History

Origins

Yale Young Global Scholars (YYGS) began in 2001 as a small, pre-collegiate summer program under the name “Ivy Scholars.” YYGS was founded by professors and administrators with the noble purpose of bringing together future leaders from around the world in order to gain perspective from one another and to use both empathy and innovation when addressing global challenges.

To faciliatate these endeavors and foster intellectual curiosity, the program gave students access to Yale’s world renowned resources, and introduced them to aspects of college life on its historic campus.

Today, YYGS is run out of the Office of International Affairs (OIA) at Yale and maintains its focus on bringing together and empowering young people from all over the world.

Notable Developments

In 2012, the program changed its name from “Ivy Scholars” to “Yale Young Global Scholars (YYGS)” to better reflect its continuing mission to facilitate global conversations with young leaders from around the world.

In 2016, YYGS hosted overseas programs at Yale-NUS College in Singapore and Yale Center Beijing in China. In 2020, YYGS suspended international offerings to focus on its expansion at Yale University’s historic campus in New Haven, Connecticut. 

Over the years, YYGS has expanded from two sessions with 300 students to nine sessions with nearly 2,000 students. The program currently offers three academic tracks which focus on STEM, social science, and interdisciplinary subjects, respectively. While YYGS has grown in size, the program is still dedicated to facilitating small-scale conversations, with about 200 students per session and 12:1 student-to-teacher ratio.

Due to complications resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, YYGS shifted its 2020, 2021, and 2022 programs to a virtual program called “YYGS Online.” YYGS returned to in-person, on campus offerings at Yale in 2023, and is proud to remain one of the most globally diverse, competitive and accessible pre-college programs in the world.

Annually, the program currently receives over 12,000 submitted applications, distributes over $3 million USD in need-based financial aid equally to domestic and international students, and its nearly 2,000 participants represent over 150 different countries (including all 50+ U.S. states & territories).