Sam Vaghar, Millennium Campus Network & Conference

Sam Vaghar is the Co-founder and Executive Director of the Millennium Campus Network. He is often referred to as “a Man with a Plan.” His organization hosts the Millennium Campus Conference each summer, gathering together thousands of youth activists from the world.

I’ve known Sam for many years, and Students Helping Honduras co-hosted MCC 2015 at the UN Headquarters in New York City.

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Show Notes for Sam Vaghar

• What Sam Vaghar was like growing up
• Sam’s first real date in high school
• The two books that Sam read in college that changed his life
• The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
• Why Sam reads the acknowledgments section of every book he reads BEFORE he reads the actual book
• How Sam secured a meeting with Jeffrey Sachs
• What Sam’s first meeting with Jeffrey Sachs was like
• How Sam raised $5,000 to purchase bed nets to combat malaria
• What the first MCC was like in 2008
• Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
• Partners in Health
• Sam’s favorite movie
• Sam’s unique encounter with a homeless man in DC and the advice he received
• “Everybody wants to be understood.”
• Where he found the first people who signed up for MCC
• How Sam found the funding for the first MCC
• How Sam secured a $30,000 donation towards MCC
• How Sam got Jeff Sachs and Dr. Paul Farmer to join the MCC Board of Advisors
• How Sam maintains his relationships with major donors
• “How can I help you?”
• How reaching out helped Sam meet President Barack Obama
• Sam’s public speaking tips
• MCC16.org
• Skoll World Forum
• Echoing Green
• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
• Half the Sky by: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
• A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunities by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
• Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sharyl Sandberg
• The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty by Nina Munk
• The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier
• Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo
• Shining Hope for Communities 
• Uncharitable by Dan Pallotta
• Dr. Sakina Yaqoobi of Afghan Institute of Learning