Make
Progress
National
Summit ...1 of 3 >
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July 16, 2014 - About 800 young
people gathered at JW Marriott for
Generation Progess' Make Progress Summit, a day of speeches, breakout
sessions and networking. Generation Progress (known until last
year as Campus Progress), is a project of the Center for American
Progress; this was their tenth summit. |
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Generation Progress policy
director Sarah Audelo spoke with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) about a
number of subjects including
student loan debt, combating sexual assault on college campuses, women
running for office, and changes needed in the workplace such as equal
pay for equal work and paid leave. Gillibrand talked about Off
the Sidelines, "a call to action to all of America's women to ask them
to be heard on whatever issues they care about." (Off the
Sidelines is Gillibrand's PAC as well as the title of the book she has
coming out in September). On the workplace, Gillibrand said that
some women face "a chronic pull down to the bottom, and what we call it
is the sticky floor. Women cannot get off the sticky floor; they
cannot get out of the lowest wage jobs, and constantly being pushed
down into the low wage jobs." Gillibrand concluded urging the
audience of young progressives to speak up on these issues. "Your
voice reallly matters; you can change the outcome of these debates all
across the country," she said.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
focused on her Bank on Students bill. The Bank on Student
Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, which she introduced in May, would
allow students to
refinance their student loan debt at lower interest rates, funded by
limiting tax breaks for the wealthy. It is, said Warren, a simple
choice: "students or billionaires." |
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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)
participated in a discussion on "preventing gun violence in our
communities" with Sarah Clements and Ronnie Moseley. "We can win
this fight," Murphy said.
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During a breakout session on
leadership development, participants considered several different
leadership approaches.
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