The Summit

The Summit is a five day long conference held every April at Northwestern University. Delegates from around the world arrive with change-based projects that can tackle any social change from education to healthcare to sustainability. If their project is in the ideas phase, we help them make their plan a reality. If it's already up and coming, we help them become more impactful.

Delegates leave the Summit with tangible skills and newly learned strategies to improve their project and create change in the most effective way possible. Past projects include a creative arts education center in Cambodia, a marketing NGO for small businesses in Egypt, and an organization that connect local food pantries with college dining halls to minimize food waste in the United States.

The Summit offers a wide variety of capacity-building programs ranging from hands-on workshops to individualized mentoring sessions. Because projects brought to GES can be anywhere in the development process and tackle a host of different types of social challenges, Summit programming is customizable to each delegate. Once accepted, delegates will apply for and be placed in workshops relevant to their specific project and the goals they wish to accomplish.

Delegates leave the Summit not only with skills and action plans for their projects, but also lasting connections with fellow delegates, their mentors, and Summit staff. Our growing community continues to stay in touch years after the Summit, sharing advice and opportunities.

To learn more about what happens during these five life-changing days, please visit Summit Programming.