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 KUSHAGRA ABAAN, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2025.
Punjab Engineering College | Chandigarh, India | Advancing SDG 10, SDG 4 & UNAI 3
" Entrepreneurial thinking, for me, means looking at an everyday problem and asking, ‘How can technology make this better and fairer?’ FairScore Access is my attempt to answer that for gig workers and street vendors trapped in cycles of high-interest debt. By turning everyday digital traces into an alternative credit score, and pairing that with practical financial literacy, I aim to make affordable credit and smarter money habits the norm, not the exception. The Millennium Fellowship excites me because it’s the perfect crucible—where my ideas will be stress-tested, sharpened, and scaled alongside peers equally committed to building solutions that last. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: VoteForward: Empowering Democratic Inclusion and Civic Participation
VoteForward is a civic engagement initiative designed to confront the crisis of democratic exclusion in India. Addressing the apathy and systemic barriers that keep young and marginalized citizens off voter rolls, the project executed a three-phase strategy: education, engagement, and enrollment. We conducted eight interactive workshops on misinformation detection and electoral rights, followed by high-visibility campus activations like the 'Democracy Wall' and debate competitions. The initiative culminated in a Voter Registration Drive that successfully facilitated voter ID creation for over 150 first-time voters. By collaborating with the Electoral Literacy Club, VoteForward transformed the campus culture, equipping over 500 participants with the tools to detect political misinformation and turning passive spectators into registered, empowered stakeholders in the world’s largest democracy.
About the Millennium Fellow
Kushagra Abaan is an accomplished and forward-thinking engineering student at Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, India. With a lifelong passion for science, mathematics and technology, he combines analytical expertise with a strong entrepreneurial mindset to develop solutions that enhance human life. Driven by a commitment to social equity, Kushagra actively promotes the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on environmental sustainability and financial inclusion. His initiatives reflect both technical proficiency and a deep sense of responsibility towards creating lasting social impact. Looking ahead, Kushagra aims to apply his engineering acumen to address global challenges, contributing to a future that is both innovative and inclusive.
