The Partnership
GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP ELEVATES STUDENT LEADERSHIP FOR UN GOALS
Millennium Campus Network (MCN) and the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) are pleased to announce a strategic partnership to convene, challenge, and celebrate student leadership advancing UN goals. Building on their combined 17 years of experience engaging institutions of higher education, MCN and UNAI are partnering on the Millennium Fellowship. The Class of 2021 application and details are online at millenniumfellows.org. Applications are now accepted with early applications strongly encouraged.
The program is free and the application is open to undergraduate students in good standing. Student leaders who are making positive impact in community and advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the principles of UNAI are encouraged to apply. Between admission in August and conclusion of the program in December 2018, cohorts of Millennium Fellows will convene locally on their respective campuses at least monthly to engage in the leadership development program. Fellows will be challenged by Campus Directors to share best practices and take collective action on one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals. Upon successful completion, each Millennium Fellow will receive recognition of completion for their Millennium Fellowship Project from MCN and UNAI. Together, MCN and UNAI are catalyzing a new generation of ethical leaders committed to strengthening communities and advancing UN goals.
Through this partnership, MCN will ensure that all Millennium Fellows are aware of the ten UNAI principles, the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals, and align their work with these objectives. UNAI will be engaged in publicizing this partnership and program through its global network. Together, MCN and UNAI will jointly recognize Fellows’ contributions.
“On every campus and in every community, student leaders are committed to making positive contributions while committed to our ethos: empathetic, humble, inclusive leadership. Emerging leaders need requisite training, connections, and recognition to deepen their social impact as undergraduates and throughout their careers. Partnering with UNAI enables us to engage more students, providing a powerful framework to help them convene, take action, and elevate the important contributions they make,” shared Sam Vaghar, Executive Director and Co-founder of MCN.
“When we created the United Nations Academic Impact to foster a culture of intellectual social responsibility, we considered ‘intellect’ not as something remote or esoteric, but rather as a quality innate in every thinking individual. Our collaboration with MCN will allow students to demonstrate how the wisdom and thought they invest in their formal curriculum can be extended to a greater purpose of common good, lending their strengths to their communities and their world and, in turn, being enriched by them,” shared Ramu Damodaran, Chief of United Nations Academic Impact.
Note: This statement on partnership is also available in Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish.
About Millennium Campus Network (MCN)
Millennium Campus Network (MCN) is a global student network addressing humanity’s greatest challenges. Through programs, MCN convenes, challenges, and celebrates student leadership for social impact. The network, marking its 10th anniversary in 2018, has grown to include 5,500+ alumni from 300 universities worldwide. 75% of MCN alumni now working in social impact careers, including careers in governments and the private sector, at the United Nations, and leading their own social enterprises. MCN partners with Millennium Campuses including Georgetown University and Brandeis University and is supported by Advisors including Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Dr. Paul Farmer and musician John Legend. More on MCN at mcnpartners.org.
About United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI)
The United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) works with institutions of higher education and research around the world to further the realization of United Nations goals and objectives. It recognizes and cooperates with some 1,200 member institutions worldwide in promoting the values of the United Nations through research, relevant educational courses and campus activities. The United Nations General Assembly has invited “the academic, research and scientific communities to contribute to the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and, in this regard, recognizes the important role of the United Nations Academic Impact, among other initiatives, and encourages the UNAI to play an important and growing role in fostering global citizenship, filling knowledge gaps and facilitating better understanding of the core principles and activities of the United Nations." More on UNAI at https://www.un.org/en/academicimpact.
