2025 Millennium Fellows: The Minervans Behind CRUX Productions

If you had told us a year ago that we would be selected for a prestigious, UN Academic Impact-supported leadership program for a non-profit production company we founded, we would have found you insane. Yet, that is exactly what happened. This honorable recognition by the Millennium Fellowship marks one year of our work leveraging storytelling for social and environmental impact, which would have never been in the books for us had we not met each other at Minerva.

During our first year at Minerva University, along with other students from our cohort (M28*), we produced a documentary on the effects of climate change told through personal stories from Minervans from 15 different countries. The result is a documentary that captures how real and urgent the climate catastrophe is, how unequally different countries are affected by it, and also how serious exoanxiety is amongst a young generation facing the destruction of the very planet we live on. 

For us - Gaja Dukanovic, Hanna Höijer, and Lea Leisse - one lesson stood out: stories are not just a way to understand the world. They shape it. That realization became the seed of CRUX Productions, a non-profit production company we founded in our first year at Minerva.

Since then, we have produced a documentary featuring local artists from the Tenderloin, which highlights the vibrant art community amongst what is often oversimplified as a neighborhood to avoid. We have filmed in the European Parliament, amongst activists in front of the International Court of Justice, and in South African townships.

At Minerva, we are taught how to write mission statements, succinct summaries of what the purpose of an organization is. To the potential horror of our professors (sorry), this is our not-so-succinct mission statement:

1. Stories shape reality.

The narratives we hear decide what makes headlines, who receives help, and what we believe is possible. They influence policy, culture, and our most personal choices. Because of that, we believe it matters who tells stories and how they’re told.

2. NoT jUsT a MoViE

Awareness is overrated. The purpose of telling the stories we are passionate about is for them to inspire action, and we make a point out of that. Who do we want this film to reach, and what do they need to act? Organize an event and connect them to local organizations? A summit? A policy proposal?

3. Complexity matters.

The world’s most urgent issues cannot be captured in 60 seconds. We embrace nuance, resist oversimplification, and trust our audiences to sit with complexity. At Minerva, in one of our Cornerstone Courses, we learn about “The danger of a single story” (Ngozi Adichie). And we believe diverse stories are worth fighting for.

The project we are currently working on has been chosen to be a part of the selective Millennium Fellowship and is called What They Never Taught Us. It is a dive into the complex relationship between Japan, the ocean, and the indigenous Ryukyuans, living on the Okinawa islands. 

Marine conservation is often framed as a technical challenge or a question of political will. But beneath that lies something more fundamental: the stories we tell about nature, our place within it, and the systems we belong to. By centering Indigenous knowledge and lived experience, we hope to challenge narratives that treat the ocean as a resource rather than part of the planet we call home and to show that protecting it begins with reimagining our connection to it.

None of this would have been possible without Minerva. It brought three students from three countries together and pushed us to think critically across disciplines. Every day, fellow Minervans inspire us, help us with their countless skills, ideas, and network to make our project become a reality. And as a Millennium Fellowship Campus, we get to learn about the wonderful initiatives of Minervans in sustainability across cohorts. We are honored to be a part of it.

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*M28 = Class of 2028

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If you were inspired by this story about our Millennium Fellows, apply to start your Minerva journey today.