The University of Wisconsin Homecoming Committee co-hosted a Red Talk featuring a “Forward under 40” alumna who spoke about her campus experience and non-profit work via UNICEF.

The talk, held in Gordon Commons on Thursday, is a part of Homecoming Week, committee member Amanda Rabito said. This year, the committee chose Casey Rotter, UNICEF’s Next Generation founder and director, as the featured speaker.

Rotter, who graduated from UW in 2005, credited the university for who and where she is today.

“UW is a place where I was able to find my passion, a place where I could grow and not get lost,” Rotter said. “I was truly able to make Wisconsin my own.”

Rotter found her place in UNICEF’s organization after discovering the average age of a donor was 63 years old. Many non-profits are panicking about an aging donor base, she said. Rotter said there was also an aging staff that didn’t know how to engage with the next generation through media and technology.

This gave her the opportunity to meet with the President of UNICEF and present her thesis about how to engage with the next generation of young supporters, she said.

Rotter then founded UNICEF Next Generation, a group of young professionals between age 21 and 40 who are committed to doing whatever it takes to save children’s lives.

Rotter said UNICEF has coverage in over 150 countries, and Next Generation chooses specific projects to back.

A student asked what they are working on now, and in reply Rotter said UNICEF Next Generation is involved in an education project in Syria.

Next Generation is almost through collecting donations of a half million dollars, which will be matched to reach $1 million to improve the education of children in Syria.

“Children have been using the classrooms as bomb shelters, yet they hadn’t gone to class in over five years,” Rotter said.

She said one of her hardest trips was to Burundi, in Central Africa, where only three percent of the country has access to the electrical grid.

UNICEF Next Generation made portable LED lights for children and families so that they did not have to rely on candles. In turn, this improved their breathing from less smoke in the air, she said.

UNICEF Next Generation recognizes that it takes financial resources, education and advocacy to reduce the number of daily preventable deaths of children from 17,000 to zero, she said. She said she is confident that they will accomplish this.

“Just because you are in a big pond, doesn’t mean you have to be a small fish,” Rotter said. “Everyone can make a difference.”