ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2023
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. 44,000+ student leaders from 3,300+ campuses across 170+ nations applied to join the Class of 2023. 260+ campuses worldwide (just 9%) in 38 countries were selected to host 4,000+ Millennium Fellows for the Class of 2023.

UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT SHREYA CHAUDHURI, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2023.
University of California Berkeley | California, United States | Advancing SDG 13 & UNAI 9 | Emerging Technologist

Millennium Fellowship Project: Project Planet: Decolonizing Environmentalism
Colonization through the over extraction of natural resources has impacted the land and community of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people around the world and felt still in the present day. The delegitimization of traditional ecological practices have resulted in the exclusion of indigenous knowledge from the climate space. In the fight for reviving our world, all types of knowledge are necessary - not just Western science, perspectives, and voices. In many cases in the environmental space, Indigenous communities are included as an afterthought for performative activism, but we want the sole focus of this project to be on Black and Brown perspectives, stories, priorities, and voices. By focusing on how exactly colonialism was responsible for the climate crisis and shifting the perspective to communities of color, there will be a more nuanced understanding of the environmental situation, and we hope that the tools and methods of decolonization and of indigenous knowledge systems will be implemented by students to reframe the climate crisis and approach solutions and problems with a more diverse way of thinking. This is our mission at Project Planet.
The “Decolonizing Environmentalism” course strives to uplift indigenous voices and ecological knowledge as the majority of environmental education is centered in Western frameworks that fail to explore the intersection of colonialism and environmental degradation. It is critical to highlight the global impact of colonialism on the environment, and to illuminate Indigenous wisdom. This is essential to reviving our planet, healing our relationships, and fostering equitable change and building resilience in a system established on centuries of oppression.
About the Millennium Fellow
Shreya is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. She is double majoring in Environmental Science and Human Geography with a minor in Data Science. Growing up in both the Bay Area and near the Bay of Bengal in India, she is grateful to have spent her childhood exploring nature with her family. Shreya's passion for environmental action is rooted in seeing the impact on her community from anthropogenic environmental disasters. Shreya runs Project Planet, a non-profit about decolonizing environmental education and promoting indigenous ecological principles in climate action globally. As a future career, she aims to work at the intersection of scientific research, education, communication, and policy to ensure that countries in the Global South can navigate equitable access to climate solutions for an environmentally just future.





