ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2020
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. In the three months the application was open in 2020, 15,159 young leaders applied to join the Class of 2020 on 1,458 campuses across 135 nations. 80 campuses worldwide (just 6%) were selected to host the 1,000+ Millennium Fellows. The Class of 2020 is bold, innovative, and inclusive.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT SOWMYA VAIDYANATHAN, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2020.
Ashoka University | Haryana, India | Advancing SDG 15 & UNAI 9
" I've always been interested in the relationship between mythology and the natural world, and I am excited to be a Millennium Fellow because of the opportunity it gives me to use this interest to create meaningful change. I am also excited and honoured to learn and grow from this talented and diverse network of student leaders from all across the globe. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: PLANT: People's Living Archive of Native Trees
PLANT - People's Living Archive of Native Trees aims, over many years, to build a comprehensive, accessible, multilingual, and crowdsourced archive of traditional knowledge, stories, and medicinal uses of flora in India. They believe that this subcontinent has a rich storehouse of indigenous knowledge and practices which are inclusive, equitable, and ecologically sensitive. Plants have gained various statuses and uses in mythology, religion, medicine, socio-cultural practices, and day-to-day activities. Unfortunately, documentation and public awareness of such knowledge in India are poor. Through this website, they hope to play a small role in filling this gap. They aim to document diverse community stories from across India, and through this to help build bridges amongst them, learn from each other, and work towards conserving and furthering grounded lifestyles.
Goal:
Over the next few months, they aim to set up the public portal and crowd-sourced map with sample stories from different parts of India.
About the Millennium Fellow
Sowmya Vaidyanathan is a rising third year student at Ashoka University, studying Literature and Sociology. She is interested in the way stories, folklore and myths intersect with the natural environment, and how this intersection can lead to awareness and change.
