Higherlife Foundation

Application Deadline: February 06, 2018 at 11:59pm EST.

YYAS 2018 will be held in two locations:

Rwanda: 29 July – 07 August
Ghana: 11 August – 20 August

The application for the 2018 Yale Young African Scholars (YYAS) Program is now available! Entering its fifth year, this intensive program brings together African secondary school students between the ages of 14–18 for a cost-free, intensive academic and residential program. Next year YYAS will be held in two locations, Rwanda and Ghana, and take place between late July and end of August.

YYAS will admit a combined total of 300 students to the Yale Young African Scholars sessions taking place in 2018.

YYAS is the flagship program of the Yale Africa Initiative and is designed to introduce secondary school students to the demanding university and financial aid application processes and requirements, as well as to make higher education more accessible to Africa’s most talented student leaders. This past July and August, YYAS brought together 300 secondary school students from 216 schools and 33 African nations.

Administered by the Yale Young Global Scholars Program and building off that model of interdisciplinary academic exploration, YYAS participants will attend lectures led by prominent Yale faculty as well as seminars developed and taught by Yale graduate and undergraduate students. Participants will also engage in several experiential activities focusing on leadership and teambuilding and have a chance to interact directly with admissions officers from North American, African, and European universities.

YYAS offers daily workshops on different components of a university application, such as the ins-and-outs of the Common Application and how to craft a personal essay. By the end of the program, students will have a plan and timeline for submitting their applications, as well as abundant resources for further research and mentorship. In addition, students will receive both individual and group lessons for standardized tests, designed specifically for African test-takers new to exams like the SAT.

YYAS is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Higherlife Foundation as well as by contributions from The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale.

Eligibility Requirements:

Prospective applicants must be current secondary school students in Africa who will have to complete at least one full academic term after August 2018.
In addition, applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of an African country.
Selected participants will be self-starters who have an interest in pursuing post-secondary level education, are in excellent academic standing, and demonstrate leadership potential.

A typical YYAS participant has:

Excellent academic records
Demonstrated leadership potential
Strong written and verbal communication skills
A desire and ability to work cooperatively with peers
Persistence and determination when facing challenges
High standards of personal and professional conduct
The ability to read, analyze, and reflect on large quantities of difficult material in English
Interest in engaging in discussions about intellectual, moral, and political issues in Africa

Benefits:

To make the program accessible to students of all financial backgrounds, there is no cost for students to participate in YYAS.
Room and board will be provided for all students, along with three meals a day.
However, participants ARE responsible for getting themselves to the venue at the outset of the program and for their return home at the end of the program. Participants will also be responsible for any incidental expenses they elect to incur.
Students from low-income backgrounds who demonstrate financial need may apply for a limited number of travel grants offered by the program. If awarded, the grant will cover the cost of a roundtrip plane ticket between a student’s home country and the program location. Students can only apply for travel assistance after they have received an offer of admission to YYAS.
While YYAS provides all students traveling internationally with complimentary airport pick up and drop off on the day of arrival and departure, participants—including travel grant recipients—must also arrange for their own transportation between their home and originating airport, and upon return.

Application

Required application components include:

Completed application form – The application can be found online and must be filled out by the applicant. Students will be asked to complete one 500-word essay and three short responses, as well as to provide information on your activities and the school that you currently attend.

Official transcript or grade report – Students must upload their official transcript or grade report(s) for each year of secondary school. A student transcript is an official document provided by the school and includes the applicant’s list of courses and grades received. National exam scores, if available, should also be submitted but are not required.

One teacher recommendation – The recommendation must be written and submitted by a teacher through a link that will be provided by the applicant through the online portal. Alternatively, the teacher may email a letter of recommendation to [email protected] and staff will upload it to the student’s application.

Please note that letters must be sent in PDF (.pdf) format and placed on institutional letterhead with signature, if possible. We will not accept recommendations that are submitted by students. Applicants should request the recommendation from a teacher at their school who knows them well and has taught them in an academic subject. The recommendation also must be received by the application deadline, 06 February 2018.

We place great importance on these recommendations, because we understand that students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and education contexts. We appreciate teachers taking the time to write recommendations for their student(s). To ensure sincerity, we ask that teachers please refrain from sharing their recommendations with students.

