[Activity Report] Millennium Fellowship 2024 @MGU
Ten students from the Department of Global and Transcultural Studies, Faculty of International Studies, were selected for the Millennium Fellowship 2024, a leadership development program jointly offered by the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and Millennium Campus Network (MCN). The fellowship offered valuable hands-on learning experiences to our students, teaching them important lessons in planning and executing social impact projects on campus.
About the fellowship:
https://www.millenniumfellows.org/fellowship
About MGU Millennium Fellows:
https://fis.meijigakuin.ac.jp/en/news/research/5830/
Nature of the fellowship:
The 2024 cohort of Millennium Fellows at Meiji Gakuin University comprised two campus directors and eight fellows. The fellowship included six hybrid training sessions over eight weeks on topics such as leadership, team building, project management, stakeholder engagement.
Glimpses of on-campus meetings and training sessions led by campus directors
The projects were implemented from September 1 to November 25, 2024, a relatively short period of less than three months that coincided with the fall semester. Our Fellows graduated from the Fellowship at the online Millennium Fellowship Graduation Ceremony held in late November. Students also submitted their final project reports to the Millennium Campus Network in December 2024.
Project Outcomes:
The Millennium Fellowship @MGU concluded with the Millennium Fellowship Capstone event held at the Clara Lounge on Yokohama campus, on the 12th and 13th of December 2024. All fellows presented their projects, shared information and experiences about the fellowship and encouraged other students to apply for next year’s fellowship.
Ms. Minkyeong Bae, from the Millennium Campus Network, also the project coordinator for MGU fellows visited the Yokohama campus from South Korea.
Below is a brief overview of this year’s projects:
Project 1: Re-Loved Market
This was a flea market to support student business owners, and foster connections among students, including short-term exchange students. It provided as a platform for students to sell/exchange handmade, recycled, and secondhand products. The group held their events at the Clara Lounge on Yokohama campus on November 11 and November 18 and again on December 12 and 13. Students from the Faculty of International Studies participated in the market to promote their handicraft / artwork, and recycled items.
Glimpses of the Re-Loved market events held in November 2024
Project 2： Sound Advice
Sound Advice addressed Sustainable Development Goal 3 – Good Health and Well-Being. This project was created with the goal of not only educating people on the importance of maintaining one’s sense of hearing but also spread awareness about the prevalence of hearing loss, stigma associated with hearing loss and preventing the same. Sound Advice’s project activities included gathering resources and information on the issue and sharing that information through powerpoint presentations. Aidan Fire, the group leader held these lectures several times during the Millennium Capstone event in December 2024.
Sound Advice presentation @ Millennium Capstone event, Clara Lounge, Yokohama Campus
Project 3: Green Cycle MGU
This initiative focused on three major areas:
- Reducing single-use plastic use on campus
- Establishing a better recycling/reuse system
- Educating students on the importance of these initiatives
Poster prepared by the Green Cycle team to educate students about the extent of waste on campus
The group led a project called Blooms from Bottles, collecting more than 50 bottles from Yokohama campus and making Christmas ornaments from them (separate report attached). They created 20 plastic flowers (see photo below), some of which will decorate the Christmas Tree on campus. The Green Cycle group also held a workshop, to educate students about the extent of plastic waste on Yokohama campus, while teaching students how to make these plastic ornaments using discarded PET bottles.
Christmas ornaments made by students using PET bottles collected on Yokohama campus
Our Fellows encountered several challenges as they planned and executed their Millennium projects, attempting to bring about some meaningful changes on campus. Despite the short duration of the fellowship, and the demands of a very rigorous fall semester, MGU Millennium Fellows remained committed to accomplish their plans.
MGU remains proud of its first cohort of Millennium Fellows!
Comments from MGU Millennium Fellows:
The Millennium Fellowship showed me that good leadership isn’t about controlling everything – it’s about creating a space where everyone can do their best work. While we didn’t achieve everything we planned, we learned a lot about managing projects, working together, and staying flexible when things get tough. (4th year GTS student)
The Millennium Fellowship taught me valuable lessons, even though the short timeframe made it hard to create the big social impact that MCN hopes for. Looking back, I’m grateful for what I learned about managing projects and teamwork, since this was my first time leading a major project from planning to implementation (3rd year GTS student).
Key lessons that we learned were problem solving skills. Organizing and running a flea market taught us how to gather people and how to promote our flea market. We also acquired teamwork and collaboration skills as we planning and managed a group project while gathering business owners, which fostered effective communication, delegation of tasks, and cooperation among team members. This Fellowship shaped our approach to leadership by always taking action but always thinking about our teammates and communication (4th year GTS student)
