Ten students from the University of South Florida have been selected as 2020 Millennium Fellows. The Fellowship, a collaboration between the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and Millennium Campus Network (MCN), is a semester-long leadership development program that convenes, challenges and celebrates bold student leadership to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals both on campus and in communities.
This year, more than 15,000 young leaders applied for the fellowship from 1,458 campuses across 135 nations. Only 80 campuses (just 6%) in 20 nations were selected to host 2020 Millennium Fellows based on the caliber of applicants and cohorts. USF is among only 26 American universities selected to host fellows this year.
The selected students will each work on a project to advance one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The Millennium Fellows at USF will help support disadvantaged populations, reduce the use of plastic, increase product sustainability, reduce food waste, increase access to mental health services, and document the fight for human rights.
“It is our great privilege at the University of South Florida to support the work of our 10 UN Millennium Fellows and advance sustainable development initiatives that improve our society,” said USF Provost and Executive Vice President Ralph Wilcox. “We congratulate our Fellows, a record number for USF this year, who exemplify the strength of the university’s commitment to social responsibility.”
The 10 Millennium Fellows bring the university’s total number of national scholarship and fellowship recipients to 103 for the 2019-20 academic year – a USF record. Most of these recipients worked with the university’s Office of National Scholars, whose mission is to advise, support and mentor students throughout the competitive scholarship application process.
USF’s cohort of 2020 Millennium Fellows includes:
Samagreen aims to revolutionize personal-use medical devices by making them sustainable and more patient-friendly. This project was also selected to be part of the Clinton Global Initiative-University Cohort of 2020, the USF incubator, and the Frank and Ellen Daveler Entrepreneurship Program.
This project will create an organization to connect families who wish to donate their child's clothes to another child in a low-income family, becoming that child's sponsor. It aims to create a more direct connection between donors and those who receive their donation, creating a deeper sense of unity.
The goal of this project is to create a student-led and operated on-campus site for composting to reduce the university's food waste and potentially supply USF's Botanical Gardens with useful compost.
This project will consist of conducting outreach efforts in creative and inclusive ways that raise awareness of and advocate for college students' mental health needs, especially within USF’s community. The goal is to empower all students to take the initiative for their mental health without any shame, guilt or fear of stigma.
The goals of this project are to inform students about registration and election deadlines, provide information about issues and candidates on the ballot, and engage students as voters and advocates for political and societal issues facing our country today.
This project is a collaborative effort with the City of Tampa to develop or supplement existing programming to teach children social growth and responsibility, provide mentors and promote team-building skills, and act as the beginning of a comprehensive change in after-school programming to make the lives of the next generation better, one step at a time.
This project aims to reduce the amount of plastic use in retail businesses by partnering with both large and small corporations.
The Rohingya are a people who have faced years of violence and persecution at the hand of their government; a government which repeatedly denies and manipulates the truth. This project will document as much as possible about the experiences of refugees who escaped their country.
The goal of this project is to promote good mental health during the current time of stress and uncertainty, and will involve creating virtual sessions for all ages that combine the Heartfulness meditation practice and art therapy.