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 LYDIA SAMORA MASON, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW AND CAMPUS DIRECTOR FOR THE CLASS OF 2020.
New York University | New York, United States | Advancing SDG 4 & UNAI 3
" I am excited to be a part of the Millennium Fellowship because I have had a long-lasting commitment to educational equality and global service. I believe that this fellowship will give me the skills and experiences I need to make a lasting impact, both during the program and beyond. Congratulations to the other Millennium Fellows, and I look forward to working with you! "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Pro BoKnow: Accessible Online Education
Pro BoKnow is an online, nonprofit volunteering platform that aims to become the Uber of the tutoring industry. Currently, tutoring services charge astronomical prices for private tutoring, with Princeton Review charging as much as $450/hr for test prep tutoring. Because parents and students often do not have other ways to gain convenient, consistent access to low-cost tutoring, they are stuck either footing these thousand-dollar bills so their child can succeed or going without because they can't afford it (35% of parents choose not to get their child the tutoring they need due simply to cost).
Similar to how Uber connects people in need of rides with people in need of quick cash who are willing to drive you, Pro BoKnow connects people in need of expertise, knowledge, or academic help with people in need of service opportunities who have expertise in that subject and want to help. Through the online platform, the Millennium Fellow aim to make volunteering quick, easy, and accessible, while also making a quality education something that anyone, regardless of background, can attain. They will measure their impact based on the number of volunteers who use the platform (the starting goal is 150) and the number of students who get academic help from their services (the goal is 300). They plan to achieve this by hosting at least three on-campus recruitment events to gain interest in the project and partnering with at least five on-campus service organizations that can provide us with volunteers. They also plan to promote the project by partnering with NYU and showcasing Pro BoKnow as an additional academic resource for NYU students.
About the Millennium Fellow
Lydia Mason is a Senior at New York University, where she studies Politics and Inequality. She has a deep-seated passion for education and social justice and has been an advocate for educational equity for many years. In her second year of college, she started a non-profit called Pro BoKnow, which aims to provide accessible online tutoring. She is excited to be a part of the 2020 Millennium Fellows cohort and work towards making education more accessible and effective for all students.