Registration Now Open

Registration for the thinkBIG conference is now open! 

We are so excited about the thinkBIG conference! For the past two years, the conference has been organized by a group of seven motivated Stanford undergrads who have been inspired to hold a conference focused on educating and inspiring other students to improve the health and human rights situation of women in developing countries. But the conference cannot be a success without your help!

Register to come to the conference today! Registration is free for Stanford students, $15 for non-Stanford students, and seniors, and $25 general admission. Please look through the program and the incredible list of speakers and get excited! Tickets are limited, so don't wait.

Click to Register!

thinkBIG in the Stanford Daily

The Stanford Daily has written an article about thinkBIG in today's edition of the Daily:

Students thinkBIG for event: Group plans conference on women’s health

November 30, 2007
By Patrick K. Fitzgerald

In the fall of 2005, a group of students emerged from Human Biology Prof. Anne Firth Murray’s sophomore seminar on international women’s health and human rights stunned by what they had learned. The students had considered themselves reasonably well-informed about the issues but were “blown away” by how dire the circumstances are for some women worldwide and how little attention has been drawn to the issues.

Then they decided to do something.

Two years later, their efforts are being realized in a “BIG” way. Registration kicked off this week for the thinkBIG conference on international women’s heath and human rights, which is set to be the largest student-run conference in Stanford history and will take place Feb. 1-3.

Its organizers do not intend for the conference to preach to the choir. They are targeting students regardless of gender or academic background in an effort to raise awareness about the issues facing women in the developing world and inspire a generation to take action.

“We want to get everybody involved, from the doctor to the diplomat to the check-writers of tomorrow,” said conference chair Lee Trope ‘08.

The conference will focus on four primary issues: Education, HIV/AIDS among women, reproductive health and violence against women. Each issue will have a keynote speaker and two panelists, boasting a who’s who of activists in the field, including Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, and Stephen Lewis, former UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa.

Read the article...

Stephen Lewis Confirmed HIV/AIDS Keynote

Stephen Lewis, the former UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, has confirmed that he will be coming to Stanford this February as our HIV/AIDS Keynote speaker. He is the founder of the celebrated Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF). He is also a Professor in Global Health, Faculty of Social Sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, a Senior Advisor to the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York, and co-Director of AIDS-Free World, a new international AIDS advocacy organization. The SLF website states, "As a politician, diplomat and international envoy for humanitarian efforts, Stephen Lewis has dedicated himself to improving the human condition." Mr. Lewis brings a long history of commitment to African and the problem of HIV/AIDS:

Stephen Lewis’ work with the United Nations spanned more than two decades. He was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa from June 2001 until the end of 2006. From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Lewis was Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF at the organization’s global headquarters in New York. From 1984 through 1988, Stephen Lewis was Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations.

Mr. Lewis was an elected member of the Ontario Legislative Assembly from 1963 to1978.

In 1970, he became leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, during which time he became leader of the Official Opposition.

Mr. Lewis is co-chair of the Leadership Programme Committee for the XVII International AIDS Conference, which will be held in Mexico City in August 2008. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

In 2006, Stephen Lewis’ best-selling book, Race Against Time won the Canadian Booksellers Association’s Libris Award for non-fiction book of the year and Mr. Lewis was named the CBA’s Author of the Year for 2005.

Mr. Lewis holds 26 honorary degrees from Canadian universities and is a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest honour for lifetime achievement. In 2007, the Kingdom of Lesotho (a small mountainous country in Southern Africa) invested Mr. Lewis as Knight Commander of the Most Dignified Order of Moshoeshoe. The order is named for the founder of Lesotho; the knighthood is the country’s highest honour.

We are so excited to welcome Mr. Lewis to Stanford in February. For more information on the conference, please visit http://thinkbig.stanford.edu or email thinkbig.info@gmail.com