Connie Milstein

The Collegiate Seminar Program is an exclusive program established by NYU graduate Connie Milstein in 2007. This special program, unique to NYU’s College of Arts and Science, provides seminars for freshmen students and creates a mentoring relationship with the faculty of the Seminar program with each student; a relationship that continues throughout the student’s undergraduate careers.

Connie Milstein has been the force behind other innovative programming at the University, including the establishment of a branch of NYU in Washington, D.C., the Constance Milstein and Family Academic Center. With a branch in the nation’s capital, students of politics have a ‘home away from home’ in which to observe the workings of government up close.

The Humpty Dumpty Institute, with co-founder Connie Milstein, is an organization with many programs. One of them is The Global Creative Forum, who recently brought representatives from three U.N. projects to Hollywood, California with hopes of exposing famous film and television writers and producers to the problems and efforts of the U.N. Writers from famous shows such as Law and Order, Burn Notice and Private Practice were present at the event.

The event began with an introduction by Bill Rouhana, chairman of HDI and GCF, who was followed by U.N. Assistant Secretary General Robert Orr and Juan Carlos Brandt of the U.N. Department for Public Information. The first speaker was Elizabeth Jennings, who works for the World Food Program in Haiti. She described the flexibility of the Haitians when they are faced with the disasters of earthquakes, hunger and cholera. Jennings was followed by Olivier Mukarji from the United Nations Department of Peace Keeping in Darfur, Sudan. He explained how the U.N. works to save refugees from Darfur as well as to negotiate an end to the conflict between the political parties in Sudan. Gary Lewis of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Thailand spoke of the efforts being put into stopping the human and drug trafficking in the region.

In February, the US Department of Agriculture provided the Humpty Dumpty Institute (HDI) with $4.1 million by giving them the Dole-McGovern Food for Education Grant. The Dole-McGovern program supports education, child development and food security in low-income countries. It provides financial and technical assistance, as well as agricultural products in order to aid child nutrition.

HDI is an organization which works to find solutions to humanitarian problems around the world. Its current goals are to eliminate mines and other UXOs (unexploded ordinances) around the world, as well as to ease domestic and international hunger issues. Connie Milstein is a co-founder of HDI.

The grant provided $3.2 million in cash, as well as $900,000 which covered the transportation cost of 910 tons of beans, canned salmon, corn-soy blend, milled rice and vegetable oil with hopes to feed approximately 19,000 children daily.