Karina Edouard, Manhattanville College

In the past two years, Karina Edouard a sophomore, devoted much of her time to finding solutions to current social issues. As a scholar in the Duchesne Center for religion & social justice, Karina is a member of UNICEF, writer for the International Studies Department newsletter, and has spent time in both Camden, NJ and New Orleans, LA on service-learning trips with the Romero Center and the Adullham Christian Center. Karina is also the sophomore representative for the International Majors Department and the student representative for the Honor’s Program. Moreover, she is an active committee member in the student-led campus organization, Student Initiative on Diversity and Inclusion. Karina is currently in the process of executing her Commitment-to-Action, as proposed during the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative University Conference in Washington, D.C. At the Conference, she proposed a commitment to teach children and young adults in Haiti in Mathematics and English. Improving literacy rates, she believes, is the best channel for promoting grass-root level political and economic involvement. In addition to planning her Commitment-to-Action, Karina is currently studying ways of reducing poverty and violence via increased commerce and race relations among marginalized peoples.