ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2018
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. In the three months the application was open in 2018, students applied to join the Class of 2018 on 285 campuses across 57 nations. 30 campuses worldwide (just 11%) were selected to host the 402 Millennium Fellows in the global pilot this year.
The Class of 2018 is bold, innovative, and inclusive. During the Millennium Fellowship, Millennium Fellows' dedicated 48,785 hours and their 214 unique projects positively impacted the lives of 393,449 people worldwide.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT TIMOTHY PURVIS, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2018.
Georgia Institute of Technology | Georgia, United States | Advancing SDG 4 & UNAI 5
" I'm excited to be a Millennium Fellow, as it allows me to hone in my professional skills alongside such a diverse group of leaders around the world. I also get access to incredible, passion-driven project that I would otherwise be in the dark about. It's a blessing to be connected to this network that is committed to each community's growth.
I do the work because I feel that any chance to level the playing field, regardless of how small that chance or change may be, is worth it. Communities only grow when they are committed to doing so, and I hope to instill that idea into a new set of young adults and leaders in the high schools we work with. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Books not Bombs at GT STEM Workshops
Many refugee students in the US are placed into academic systems that set them up for failure. They are placed into high school based on their age and not based on their level of previous schooling. The result is that these students may not have the foundations of English or Math to keep pace with their peers. Books not Bombs (BNB) at GT is an organization at Georgia Tech that works with refugee high school students one-on-one to provide tutoring. Our desire, however, is to set these refugee students up for extended success. The best way to do this is by equipping them for higher education and other post-secondary opportunities.
To equip these students, Books not Bombs launched a workshop program that gives students an introduction to various science and business topics. The goal of this is to give students the opportunity to grow their resumes before applying for higher education or for work. The workshops allow students to showcase their problem solving skills through hands-on lessons.
BNB has completed three workshops this semester. The first taught about forces and design through a competition where teams of students designed cardboard boats. The second workshop taught problem solving for business through a case competition. The last of our workshops gave an introduction to coding. All of these workshops engaged students with science, math, and problem solving outside of the normal classroom setting.
BNB will continue to work with its local partner in the Clarkston community to provide workshops in the spring. We understand, however, that we are a small organization with a small impact. The best work that we can do beyond delivering workshops and tutoring opportunities is to connect other organizations with the Clarkston community. We partnered with other Georgia Tech organizations for the second and third workshops, and have seen these organizations make their own efforts to engage students. Through these efforts, we believe that we are helping to set up the students at Clarkston for success futures long after they graduate.
About the Millennium Fellow
I'm Timothy Purvis, a Mechanical Engineering Undergrad at Georgia Tech with a passion for people, languages, and WASH development. I am also pursuing a minor in French language and another in Global Engineering Leadership. In my time at Georgia Tech I’ve studied abroad in France and Switzerland, and worked for 5 months in Cambodia with agricultural technologies. Outside of classes I’m involved in undergrad research for WASH sensor technology, and Cru, the on-campus ministry. I also dabble in Spanish and Arabic, and hope to use all of those languages and interests in the future once I’m graduated!
