Since 2018, the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and the Millennium Campus Network (MCN) have partnered on the Millennium Fellowship, designed to convene, challenge and celebrate student leadership advancing United Nations goals and principles. The Millennium Fellowship is a semester-long leadership development program to help students curate and implement community-level initiatives to promote sustainability and public service.
The Millennium Fellowship’s latest cohort consisted of over 3,000 students from over 200 campuses in more than 37 countries worldwide. To mark International Women’s Day, UNAI interviewed three of the Millennium Fellows from the 2022 cohort who are taking action to promote and advance gender equality in their communities and campuses to know about their groundbreaking contributions and their impact in their campuses and beyond.
Shreya Srivastava, a student at Christ University in India, is spreading awareness of gender equality through her project, ‘ME.’ She explains that the title ‘ME’ describes how everyone can be whoever they want without caring about outside judgment. “People used to tell me stories about themselves or their friends or family who were different from what was considered normal,” she comments.
Her project is challenging already enforced and traditional stereotypes about women, including preconceptions about what they can or cannot do, something that is reflected, for instance, in generalizations concerning work, as some areas or fields are widely considered more suitable for men. Through ‘ME,’ Srivastava hopes to raise awareness that a woman can be interested in things not typically marketed toward females.
And slowly but surely, through her project, she sees small steps toward positive change countering gender norms or overcoming them. She approached her project by having people reflect on themselves, focusing on self-descriptions via personal attributes they believe define them. Shreya hopes that ‘ME’ can be a voice for those women who do not get a real opportunity to express themselves freely.
Nicole Flis, who studies at the University of Pennsylvania, a UNAI member institution in the United States, uses her project, ‘Global Girls Empowerment,’ to serve girls worldwide interested in business, entrepreneurship, and global careers. Nicole’s project aims to be a resource for young women exploring careers in these fields, to educate them on various topics and connect them to and with relevant opportunities and inspirational female leaders.
“There are certain challenges that come with being a woman, especially in male-dominated industries,” she states. While these said challenges vary in form and severity across the world, Nicole understands that she can play a role in promoting gender equality, uplifting other young women, and providing girls with the same access and opportunities to flourish. The project gives girls economic empowerment, financial freedom, and the ability to thrive.
Promoting women in business uplifts women and create societies where everyone is valued and seen as equals. “I think that ultimately, gender equality creates a safer, healthier, and economically better society. And that is, in the end, what sustainable development aims for,” Nicole adds. And indeed, Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality, is one of the key elements of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Nandini Gupta, a student at Symbiosis International University in India, is a member and advocate of the project ‘Say YES to Cups.’ In the most basic sense, the project is about menstrual equity. “We have a significant rural population without regular access to pads or tampons. And a lot of women in India end up relying on products that are not sustainable for menstrual hygiene as alternatives,” Nandini explains.
So, the idea behind this project is to produce and promote menstrual cups as a sustainable alternative period product, bearing in mind that they can last for several years, which makes them cost-effective as well. In addition, ‘Say YES to Cups’ teaches women about maintaining menstrual hygiene, the basic understanding of the menstrual cycle, and the tools they need to understand and deal with menstruation.
“It is not simply about menstrual equity but also about empowering women and for them to be comfortable with their bodies,” Nandini states. She takes pride in the impact on men as well. When ‘Say YES to Cups’ would meet or conduct sessions, there were also men who would show up and participate. “This project breaks barriers and this stigma where men do not involve themselves in the conversation of women’s rights, or this case menstrual health,” she adds.
These three Millennium Fellows are just a small example of youth activism and leadership and prove that the next generation is a generation of action and change. Read more about the remarkable impact the Millennium Fellowship undergraduate students across 37 countries created in their communities and around the world in MCN’s 2021 Impact Report.
