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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.

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UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT CONNIE DAYINA E, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2018.

Northeastern University | Massachusetts, United States | Advancing SDG 4 & UNAI 2

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" Northeastern as a member of the Millennium Campus Network embodies its commitment in produce impact-driven future leaders. And I would like to be at the forefront of this exciting movement to lead and inspire my peers to become interested in the field of impact investing. For the movement to take off, we need a chorus of interdisciplinary talents - engineering, business, policy, arts. Critically, being a Millennium Fellow will introduce me to a network of like-minded change makers who are truly passionate and deeply committed to social impact in their own realms. "

Millennium Fellowship Project: Leading NUImpact - Northeastern's Impact Investing Initiative

NUImpact, founded in Spring 2016, is Northeastern's student-led impact investing initiative that brings awareness and inspire action in social finance. For my MCN project, I led the strategic pivot of the organization's focus from speaker events to setting up the impact fund. My primary focus was to fundraise from the university endowment, individuals and local community in order to eventually raise $250M and amplify our impact beyond campus through place-based investments.

About the Millennium Fellow

I was your poster “save the world” child in freshman year of college. Growing up in China and having attended high school in England, I’ve always been passionate about bringing opportunities to the less fortunate through policy and nonprofit organizations. Now in my third year of college, that deep commitment to creating social change remains the same, yet my approach in doing so has changed drastically.

After working for an NGO that is doing groundbreaking journalism bringing international perspectives to American foreign policy, I was frustrated that incredible organizations like the one I worked for on an unpaid basis is constantly strained for grant funding.

And that is when I came across impact investing.

It opened up a new way for me to think about how the greatest humanitarian ethos can be combined with the effectiveness of the markets. I therefore pivoted my career goal from the one-dimensional nonprofit approach into one that is market-driven and interdisciplinary. I’m currently completing a six-month full-time internship at State Street while leading NUImpact as the incoming President (ex VP of Marketing). And what drives me in my day to day work is the firm belief that capital has the power to positively impact lives at scale if intentionally deployed.

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