Nissa Jane Parker Learns to Rally Fellow Environmental Activists at MCC15

In the summer of 2015, student leader Nissa Jane Parker from Beloit College, Wyoming,  joined Millennium Campus Network (MCN) at its  seventh annual Millennium Campus Conference (MCC)—MCC15—at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York City. MCC15 was the most comprehensive MCC yet and connected over 450 student leaders and change-makers from over 50 countries. A grant from The Jenzabar Foundation enabled Parker and 94 other student leaders to partake in the five-day conference.

“My main focus is environmental problems, particularly climate change,” says Parker. “I have struggled to understand how you rally a large group of people around a cause. MCC15 gave me exactly the skills I need to do that. I have spent a significant portion of this fall semester working on campus sustainability projects, employing the techniques MCC gave me to make projects more successful.”

Founded in 2007 by student leaders Sam Vaghar and Seth Werfel, MCN’s mission is to “train the next generation of global development leaders to rethink the paradigms that perpetuate inequality, promote a human-centric and collaborative approach, and transform dialogue into action.” MCN created MCC to bring together hundreds of these global development leaders in a spirit of learning and collaboration.

“MCC15 was also a great networking opportunity that allowed me to connect with like-minded individuals from all over the world,” says Parker. “Above all, MCC15 inspired me to take a leadership position in my community and I believe that is the most valuable thing I could have learned.”

MCC15 featured the conference’s most notable international leaders and activists yet, including H.E. Mr. Mogens Lykketoft, the President of the UN General Assembly; Dr. Vanessa Kerry, Founder and CEO of Seed Global Health; Terry Crews, Hollywood actor and gender equality activist; Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University; Richard Stengel, Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of State; and Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General of the UN.

“I am honored to have simply been in the same room as many of the keynote speakers, let alone hear them speak on issues I care deeply about,” says Parker. “I had a wonderful time at MCC15.  I am greatly appreciative of the generosity the Jenzabar Foundation showed me.”

To learn about this year’s conference, MCC16, at Howard University in Washington D.C., taking place August 1st-5th, please visit http://www.mcc16.org. To learn more about MCC15 at the United Nations and other MCN programs, visit the MCN’s webpage at http://www.mcnpartners.org/.