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 ALYSSA ALEXANDRA HEATH, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2020.
New York University | New York, United States | Advancing SDG 10 & UNAI 10
" I am so incredibly excited and honored to be a Millennium Fellow in the 2020 cohort! Having the opportunity to collaborate and work with bright and passionate peers globally will be an invaluable opportunity for myself and everyone else. I am committed to advocating for equitable and participatory urban development around the world and standing up for the voiceless and displaced. My vision is to see a more integrated and justice-oriented world into the future, a reality that I believe will be crafted by young leaders and changemakers within the Millennium Fellowship. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: The Red Hook Partnership
Gentrification in New York City is as widespread as it is crushing. The effects of speculative real estate, unregulated urban development, and lack of input from the most vulnerable stakeholders (often times low- income, minority, and immigrant) create city environments that are stratified and unequal. Gentrification in Williamsburg and Dumbo has been well-studied and is well-known, while other more remote parts of Brooklyn are being excluded from the gentrification fascination. Alyssa plan to research the current state of commercial redevelopment taking place in and around the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, specifically looking at real estate developments such as "Industry City."
Red Hook has historically been a low-income neighborhood with public housing projects, large-scale unemployment, and under- resourced schools. For the research, the Fellow would like to connect with local, grassroots organizations like the Red Hook Coalition and the Red Hook Business Alliance. In the end, the vision is to form a grassroots citizen- organization for participatory development in Red Hook: one that provides the forum for collaboration between residents of Red Hook, all in the effort to minimize the devastating consequences of gentrification. This organization will be called "The Red Hook Partnership," and will live primarily on Facebook via an official page and group.
With this project, the Fellow plan to help form a grassroots, participatory citizen-activated organization called "the Red Hook Partnership" in collaboration with local organizations already in-place. As apart of this, they will launch a Facebook group to help legitimize the cause and to create an online forum for local Red Hook residents to organize and discuss the realities they face due to gentrification.
Given the organization will live on Facebook, they hope to have at least 500 group members, 2 to 3 group discussions/posts per week, and 3 to 5 virtual town hall meetings throughout the course of the fellowship. Overall, they hope to touch at least 1500 Red Hook natives.
About the Millennium Fellow
Alyssa Heath is a Junior at New York University in the Global Liberal Studies program. Her concentration is in International Development and Politics, and she is originally from the suburbs of Chicago. She is passionate about urban renewal and addressing contentious public development projects. She has studied and lived in India, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, San Francisco, New York, and most recently Paris. She is also a certified yoga teacher and loves a good plate of pasta, hiking, cooking, and going to concerts with friends!
