force's global initiatives include a partnership with St. Mary Kevin's Orphanage, in Kajjansi, Uganda. The Task Force is working alongside Change the Truth, a grassroots organization that provides St. Mary Kevin's Orphanage with 75% of its funding. The orphanage provides many valuable services to the children including health care, primary school, sponsorship for secondary school, and vocational training. Takako Mino, a Claremont McKenna student currently studying abroad in Uganda, visited the orphanage and reported what she believes are the best ways for the Education Task Force to help.
The Task Force is planning fundraising events as well as a goods drive in order to provide the St. Mary Kevin's orphanage with much needed objects, from shoes to pencils. Claremont McKenna students will also apply to the Center for Human Rights Leadership for fellowships to support internships at the orphanage during the summer of 2010. More information about St. Mary Kevin's can be found at ChangeTheTruth.org.