Student Engagement

Global Engagement Studies Institute (GESI)

GESI is a study abroad program that prepares undergraduates with the knowledge, tools, and experiences to confront shared global challenges. Through service-learning in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Nicaragua, South Africa, or Uganda, students partner with organizations in the developing world to advance community-driven change.

Global Engagement Summit (GES)

Since 2006, more than 700 delegates from universities across the globe have participated in GES. Delegates present a community development project or social entrepreneurship venture that they want to advance to the next stage. During a week of capacity-building workshops, critical discussions, and networking sessions, students work to improve their projects and learn skills that will serve them throughout their career.

GlobeMed

GlobeMed aims to strengthen the movement for global health equity by empowering students and communities to work together to improve the health of people living in poverty around the world. GlobeMed believes that health is a basic human right and that students have the ability and responsibility to build a better world. GlobeMed aims to foster skills and commitment of students to become tomorrow’s leaders for global health equity and social justice.

Africa Business Club

Africa Business Club is an association of Africans and all people interested in Africa at Kellogg. The club's mission is to increase the professional and cultural interest in Africa at Kellogg, and to build Kellogg's brand equity in Africa.

African Drum and Dance Ensemble (ADDE)

ADDE is a group of students coming together to learn traditional and contemporary dances and sounds of Africa. ADDE raises education around contemporary and traditional African dance, drum and ritual, and fosters a vibrant multicultural community. Together, the art and the exploration and teaching of these forms, help in the development of self and community awareness.

Academy of Music and Art for Special Education (AMASE)

AMASE teaches children with autism how to play musical instruments. Northwestern student volunteers teach children with autism from the Chicago area at on the Evanston campus on Saturday mornings throughout the year. AMASE aims to create a community in which music is the primary means of communication between volunteers and students.

Applause for a Cause

Applause for a Cause is a philanthropic film production company that makes a feature-length film and donates all of the money raised to charity. Applause is the only student group in the country that produces a feature-length film. Over 70 students are involved in Applause each year, ranging from freshman to seniors and covering all of Northwestern's schools.

Cirque du NU

Cirque du NU is a circus and service club that volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House, an international “home away from home” where families stay when other family members are hospitalized. We make meals for the families there and use lighthearted circus entertainment in order to alleviate some of the stress of having another family member hospitalized.

AIESEC

AIESEC is the world’s largest student-run organization present in over 113 countries. In the US, AIESEC is focused on providing a platform for youth leadership development. AIESEC US offers young people the opportunity to be global citizens, to change the world, and to get experience and skills that matter today. AIESEC is run by young people, for young people, enabling a strong experience to all its stakeholders.

Alpha Phi Omega

Alpha Phi Omega’s Sigma Chapter at Northwestern is comprised of 50 members who focus on leadership, friendship, and service. The major focus of their operations is service on campus and the local community including soup kitchens, animal shelters, and tutoring. Alpha Phi Omega offers many different leadership positions to foster leadership development and create opportunities for their members.

Best Buddies

Best Buddies is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of those with intellectual and/or physical disabilities by providing opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, and leadership.  Each member is matched with an adult with disabilities and connects regularly for fun activities and themed outings. Best Buddies also promotes disability awareness on campus and throughout the community.

Chicago Area Mentorship Program (CAMP)

CAMP inspires high school students to work towards their aspirations by stressing the importance of hard work, determination, and self-confidence. CAMP seeks to empower students who would not consider themselves college-bound through annual programming, high school visits, and Annual "College Day," a full day of programming on campus for high school students from the Chicago-land.

Freshman Urban Program (FUP)

FUP is a pre-freshmen orientation program that challenges freshmen to learn and tell the story of Chicago, both its triumphs and struggles. Students get to know neighborhoods and people in Chicago that they would normally not visit, and join the city they will come to love. FUP provides an outlet to make lifelong friends and develop leadership skills.

International Student Association (ISA)

ISA promotes interaction among students from different cultural and religious backgrounds and encourages campus-wide dialogue on global issues.

ISA assists international students in their transition to a new surrounding, serves as a platform for the international student community to voice their opinions and concerns, and promotes international student rights and interests at Northwestern. ISA welcomes not only international students but also those interested in international issues.

Design For America (DFA)

DFA is an award-winning nationwide network of interdisciplinary student teams and community members using design to create local and social impact. DFA teaches human centered design to young adults and collaborating community partners through extra-curricular, university-based, student-led design studios to look locally, create fervently and act fearlessly. Students work throughout the school year to tackle challenges in health, education, economy and sustainability.

Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW)

ESW mobilizes engineers through education, training, and practical action, building collaborative partnerships to meet the needs of current and future generations.

Global Engagement Summit (GES)

Since 2006, more than 700 delegates from universities across the globe have participated in GES. Delegates present a community development project or social entrepreneurship venture that they want to advance to the next stage. During a week of capacity-building workshops, critical discussions, and networking sessions, students work to improve their projects and learn skills that will serve them throughout their career.

InNUvation

The interdisciplinary, student-run organization InNUvation promotes the entrepreneurial spirit on campus. InNUvation-sponsored events are the entry point for many of the University’s entrepreneurs and act as portals for a variety of resources. InNUvation holds a series of educational seminars throughout the year concerning the experience of local entrepreneurs (often alumni) as well as addressing the concerns of inexperienced entrepreneurs, such as workshops on basic finance and IP.

