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 SAMIDHA MAHESH SANE, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW AND CAMPUS DIRECTOR FOR THE CLASS OF 2020.
University of Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania, United States | Advancing SDG 3 & UNAI 6
" Growing up, I always hoped to be at the forefront of social impact and global entrepreneurship, engaged in human rights work in the U.S. and beyond. I see the Millennium Fellowship as an incredible opportunity to further global initiatives to address health inequities and advance menstrual equity. Ultimately, the Fellowship is a chance to collaborate with like-minded individuals to address some of the most pressing global issues of our time. I am excited to learn from an extensive network of young leaders and mentors that are constantly working to improve their communities and using their voices to create change. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Menstrual Mission
The Menstrual Mission aims to achieve menstrual equity in three key ways: service, advocacy, and education. The social taboo associated with menstruation, coupled with a lack of access to period products in marginalized communities, leads to a lack of opportunities for menstruators and generates a system of cyclical inequality.
To address this, Menstrual Mission aims to collect around 1,000 period products every month which will be packaged and delivered to homeless shelters and women's shelters in Pennsylvania. From an advocacy standpoint, our goal is to streamline country-wide advocacy initiatives for effective legislative change in regards to period poverty by working alongside state legislators sponsoring bills related to menstrual health. Finally, to increase educational awareness of the issue, Menstrual Mission will host conversations featuring professionals, activists, and NGOs that can share their expertise and experiences, ultimately educating community members, increasing civic engagement, and encouraging tangible action.
About the Millennium Fellow
Samidha Sane is a junior at the University of Pennsylvania studying International Studies and Business in the Huntsman Dual Degree Program. She is the President of UPenn PERIOD and founder of Menstrual Mission, through which she has worked alongside Pittsburgh City Council to pass legislation providing period products in public restrooms. Samidha continued her work for reproductive justice and women's rights through her journalism fellowship at the Pulitzer Center last summer. Independently traveling to Morocco to investigate virginity testing, her work highlighted underreported stories from women and was published in Global Health Now, Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health's news outlet.