YYAS reviews all applications holistically, and there are no minimum grade or standardized exam score requirements. However, a high level of English proficiency will be expected.

Application Procedure:

To apply, students must submit the online application form including one essay, three short-answer responses, an official school transcript or grade report, and one teacher recommendation letter.
The application portal is now live.
The deadline to submit is February 06, 2018 at 11:59pm EST.

Apply Now for the 2018 Yale Young African Scholars Program

Contact

Please email [email protected] or visit YYAS online.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Yale Young African Scholars Program 2018

The Yale Young African Scholars (YYAS) Program completed its 2017 session offering academic opportunities to secondary school students this past July and August in three locations on the African continent: Accra, Ghana; Kigali, Rwanda; and Harare, Zimbabwe.

YYAS is a cost-free, seven-day academic and residential program designed for African secondary school students who have the talent, energy, and ideas to make meaningful impacts as young leaders, and who want to explore tertiary education. This year, YYAS brought together 300 students between the ages of 14 and 18 and introduced them to the demanding U.S. university and financial aid application processes and requirements. This year’s cohort included students from 33 African nations who currently attend 216 secondary schools on the continent.

New opportunities:

“There are many benefits to students having participated in the YYAS program, the first among them being the opportunity to interact with a diverse group of peers from across the continent,” said Dagan Rossini, YYAS Fellow. “Additionally, participants had a chance to meet admissions representatives from various small-town and urban universities and colleges, not only from the United States but also from African and European countries, and were exposed to a wide range of opportunities for tertiary education.”

Eddie Mandhry, Yale’s director for Africa in the Office of International Affairs, conveyed a similar sentiment.

“The YYAS program plays an integral part in equipping Africa’s youth with 21st century academic opportunities.” He added, “It is increasingly becoming the foremost continental program for talented high school students from across Africa — particularly those from low-income backgrounds —aimed at defining pathways towards higher educational opportunities in the United States and beyond.”

Session activities:

During each week-long program, students attended multiple lectures led by prominent Yale faculty who focused on topics ranging from the social sciences and humanites to STEM. In addition, current Yale students developed and taught seminars on a wide range of subjects and academic content, including religion, politics, gender, and the environment, to name a few. Participants engaged in robust intellectual debates and gained firsthand experience of what it is like to learn in a discussion-based environment.

A core component of the YYAS program is providing the young students tutoring lessons for standardized tests — both individually and as a large group — focused on writing, math, and reading comprehension. These lessons were designed specifically for African test-takers new to exams like the SAT. In addition, participants engaged in several experiential activities and workshops geared toward the development of core leadership and team-building skills, thus helping to prepare them to meet their full potential as young African leaders.

Admissions guidance:

Through direct interaction with admissions representatives, students also had a chance to learn more about the key components of university admissions and financial aid applications. One participant commented, “Learning how admission officers view essays and what they look for in a candidate was really valuable to me, especially as an international student.” Following the program, YYAS will pair participants with university student mentors who will provide additional guidance throughout the application process.

Educators’ Conferences for teachers, headmasters, and advisors from African secondary schools in the western, eastern, and southern regions of Africa ran concurrently at each YYAS session. Organized and facilitated by YYAS’s partners focusing on education access in Africa — Ahaspora in Ghana, Imbuto Foundation in Rwanda, and Education Matters in Zimbabwe — these conferences introduced educators to university guidance strategies and resources so that they can offer support to all students at their respective schools who may want to pursue post-secondary education abroad.

The year ahead:

The YYAS program is made possible with the support of the Higherlife Foundation as well as by contributions from The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale.

“It has been wonderful to sustain our support for a tremendously impactful Yale Africa Initiative program that was originally conceived by African students on our campus,” said Ian Shapiro, Sterling Professor of Political Science and the director of the MacMillan Center. “The program presents Yale students, faculty, and staff all with an invaluable opportunity to engage with brilliant young minds from across Africa who are determined to expand their awareness about their options for higher education in the U.S. and beyond.”

Applications for the 2018 program will open in early October 2017 and be made available online. All applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. (EST) on Feb. 6, 2018.

Yale Young African Scholars (YYAS) Program 2018 for African secondary school students (Funded)

YYAS 2018 will be held in two locations:

Required application components include:

Yale Young African Scholars concludes 2017 program sessions