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 SHONA AMANDINE DEIRDRE DONNELLY, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2025.
University College Dublin | Dublin, Ireland | Advancing SDG 4, SDG 5 & UNAI 3
" I am especially passionate about facilitating accessible and inclusive political education for young people. I believe this is essential for equal access to politics and effective citizen engagement, and yet in my experience it is unfortunately not emphasised enough. This is something that is extremely important for people to understand, as political knowledge enables self-empowerment and advocacy. As a Millennium Fellow, I am excited to translate my ideas into actions by providing resources that were not available to me and some of my peers. I hope to give as much as I gain from this experience, supporting my community and developing skills that will help me aid people in future. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Back to Basics
This idea is free workshops run by students and willing teachers to help give students a basic knowledge in areas of business and politics. It can be embarrassing to ask for help and some students may feel left behind in some areas and like it is too late to ask e.g. while they're an amazing engineer student they don't know anything about politics and how to vote or how to budget. Some have not received the same opportunities in education for this. This is the issue with specialisation. It can sometimes neglect a basic knowledge in other fields. But a well-rounded and informed view can produce much better outcomes for all. These workshops will aim to give students knowledge of the basics that will help them in life. They will cover areas such as budgeting, basic terms like inflation, government economic policies, The idea is to give a broad base layer idea of what is going on and keep students informed and educated with unbiased information so that they can go on to enter the workforce and have access to good jobs, as well as influencing the development of the world in a positive way with a well-rounded view.
About the Millennium Fellow
Shona Donnelly is a joint major student of politics & international relations and sociology at University College Dublin. Her recent erasmus at Sciences Po Paris gave her an international outlook and a realisation of the importance of global community. This broadened a longstanding interest in people and their behaviour, and reinforced her commitment to learning how to make a positive impact that can help them. She has pursued a diverse range of social justice projects during her school career, including initiatives on women's' rights, LGBTQ+ rights, homelessness, and animal rights. She is especially passionate about making education accessible and inclusive, particularly regarding basic political knowledge. She hopes to continue to work on advancing the Sustainable Development Goals to have a positive impact — whether on her college community or the world.
