ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2021
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. In 2021, over 25,000 young leaders on 2,000+ campuses across 153 nations applied to join the Class of 2021. 136 campuses worldwide (just 6%) were selected to host the 2,000+ Millennium Fellows. The Class of 2021 is bold, innovative, and inclusive.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT TEJASWINI VONDIVILLU, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2021.
Ashoka University | Sonipat, India | Advancing SDG 4 & UNAI 3
" While academic research is important, researching in itself is an integral skill that shapes among students the many important cognitive abilities such as reasoning, critical thinking, challenging norms, comprehensive abilities etc. This translates to many economic benefits, a primary one being that of increased ability of students to compete in a progressively complex and challenging labour market. I strongly believe that the ability to research should be inculcated in students at a very young age. We learn to take opportunities, but through the Fellowship, we are learning to give back in a form that will ultimately benefit all of us – I am a strong believer of the butterfly effect. Therefore, I am really grateful for the opportunity of being a Millennium Fellow because I can now do something about challenging the existing system of education, actively. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Project Khoj
Project Khoj is a curriculum intervention program that aims to foster the tenets of independent research for young students enrolled in the national curriculum of India. It aims to provide a broad framework on the basics of independent research and critical thinking in the form of workshops. Evaluating the validity of the module after implementing it in schools, I will modify it accordingly. Its long-term goal is to advise the curriculum designers in the government to implement this nationwide.
About the Millennium Fellow
Tejaswini Vondivillu is a bright, highly motivated and enthusiastic third-year undergraduate pursuing Philosophy Politics and Economics (with a specialization in Economics) at Ashoka University. She was born in Tamil Nadu, India and has moved around the country over her life; she has therefore acquired a unique pan-Indian identity that naturally forces her to celebrate the flavours of diverse cultures and people. But her defining experience is the switch between curriculums (she has studied in all of CBSE, ICSE, IGSCE and IBDP) over her schooling years. It opened her eyes to the deficiencies of the national curriculum which made her strongly passionate about helping students with carrying out independent research. With her infectious energy, she is ready to translate her passion into a project that she believes will increase social benefits of education and thereby, facilitate the UN SDGs.
