ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2022
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. Over 31,000 young leaders on 2,400+ campuses across 140+ nations applied to join the Class of 2022. 200+ campuses worldwide (just 8%) were selected to host the 3,000+ Millennium Fellows.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT FERIDA ALTUN, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2022.
Sciences Po Menton | Menton, France | Advancing SDG 4 & UNAI 3
" The courage to try and the power to persevere to make things happen give meaning to our existence. We can doubt our projects but the collective strength of the group pushes us to continue. I am committed to the Millennium Fellowship to learn how to challenge myself, express my creativity and build new projects by making our voices heard while listening to those of others in a team spirit. The exchanges that we wish to have with the Palestinians create a unique richness and learning in a daily life with different language and culture from ours allows us to question our own system in order to improve it. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Tabadol
We started our project in early February, when one of our members started communicating with the ISNAD Community Center in Palestine on potentially establishing a “language buddy” relationship via Zoom between students at Sciences Po Menton and those at the community center. Raed Eshnaiwer, the center’s founder and professor at Birzeit University, outlined the need for intercultural connections for Palestinian students, given the fact that many of them never leave the boundaries of their own city. He suggested that not only do we start planning for language tutoring, but also arrange monthly conferences on debates and discussions between Sciences Po and ISNAD CC students.
We will be setting up one student at Sciences Po, most of whom learn Arabic as part of the curriculum, with a Palestinian student. They will hold weekly virtual meetings in order to create networks and practice their language skills with each other. While most Sciences Po students will be helping the Palestinian counterparts with English conversational skills, in some cases and according to demand, students will also have the opportunity to improve their French, Spanish, Turkish, German, Japanese, Russian, Persian, Kurdish, and more. In addition, we will hold cultural events such as debates and panels. We have not been able to hold one yet, but we plan to have a discussion on a topic such as the right to education within the next three weeks.
Currently, we have finished the first stage of recruiting students interested in the project and are waiting for professor Raed Eshnaiwer to provide us with a student list. We are working with SciencesPo students to solidify interests and linguistic abilities, in order to better pair them with their Palestinian counterparts. We are also promoting our project in order to involve more students in the virtual language exchange and cooperating with the university administration to register our first open-to-all event.
About the Millennium Fellow
French with Kurdish origins, Ferida Altun has always wondered about the idea of identity in a changing world, especially the political commitment that reflects the existence of it. Born in France and as a daughter of a political refugee father, she is curious about the different ways of perceiving reality and « the truth », particularly through encounters with people from various cultural and social backgrounds and also with books of social sciences, which she sees as a great enrichment for understanding the world in its complexity.
As a second-year student at Sciences Po Menton focused on Mediterranean and the Middle East, Ferida wishes to spread awarness about the Kurdish cause throughout the respect of human rights and is therefore interested in international relations, law and geopolitics.
She always grew up with the desire to fight against injustice, especially when she learned of the assassination of three Kurdish women activists in Paris in 2013, when she was 10. Ferida was never afraid to support the fight in Rojava, where a democratic and international ideal is build in chaos. This is why she decided to free speech on difficult subjects such as war or genocide by organizing debates and discussions during her school years. She also joined a Kurdish association to show the culture and the fight of the Kurdish people.
Having this sensitivity for human rights, she tries to give meaning to her actions by integrating various associations on her campus such as Sciences Po Refugee Help, the anti-racist association Alwanat and Unicef Sciences Po Menton. She also recently completed an internship with the association "Atouts Cours" in Paris, which offers legal, linguistic and cultural assistance to refugees and asylum seekers.
With all her revolutionary thoughts, Ferida appreciates bringing a touch of art and philosophy that she expresses accross drawing and writing to keep in mind the evolution of societies.
