UNLV student headed to former President Bill Clinton’s global conference

By Paul Takahashi

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 | 2 a.m.

A UNLV senior has been invited to attend a prestigious student conference organized by former President Bill Clinton.

Robin Gonzales, 24, will represent UNLV and Nevada at the Clinton Global Initiative University conference at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., this month.

The conference is an offshoot of the Clinton Global Initiative, which brings business and community leaders to New York every year to develop solutions to global problems. In 2008, the Clinton family created a university version to allow more than 1,000 college students from around the world to make similar commitments to solve pressing international issues.

Gonzales, a native of the Philippines, attended the university conference last year and presented a health education and community outreach project to help people living near his hometown of Zamboanga City.

This year, the UNLV political science and English major returns to keep organizers abreast of his project’s progress.

Since he was in high school, Gonzales and a group of about 50 classmates have raised money and developed medical partnerships to help deliver nutritional packets and give health education seminars to mothers and children in the southern Philippines. Gonzales was in the Philippines last December, giving lessons to impoverished communities about proper child nutrition and dental care.

Gonzales said he is excited to attend the conference to hear the philanthropic efforts of other student leaders and discuss solutions to education and global health challenges, human rights abuses, climate change and poverty.

“It’s a great honor to represent UNLV and the state of Nevada,” Gonzales said. “The conference just motivates you to do more.”