This year, the Millenium Fellowship announced their class of 2019 with ALU Rwanda as one of the institutions chosen, and 25 of our students joining the program.
The program is a collaborative effort between the Millenium Campus Network (MCN) and the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI). UNAI is an initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the United Nations in supporting and contributing to the realization of United Nations goals. The Millennium Fellowship runs over the duration of a semester aimed at elevating the leadership potential of students through training, leadership development, and networking. One of the unique elements of the Millenium Fellowship is that campuses need to submit a certain number of applications as part of the selection criteria. This criterion provides room for campus communities to be formed and improves students’ ability in capacity building.
ALU Rwanda stood out as one of the 69 campuses that were selected to host Millenium Fellows in 2019 from a global pool of over 1,200 universities across 135 nations. Twenty-five students from 2nd and 3rd-year who showed great potential and passion towards achieving goals within the UN Sustainable development goals through social impact were selected. The students’ understanding of challenges currently affecting the world along with their ability to develop feasible impact-driven solutions played a considerable role in their selection. A significant number of fellows acknowledge the part of the Leadership Core program in equipping them with skills human-centered design thinking and empathy. At the same time, 3rd-year fellows pursuing the Global Challenges Degree Programme highlighted the significance of the program in developing actionable impact-driven solutions.
“The Global Challenges Programme has given me the skills to identify the root cause of problems, understand their connecting systems, and design relevant sustainable solutions. These skills are what I use to pursue my mission and what guided me during the Fellowship’s application process.”
– Jerrylynn Kariuki, 3rd Year, Global Challenges
The Millennium Fellowship iterates ALU values such as diversity as it brings students from diverse parts of the world together to work towards creating positive social impact. This Fellowship is also evidence of the ownership and resilience of ALU students. A mindset that always motivates members of the ALU community to seek opportunities for growth.
The ALU Millenium Fellowship class of 2019 is a celebration of diversity, resilience, and our ability to solve problems for the biggest challenges facing the world today. We are excited to be part of the journey that each of the fellows will take as part of the ALU community and can’t wait to see the results of their innovative projects.
“Being part of this Fellowship means being a part of a group of people that are not only hoping for a new world but take the collaborative initiative to create it. It is an active step for me as a young person to join in the table and be a deciding factor in the world we are creating.”
-Smangaliso Areal T. Mbili, 2nd Year, Global Challenges
