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 LAYNE RIA FOEDER, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2025.
Vanderbilt University | Nashville, United States | Advancing SDG 12, SDG 17 & UNAI 3
" The UN Millennium Fellowship is a great vessel to explore my interests in circular economy that can have a tangible impact on the surrounding community. This will provide me with a good opportunity to develop skills to produce research that engages community stakeholders. My goal is to be an example of a successful non-traditional conservationist by demonstrating that there is a place for everyone to use their skills and passion to positively protect nature. Having the chance to be exposed to so many talented and passionate young environmental and social justice leaders could help me be able to better articulate a vision for an inclusive environmental movement that shows all individuals how their value is directly connected to nature’s value. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Mapping the Circular Economy of Middle TN
The goal of this project was to understand the capacity for circular waste streams in Middle TN businesses and to connect businesses, waste brokers, and NGOs to help close local waste loops and strengthen the environment of collaborative efficiency within Middle TN supply chains. Through my conversations with businesses, waste brokers, and circularity experts, my understanding of the hurdles to local circularity is more clear. The goal of this fellowship project is to collaborate with brokers, businesses, and nonprofits to identify strategies that make material recovery more feasible while expanding local reuse networks.
About the Millennium Fellow
Layne Foeder is a Climate Studies and Economics student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. A lifelong lover of animals and nature, she imagines a future where economic systems reflect the value of nature as the integral foundation and life support of society. Throughout her college career, she has worked to engage her campus and the greater Nashville community in circular economy and sustainability education through outreach, interdisciplinary collaboration, and infrastructure improvements. Layne aspires to work with communities at the center of land and waste management plans as well as advocate for financial investment into nature-based climate and environmental solutions that will help sustain local communities around the world.
