Seven CA&ES students selected for UN Millennium Fellowships

Students will work on projects related to social justice, mental health and innovation

Seven students from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences have been selected for a prestigious global leadership development program focused on social impact projects, UC Davis Global Affairs announced.

The CA&ES students selected as Millennium Fellows will focus on environmental justice on campus, mental health issues, childhood education, entrepreneurship and combatting stigma around HIV/AIDS.

This year more than 25,000 students applied and only 2,000 were accepted. In all, 28 students from UC Davis were accepted to the program, which is run by United Nations Academic Impact and the Millennium Campus Network. Fellows this year come from 136 universities based in 30 countries around the globe.

The semester-long program provides training, networking and other resources among students at their home colleges as well opportunities to collaborate with other fellows.

The proposed projects and CA&ES selected fellows are:

Startup Accelerator

Andy Li, a senior majoring in managerial economics, will develop a student-led startup accelerator to help first-time entrepreneurs develop ideas, hire a team and pitch to investors. An emphasis will be on first-generation college students.

Teaching gardens

Alexandria Tillet Miller, a senior majoring in environmental policy analysis and planning, will work with city of Davis elementary schools to create schoolyard teaching gardens for hands-on education.

Youth HIV education

Hang Le, a senior majoring in global disease biology, will focus on youth in a rural Indian village who are HIV-positive to develop curriculum and interactive activities to debunk myths, combat stigma, and educate children and adults about the virus. Le hopes the program can serve as a model for other rural communities. 

Mental Health conferences

Hastings Lorman, a junior majoring in human development, will organize an online conference and fundraiser to focus on mental health issues young people have experienced during the coronavirus pandemic, and to provide resources.

Environmental justice on campus

Three students are focusing on environmental justice on the UC Davis campus and will host two student-run conferences to identify goals and how to implement specific actions toward creating a sustainable future.

The students are: Allison Rose, a senior majoring in international agricultural development; and Eliana Bono and Hannah Bireschi, who are both seniors majoring in environmental policy analysis and planning. 

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