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 TIN-O GAO, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW AND CAMPUS DIRECTOR FOR THE CLASS OF 2025.
University of California Los Angeles | California, United States | Advancing SDG 16, SDG 9 & UNAI 9

" I believe technology should illuminate, not obscure. As a Millennium Fellow, I'm excited to merge design and code to make data systems more transparent, empowering communities to understand and shape the digital narratives that affect their lives. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Echo
Echo is a project designed to help Los Angeles students navigate the transition from high school to college by encouraging self-reflection and an enhanced understanding of their identities and cultures through writing diaries. Students will document their experiences, thoughts, and feelings, supported by a digital archive of resources (literature, videos, and soundtracks). As students write, their entries will be analyzed, and they will be offered relevant recommendations from the archive. To foster a sense of community, students will have the option to share their diary content and engage with a user response system. This combination of self-discovery and cultural exposure will equip students with the tools to successfully pursue their goals. The administrative team will also provide all users with curated content focused on common high school student concerns. We'll start by creating a rough prototype of the Echo app, featuring key functions like diary writing and archive access. Then, we'll conduct market surveys among local high school students and UCLA students to gather feedback for refining the prototype. Once refined, we'll focus on promotion and marketing via social media and school partnerships. Our goal is to make Echo a go-to tool for students transitioning from high school to college.
About the Millennium Fellow
Tin-o (Austin) Gao is an interdisciplinary media technology and design student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Born in Hong Kong, raised in Shanghai, and now based in Los Angeles, he brings a truly international perspective to his work.
Passionate about the UN Sustainable Development Goal of data justice, Tin-o is both a full-stack developer and an aspiring digital designer. He focuses on crafting public cultural and art-driven digital storytelling projects that make complex concepts—such as user data profiling and machine learning—more transparent and accessible to the public.
His past projects include Qianli, a rural education initiative helping minority students in rural China share their voices through storytelling, and Why Not Tell Again? Archive of Minhang Folk Culture, a public digital storytelling project commissioned by the Shanghai Minhang District Library. Currently, he is collaborating with fellow UCLA students on an app that demonstrates transparent, user-first data management.
Tin-o’s vision is to blend algorithmic thinking with human-centered design, producing visuals and experiences that open the “black box” of technology to everyone.










