ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2019
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. In the three months the application was open in 2019, over 7,000 young leaders applied to join the Class of 2019 on 1,209 campuses across 135 nations. 69 campuses worldwide (just 6%) were selected to host the 805 Millennium Fellows.
During the Millennium Fellowship, Millennium Fellows' dedicated 96,705 hours and their 422 unique projects positively impacted the lives of 564,366 people worldwide.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT KATELYN MORRISON, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2019.
University of Pittsburgh | Pennsylvania, United States | Advancing SDG 9 & UNAI 5
" Steve Jobs once said:
“Here's to the crazy ones ... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do”.
This quote inspires me to contribute to developing communities around the world. Having the opportunity to make impactful advancements through my own passions and meeting other Millennium Fellows from other countries is so exciting. I cannot wait to see all the successes that come from the Class of 2019! "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Pitt Creates and Sustains
Pitt Creates and Sustains is contributing to SDG #9 by addressing the need for educational trainings and workshops to expose the community to makerspaces and an environment fostering design and innovation. Three workshops were held so far with a total of 40 participants. The first workshop, called Makerspaces and Mindsets Bootcamp, exposed students to design thinking principles and simulated a design thinking event. Students experienced rapid prototyping, draw designs, and then brought their designs to life by learning how to use 3D modeling software and a laser cutter.
The other two workshops consisted of learning how to apply designs and ideas to a vinyl cutter. These workshops taught the community on my college campus how to use a Vinyl cutter with different kinds of materials.
In all three workshops, we fostered a creative environment encouraging the participants to think how these skills can be applied to real life. Throughout this semester, I also worked with three other students to dive deeper into the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship on our university's campus. With our findings and exposure to organized design thinking training sessions, we are pushing for a university wide Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate program.
Next semester, two more events will be conducted. One workshop similar to the Makerspaces and Mindsets Bootcamp, but specifically targeting a non-technical/beginner audience. The other event will challenge a diverse group of students in a sustainability capstone course to venture in to the on campus makerspaces and recreate our university's campus while prioritizing sustainable development initiatives.
Following the school year, I will be conducting further research to continue contributing to SDG #9 by spending 6 weeks in Valparaíso, Chile to investigate the innovation culture amongst the high school and college level education systems.
About the Millennium Fellow
Katelyn Morrison is a junior at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in Computer Science with a certificate in Sustainability. Katelyn’s roots of innovation and creating go back to her high school: Northwestern Lehigh in New Tripoli, PA. She co-founded a maker club at her high school which evolved into the middle school and elementary schools creating makerspaces. Now, she currently creates and runs her own workshops in an up-and-coming makerspace on Pitt’s campus. Katelyn’s goals include attending grad school to further research in computational sustainability and attain her PhD for professorship.
