First and foremost, Yale Young Global Scholars (YYGS) is remarkable because of the PEOPLE! From the leadership, to the instructors in the academic sessions, to the diversity of the student population, the people at YYGS are a collection of amazing human beings. From bonding with my super cool Equadorian roommate, breaking bread with my fellow students from all around the world, to cooperating on group projects, and learning about dynamic worldviews of my peers that served to reshape my thinking, YYGS is awesome because all the PEOPLE are awesome.
Second: The food at Yale is absolutely fantastic! I’m a foodie with deep appreciation of tastes and flavors. From breakfast in the morning with super fresh ingredients, to greens and roasted chicken for dinner, ice cream that is ssooooo creamy and fresh-baked cookies, to delicious pizza, the food at YYGS is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before in an academic setting.
Third: The setting of the Yale campus and architecture is stunningly beautiful. The vibe at Yale is all about tranquility. The world-renowned Gothic stone towers, the enclosed courtyards with vibrant green spaces, the stained glass windows depicting the history of writing at Sterling Memorial Library, the Vermont marble in the Manuscript Library, the red brick Georgian-style buildings; it’s all one big sensory feast if beauty appeals to your senses. My residential college dorm was a fairy tale experience. Imagine suspending reality and living inside a Harry Potter novel.
Fourth: The quality of academic experience at YYGS was on a whole other level. Obviously, you think about Yale, and of course it’s a prestigious Ivy League university, right. But it’s more than the pomp and circumstance and all the idioms used to describe Yale. What made the YYGS academic sessions so fascinating was a combination of small class sizes, talented instructors who focused on fostering an environment emphasizing the back-and-forth interactive teaching style, dynamic vs. static learning, and the diversity of the viewpoints and ideas from the students. I left YYGS with a deep appreciation of “how to teach” and “how to learn” that will serve me well going forward.
Fifth: Everyone at YYGS was friendly. Why is this remarkable? In a world that is seemingly filled with chaos stemming from radical political squabbles, geo-political unrest, economic inequality, civil disparities, and all the issues affecting modern society that drive anger and loathing, the people at YYGS smiled often, were genuinely good-natured and friendly, and displayed an eager and earnest willingness to consider divergent ideas, and alternative world-views. YYGS is a microcosm of what our society could be, and all that is good and true and right in this world.
Cassidy, USA (South Dakota), YYGS 2026