ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2020
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. In the three months the application was open in 2020, 15,159 young leaders applied to join the Class of 2020 on 1,458 campuses across 135 nations. 80 campuses worldwide (just 6%) were selected to host the 1,000+ Millennium Fellows. The Class of 2020 is bold, innovative, and inclusive.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT LEAH COLLINS, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2020.
Columbia University | New York, United States | Advancing SDG 5 & UNAI 3
" I am excited and honored to be a Millennium Fellow because I believe in the power of community. When a group of diverse, passionate, and innovative individuals come together, there is no limit on what they can accomplish. We will learn from each other and take what we learn, investing it back into our communities. It is my greatest passion to invest in the empowerment of young women, and through this fellowship I hope to introduce young girls in my community to a new creative and constructive outlet to share their ideas and lived experiences, instilled with the affirmation that their voices as females are powerful, necessary, and worth listening to and being documented. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Our Story Zine Collective
The goal of my project 'Our StoryZine Collective, is to introduce the art and history of zine making to young women throughout the community of New York City. This program would run zine clubs and other related events throughout the city, whether at schools, libraries, or other community centers. At the zine club, the team would introduce the rich history of zines, explaining how they have historically been used as a creative and powerful outlet, particularly for female and/or queer identifying folks, to make their voices heard, documented, and empowered. They would then teach the participants how to make their own zines, provide the materials, and help them with any creative or academic resources they need to complete their projects. By the end of the several session program, it is their hope that with the creation of their very own zines, these young women will not only have found a new creative and constructive outlet to share their ideas and lived experiences, but also been instilled with the affirmation that their voices as females are powerful, necessary, and worth listening to and being documented. In this way, Our Story Zine collective strives not only to share the transformative power of art within our community, but cultivate the empowerment of the female voice in a society in which their voices have rarely been included in traditional artistic or political education.
About the Millennium Fellow
Leah Collins is a rising junior at Columbia University studying Political Science. She is passionate about the intersection between art and politics, particularly the way in which art can be used as a medium to express and amplify the lived experiences and politics of marginalized communities.