ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2025
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. This year, 60,000+ young leaders applied to join the Class of 2025 on 7,000+ campuses across 170 nations. 290+ campuses worldwide (less than 5%) were selected to host the 4,500+ Millennium Fellows.

UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT RISHIKA KARTIK, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2025.
Brown University | Rhode Island, United States | Advancing SDG 3, SDG 10 & UNAI 9

" Diversity and accessibility are profound opportunities for creativity. Having formed meaningful relationships with people in the blind community since 2018, I am driven by a desire to help address a global imperative that belies the importance of investing early to empower all people to reach their full potential. Disability and other social issues know no boundaries, and the Millennium Fellowships commitment to global collaboration reflects this. As a Millennium Fellow, I am excited to learn from and collaborate with talented peers across the world. While the estuary of idea generation, theory-making, and creativity among the Millennium cohort may feel unlimited, we will come together to imagine a path toward some amalgamated ideal future, in a world that is resource-constrained. With the profound privileges that the Millennium Fellowship affords its recipients, I will integrate the best parts of my experiences as a global disability advocate, dedicating my life to the UN's mission. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Creative Horizons Mural Project
"Colorful Horizons" is an art project for kids with vision loss at the Hasbro Children's Hospital Pediatric Eye Clinic. We aimed to decrease anxiety and bring joy to children experiencing visual impairment, while broadening public sensitivity towards childhood vision loss. Over the course of the semester we created 3 murals at the Eye Clinic depicting animals with glasses and exploring the ways animals see beyond traditional vision, such as echolocation, night-vision, and infrared detection. Since many patients are too young to communicate what they see, physicians often rely on behavioral cues to assess vision. When children get bored, stressed, etc. during their eye examinations, it makes the diagnosis process more painful for the child and harder for the physician. For instance, trouble with eye tracking and movement (found in cases such as strabismus) might appear similar to ADHD. Currently, Hasbro Children's Hospital has mitigated this problem with toys and a short 30-second movie. While these tools have effectively helped children in the clinic, they are repetitive, limited, and no longer up to date. By giving children something imaginative and joyful to engage with, our murals aimed to improve diagnosis processes and health outcomes. We also aimed to provide a more joyful workplace for doctors, nurses, and residents, and start early conversations about disability inclusion with children, showing them that blindness is just another way to see the world.
About the Millennium Fellow
Rishika Kartik is an undergraduate at Brown University, studying Biology and creating her own major in “Accessible Design.” She is driven to use science, empathy, and creativity to make life more independent –and more dignified –for people with disabilities. Founding Touch and Create Studios, she has created art opportunities for blind individuals across 7 US states and co-founded a healthy aging program at the Ho’opono Center for the Blind in Oahu, Hawaii. Her TEDx talk has reached 1.2+ million views online.
A US Presidential Scholar, Newman Civic Fellow, and Andy Warhol INSITE Grantee, Rishika has spoken to 800+ attendees at institutions such as Johns Hopkins, Johnson & Johnson, and Colorado Health Foundation. At Brown, she has taught two courses, Blindness, Arts, and Media and Gerodesign, while publishing in prestigious journals like the Braille Monitor and Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics.










