|  Dear Friend,
I am writing to ask for your help. One of the Center for Inquiry's most important missions is to engage college and high school students in the promotion of science, reason, and freedom of inquiry. The Center for Inquiry's student outreach program is vital to defending these values—and to ensuring that tomorrow's leaders and lawmakers fully understand the challenges we face. We need your financial assistance to develop and train the next generation of leaders in our movement. Support for CFI On Campus is crucial. Many of CFI's greatest successes are a direct result of our student movement. As a college student, I attended CFI's first student leadership conferences. Many of the participants in those early conferences went on to fill important roles in the battle for science and reason, both within the Center for Inquiry and beyond. These included Chris Mooney, now a respected science journalist and author (The Republican War on Science; Storm World) and a frequent contributor to Skeptical Inquirer; D.J. Grothe, now host of CFI's popular radio show and podcast Point of Inquiry; Matthew Nisbet, now a widely-published professor in the School of Communication at American University researching the intersection between science, media, and politics; Austin Dacey, now CFI's official Representative to the United Nations and author of The Secular Conscience; Debbie Goddard, now CFI's campus Field Organizer; and many others, including educators, lawyers, journalists, scientists, parents, and politicians. To fight the rising tide of religious extremism, anti-science, and irrational thought, we need a strong organization with a clear direction. CFI's campus outreach initiative provides that structure. But to continue building the student movement, we need funding. Our greatest chance to succeed clearly lies with tapping into the energy and enthusiasm of the next generation. How will we go about doing that? The first steps: - Next month, the Center for Inquiry is again hosting a Student Leadership Conference to train students in activism skills and to build networks between campuses across North America.
- We also want to support at least one major lecture or debate every year on each of the college campuses where we have campus groups.
- We will continue to recruit new campus leaders who can educate and motivate more student activists on more campuses.
How can you help? More than 100 student leaders are eager to attend our Student Leadership Conference. With your financial assistance, they will do so. We have set up a Campus Campaign to provide scholarships and travel grants. The Campus Campaign goal is $50,000. Attaining this goal will allow us not only to bring these 100+ students to the Student Leadership Conference, but also to expand our campus activities. Please give generously to support CFI On Campus. With your help, we can secure the future of science, reason, and freedom of inquiry. Sincerely, 
Derek C. Araujo
Executive Director
Center for Inquiry New York City
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