Green Cup

Green Cup is a month-long competition that challenges Northwestern University students living in campus residence halls and Greek housing to reduce energy and water use. The goal of Green Cup is to engage students in behavior change and give them a better understanding of the impact of daily activities.

Northwestern Energy and Sustainability Consortium (NESC)

NESC is an interdisciplinary student group that encourages and facilitates communication and collaboration at Northwestern University regarding sustainability and energy.

NU Sustainable Food Talks

NU Sustainable Food Talks is a community program, made of students, faculty, staff and community members, whose mission is to strengthen our sustainable food systems network, our knowledge base, and find ways together to maximize our outreach. We host a pot-luck talking group the first Tuesday of each month, featuring an expert from part of our food system who speaks on their work, the issues they face, and how it affects our foodshed.

Camp Kesem

Camp Kesem empowers college student leaders nationwide to create free, life-changing summer camps for children affected by a parent’s cancer. Their mission is to provide children affected by a parent’s cancer with a supportive, lifelong community that recognizes and understands their unique needs while at the same time, helping college students develop invaluable leadership skills by developing and managing every aspect of the Camp Kesem Chapter.

China Care

Northwestern China Care aims to save the lives of abandoned Chinese orphans by sponsoring surgeries and medical treatments for orphans in China. Within the Chicago area, we work to create and foster a stronger community among adopted children and with China Care families by holding playgroups and a mentorship program for adopted orphans. Money raised goes to support individual children.

Engineering World Health (EWH)

EWH Northwestern seeks to inspire and mobilize the engineering community, to improve the quality of healthcare in vulnerable communities. More specifically, to provide the members of EWH Northwestern with the opportunity to repair, build, and learn about medical devices.

FaceAIDS

Northwestern is full of leaders and students ready to make a difference in global health equity—your chance starts with FACE AIDS. We want to see the end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in our lifetime, and you can help. FACE AIDS is an opportunity to be a leader, learn about people around the globe, across our country, and in your backyard who have been affected by HIV/AIDS.

Food-Health Initiative

Food-Health Initiative is a student group pertaining to healthy eating and healthy living. The purpose is to increase awareness about nutrition, healthy eating and living habits. The group provides students with the nutritional knowledge to pick healthy choices in dining halls, restaurants, and even within the home. Their goal is to make "eating healthy" a desire of college students, rather than a burden. Activities include educational events, professional speakers, and meetings with discussions.

Fight For Freedom Project (F3)

F3 is a community that seeks to spread the word about modern-day slavery and human trafficking and to work together to form a thoughtful and effective response. We aim to educate people about the extent to which they inadvertently promote slavery by what they buy; the presence (and exploitation) of slaves in the cities where they live and work and to which they travel; and the decisions that they can make for the short- and the long-term to start living in a way to end slavery.

Northwestern University Conference on Human Rights (NUCHR)

NUCHR is the largest undergraduate student-organized conference on human rights in the United States. Each conference addresses a unique topic, such as humanitarian aid, globalization, or human trafficking. Speakers have included journalists Nicholas Kristof, diplomat Richard Holbrooke, and Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of Doctors Without Borders. Through events, student-organized seminars, and the culminating conference, NUCHR raises awareness of international human rights issues and fosters social activism at Northwestern and beyond.

Campus Kitchens Project (CKP)

CKP is a national leader in community service for students and is the future of hunger relief. CKP is empowering the next generation of leaders to implement innovative models for combating hunger, developing food systems, and helping communities help themselves. CKP partners with high schools, colleges, and universities to share on-campus kitchen space, recover food from cafeterias, and engage students as volunteers who prepare and deliver meals to the community.

Challah for Hunger (CfH)

CfH raises awareness of and money for hunger and disaster relief, through the production and sale of challah bread. Chapter volunteers gather weekly at Hillel to make challah, which we sell to the Northwestern community. Half of each chapter's profits are donated to the national CfH cause: the American Jewish World Service's Sudan Relief and Advocacy Fund. The remaining half goes to Soup at Six, a local Evanston soup kitchen.

Brady Scholars

Brady Scholars Program is a scholarly community in which undergraduates join together with graduate students and faculty to discuss values and norms, goodness and badness, rightness and wrongness, virtue and vice, duty and obligation, justice and rights, equality and freedom, and the application of these concepts to local, national, and international communities. It combines a yearlong examination of these topics in a small-classroom setting, exposure to a part of the world outside the U.S., and a capstone project that addresses social, economic, or political issues in the Evanston community.

Northwestern University Political Union (NUPU)

NUPU is a community of students united by their common interest in discussion of political and global affairs. Bringing together students of various backgrounds, ideologies, and political persuasions, the Political Union aims to foster intellectualism, sincerity, and sophistication in campus political discourse.

Northwestern University Model United Nations (NUMUN)

NUMUN’s mission is to be the premier Model UN high school conference in the Midwest. NUMUN’s high-quality, dedicated secretariat and staff create a personal, professional, and passionate simulation experience. NUMUN seeks to broaden delegates’ knowledge of worldwide politics, increase interpersonal skills, and create impactful experiences.