Chelsea Clinton: Why she admires George H. W. Bush

Chelsea Clinton, who made $600,000 as an NBC news reporter, gave a speech about community service. Chelsea Clinton says every young person should be given the opportunity serve. She also praised George H. W. Bush.

Chelsea Clinton, who has played an increasingly prominent role in her family's foundation, used a speech Monday to call for more community service opportunities for a younger generation and said she supports efforts that would allow more college graduates to reduce their student loan debt through volunteering.

Clinton, 34, who serves as vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, spoke to about 5,000 people gathered for the "Service Unites" conference sponsored by the Points of Light Foundation, and also participated in a panel discussion on inspiring young people to become more involved.

"It is in all of our interests to ensure that every young person in America who wants to serve is given the opportunity to serve," said Clinton, who is expecting her first baby in the fall with her husband, Marc Mezvinsky.

Clinton said it was important for young people to expand their view of service and for federal, state and local governments to do everything they can to expand volunteer opportunities rather than let them contract or stagnate.

"We often do think of service as only the ways in which the mayor is serving, in which my parents have served. Maybe we think of military service. But service clearly has an almost limitless definition determined by how each individual can make a difference in their community," Clinton said.

While she spoke of her parents' service, she mentioned nothing about her mother, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and her possible run for president.

She did take a moment to honor 41st President George H. W. Bush, who started the Points of Light Foundation, which has grown to one of the largest volunteering and service organizations.

"I have long been an admirer of President Bush partly because he, like my father, didn't rest on his laurels after he left the White House. He very much believed that he still had something to contribute to our country," Clinton said.

She also spoke on the growing crisis of student loan debt, praising President Barack Obama for a plan that offers student loan forgiveness for those working in public schools and said there should be a broader conversation about expanding that to other service opportunities.

She added volunteering could also be a way to reduce unemployment among recent college graduates, noting companies are seeing the value of service on a resume.

"They know that says the applicant is likely to be resilient, to be a leader, to have good team-working skills, all fundamentals to success in many different corporate environments," Clinton said.

As a "special correspondent" for NBC News, Clinton has worked on service-related feature assignments for NBC’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams” until the show’s cancellation in June 2013. Clinton has since worked on packages for NBC Nightly News. Politico reported that Chelsea Clinton earned an annual salary of $600,000 at NBC News before switching to a month-to-month contract earlier this yea,.

Follow Christina Almeida Cassidy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Christina .

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Chelsea Clinton: Why she admires George H. W. Bush
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0617/Chelsea-Clinton-Why-she-admires-George-H.-W.-Bush
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe