14 BC Undergrads Among Millennium Fellowship Winners

BY ROSANNE PELLEGRINI STAFF WRITER

Fourteen Boston College students, representing a range of undergraduate schools and class years, have been selected as 2022 Millennium Fellows to participate in a prestigious leadership development initiative offered by partners United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and the Millennium Campus Network (MCN).

Chosen for their leadership on sustainable development-related initiatives, the Fellows address some of society’s greatest challenges via social impact projects. A record-breaking number of more than 30,000 young leaders, from some 2,400 campuses across 140 nations, applied to the Class of 2022. From that wide pool, approximately 3,000—a group described as “bold, innovative, and inclusive”—were selected; they represent more than 200 campuses in 37 nations.

The semester-long program provides training and guidance to raise students’ level of social impact—both on campus and in the community—by enhancing organizational, partnership-building, and community impact skills, with a goal of elevating leadership, according to Millennium Fellowship sponsors.

The BC student participants are developing projects focusing on and advancing at least one of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals [sdgs. un.org/goals] and of the 10 United Nations Academic Impact Principles [https:// rb.gy/eopzgm].

The group— undergraduates from the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Carroll School of Management, and Lynch School of Education and Human Development—meets on campus, and virtually with fellows worldwide, to hone skills, bolster their projects, and strengthen communities locally and globally.

According to the Millennium Fellows’ campus directors, Emmeline Brenner ’24 and Grace Kenney ’23, projects focus on a variety of goals including quality education, health, and reduced inequalities. One aims to establish a UNICEF club chapter at Boston College, for example, while another plans peer-to-peer tutoring with local public high schools for college counseling.

Daniela Canales ’23 is spearheading the initiative to launch a BC chapter of UNICEF Unite, through which college campuses educate, advocate, and raise funds for children in need around the world. “I hope to bring together a group looking to lift up others through inclusion and education. Being selected as a Millennium Fellow has given me the confidence to pursue a social impact career. Since I am a senior, it has given me a greater sense of purpose for my final year at BC.”

“The UN’s sustainable development goals and Boston College’s Jesuit values provide us with a strong foundation to build on and learn from in developing our projects. These missions align in guiding us,” Brenner and Kenney noted. “From this experience, we hope to learn from and inspire each other as well as develop projects that can make sustained change.”

Other BC Millennium Fellows are Jon Dhani ’23, Anastasia Coclin ’25, Mehdi Kayi ’24, Giancarlo Lopez ’23, Adam Marino ’23, Hailey McGinley ’23, Erin Miller ’23, Ryan Patrick ’24, Isaiah Puente ’23, Suhana Singh ’24, and Emilia Acevedo Quezada ’25.

After successful completion of their projects, participants receive a certificate from the UNAI and MCN, which have partnered since 2018 to present the Millennium Fellowship, “creating a robust global network of undergraduate leaders advancing UN goals,” according to the groups.

For more information on the program, see www.millenniumfellows.org.

“Come in during the day and see the students who fill the labs, the classrooms, and the halls with their creativity, curiosity, and enthusiasm. Because that’s what it’s all about, and that’s why we created this.”

—Phil Schiller ’82