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 MELANY NAMUNYAK OCHIENG, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2025.
Technical University of Kenya | Nairobi, Kenya | Advancing SDG 4, SDG 16 & UNAI 9
" I am very passionate about creating a safer digital world. I believe that everyone regardless of age deserves to browse the internet without fear. My journey began by protecting my younger siblings, and it grew into a mission to shield other vulnerable people from online dangers. Being part of MCN will strengthen my ability to turn this passion into lasting global impact, ensuring that technology becomes a tool for empowerment, not harm. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: The sentinel shield
Sentinel Shield is a website that allows users to paste any link and instantly check whether it is safe before clicking. It looks for phishing patterns, suspicious domains, unsafe redirects, blacklisted sites, insecure configurations, and other risk indicators. Instead of simply saying “safe” or “unsafe,” Sentinel Shield provides a clear explanation of why a link is harmful, helping users — especially children, new internet users, and social media users stay safe online. The project aims to improve digital safety by giving ordinary users a simple, transparent, and reliable way to verify links and avoid online scams and cyber threats.
About the Millennium Fellow
Melany Namunyak Ochieng is a passionate Electrical and Electronic Engineering student at the Technical University of Kenya. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, she is also a self-taught programmer, having honed her skills through the CS50 introduction to computer science by Harvard course. Motivated by personal experiences with unsafe internet practices, she developed a global project aimed at helping people of all ages stay safe online. Her commitment to digital safety stems from protecting her younger siblings in a world where older generations often overlook online risks. Melany aspires to combine engineering and technology to create a safer digital future.
