ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2024
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. This year, 52,000+ young leaders applied to join the Class of 2024 on 6,000+ campuses across 170 nations. 280+ campuses worldwide (just 5%) were selected to host the 4,000+ Millennium Fellows.

UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT PRINCESS UGONMA ONYEAMA, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW AND CAMPUS DIRECTOR FOR THE CLASS OF 2024.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Hong Kong, China | Advancing SDG 10 & UNAI 7

" I am thrilled to be a Millennium Fellow because it offers a unique platform to expand BridgeEd, our initiative aimed at bridging educational gaps and promoting diversity among ethnic minorities and international students. This Fellowship will accelerate our efforts to connect marginalized youth with mentors and build a supportive community. Through the Fellowship's resources and network, we can enhance our impact, ensuring that education and opportunities are accessible to all, while fostering intercultural understanding and inclusivity. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Bridge Ed
BridgeEd helps ethnic minorities/internationals and the local community in Hong Kong by bridging the educational divide and fostering intercultural understanding between them. The ultimate goal is to empower marginalized youth and contribute to a harmonious society that celebrates diversity. It establishes a compatible peer mentorship program, helping the youth with everyday struggles of fitting in a culturally homogenous area through a network of one-on-one sessions with trained mentors (international students with similar experiences or locals eager to contribute more intercultural). The program aims to create a community all around Hong Kong, through social media (weekly educational series about cultural shocks etc.) to a podcast (navigating throughout life). It aims to create a network of educational and/or early career resources to bridge the educational and opportunistic divide between not only the local and international community but also within each community as well. Apart from having individualistic and general support resources, BridgeEd will enhance the skill set of aspiring peer mentors, giving them guidance to further reverberate that knowledge by implementing a train-the-trainer model.
About the Millennium Fellow
Waris is an incoming senior at PolyU majoring in Engineering & Finance. Originally hailing from Pakistan, he's widely represented his passion and projects in UK, South Africa, and Singapore. This diverse experience deepened his awareness of the digital divide and the challenges faced by ethnic minorities in regions around the world and ignited his passion for social responsibility and technological empowerment. With a strong commitment to bridging these gaps, Waris aspires to leverage his leadership and education to drive inclusive growth and create sustainable solutions that uplift underrepresented communities.


