Applications Invited for UNAI & MCN Millennium Fellowship 2020

About the Organization:

The United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) is an initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the United Nations in supporting and contributing to the realization of United Nations goals and mandates, including the promotion and protection of human rights, access to education, sustainability and conflict resolution.

Millennium Campus Network (MCN), Inc., is a global student network advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  MCN programs convene, challenge, and celebrate student leadership for social impact.

About the Fellowship:

The United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are partnering on the Millennium Fellowship.  The Millennium Fellowship convenes, challenges, and celebrates student leadership for UN goals on campuses worldwide.  The program is free for accepted applicants.

The Millennium Fellowship is a semester-long leadership development program that happens on your campus. The United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are here to elevate your leadership. The program will run on campuses worldwide from August to November where cohorts of 8-20 Millennium Fellows have been selected. Feedback and stories of student impact will be submitted by December 2020. 

Structure:

• Convene - As part of a cohort of 8-20+ Millennium Fellows on your campus, convene to learn from and challenge each other.
• Challenge - Develop a plan of action for your sessions together. Meet to exchange best practices. And you could think bigger: organizing a campus-wide sustainability initiative or more.
• Celebrate - When your Fellowship Campus meets the goals you made for yourselves, you will earn a certificate of recognition from United Nations Academic Impact and Millennium Campus Network.

Upon successful completion of the program, join the MCN alumni community and continue to have social impact.

Eligibility:

• You must be at least 18 years old, an undergraduate enrolled in a college or university, and in good standing at that academic institution for the duration of the program.
• You make a commitment to convene in-person least eight times during the Millennium Fellowship (for 2020 the program will run August-December) with your Campus Directors and other Fellows on your campus to share best practices and take collective action.
• Students have to meet on-campus, in-person for the Fellowship sessions. If you miss sessions, this is grounds for expulsion and the forfeiture of your designation as a Millennium Fellow. Campus Directors have additional responsibilities as noted in FAQs section on "Campus Director Applicants."

Note: They aim to accept at least eight Millennium Fellows from each Campus Hub (with two Campus Directors). Most Campus Hubs will typically have 8-20 Millennium Fellows. The Fellowship is about forming community; therefore, they encourage you to share the program with other prospective Fellows on your campus and encourage them to apply as well.

What are they looking for in selecting Millennium Fellows?

In addition to these guiding values and traits of individuals, they are looking for cohorts and campuses that will champion this program. What does that mean in practice:

• Frequency: Campus Directors and Millennium Fellows are deeply invested in building capacity through community-building - meeting and engaging with each other as often as possible during the Millennium Fellowship - wanting to fully leverage the curriculum and community.
• Buy-in: Ideally, everyone all the way up to the University President/Vice-Chancellor gets behind Millennium Fellows, supporting their vision, projects, and collective action. If Fellows’ Projects or collective actions take place beyond the campus, community members are actively involved in leading and shaping them.
• Impact: Millennium Fellows successfully run their own projects (meeting intended outcomes) and where relevant find success in a collective action (for example, working with administration to update a campus sustainability plan, or hosting a campus-wide summit on gender inclusion). Campus Directors and Millennium Fellows share stories of impact advancing the SDGs and UNAI principles with MCN and UNAI.

What are the graduation requirements for the Fellowship?

All Millennium Fellows must complete the following requirements in order to successfully complete the fellowship:

• Attendance of 6 Fellowship sessions and 3 virtual events
• Submission of a 2-3 minute video tour of your current Project in October
• Completion of Program Entrance and Program Exit Evaluation
• Completion of Project Report for your Millennium Fellowship project and Self-Reflection
• Campus Directors will additionally be required to participate in 4 hours of training, meet with their Co-Director and arrange one-to-one meetings (~15 minutes each) with the Fellows at their Campus Hub prior to the Fellowship launch. They also submit proof of their Campus Hub Sessions and commit to regular communication with Team MCN (minimum once every month).

Timeline:

• 11:59PM EST, April 30, 2020: Final Application Deadline
• July 15, 2020: All Millennium Fellows and Campus Directors for the Class of 2020 will be selected and informed by this date.

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