"Beneath the surface of a failed conference, there has emerged a common vision amongst youth, which inspires me to continue doing this work," writes Marcia Lee, a 2009 Caux Scholar from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who attended the conference on climate change.

Noorullah Delawari, an Afghani American who is founder and CEO of the Afghan Investment Support Agency, as well as Minister Adviser to President Karzai, says his long connection with Initiatives of Change helped him to take responsibility for his country—including the enormous task of restoring stability to the currency. He told his story to an Initiatives of Change meeting in McLean, Virginia, in October.

Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge now carries the title “Editor in Exile”. In September of 2008, she was the second winner of the Global Shining Light Award in Norway, presented by the International Conference of Investigative Journalists for exposing how a government minister “used his power and connections to the President of the country to run roughshod over the media and the justice system.” Less than four months later her husband of two months, the well known editor of the Leader newspaper, Sri Lanka, was brutally gunned down as he drove to work. Sonali was forced to flee the country, along with other members of her family—hence her unusual title.