Irem Kurt

At YYGS, I stepped into a world of endless opportunities created by endless possibilities. Before YYGS, I was believing that I should be one thing; an engineer, or a sociologist, or an artist. YYGS showed me the value of the word “and”, the magic of interdisciplinary works, and the beauty of their outcomes. My favorite lecture was “Robots that Teach” by Brian Scasselatti, because it showed me the intersection of robotics and social sciences, and inspired me to be an engineer, and sociologist, and artist.

Sierra Khan

One of my most memorable experiences occurred during a YYGS family breakout session where some of us possessed very different views on a lecture, however, we were still able to share our views on the topic in a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment. This experience fully embodied the essence of YYGS where people from different countries, backgrounds, and communities come together and respectfully share their unique perspectives.

Josefina Cabrera Ramos

My favorite lecture was the one about music and health, how being able to hear music could help you improve your skills in the medicine field. That lecture made me understand STEM in a different way, because I study arts at school, so being able to see how these two things can connect and help each other is awesome.

Lea Tinz

The fact that we all came from different backgrounds - socio-economically, geographically, or ethnically - was what made our interactions meaningful. We were not only talking about the world but with the world.

Tiana Shanté Dinham

YYGS was life-changing. It allowed me to develop an appreciation of different cultures and to explore my curiosity.

I am currently serving as the Head Girl, which is the highest role held by a student leader in my school. While I serve in this capacity, it is my community initiatives that I am most proud of. I was able to successfully organize a vaccination blitz in my rural community with the help of my local government representative and my parish health outreach officer. Approximately 50 members with either the Astrazeneca or Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

Witness Dhliwayo

After two weeks of intellectual sessions and seminars, I started viewing things from a different point of view. Learning about the ways in which people solved problems in their areas taught me that there is no single way to tackle a problem, there are always indirect solutions to problems.

Dylan Baniassad

During simulation, I was paired with others who similarly advocated to combat drug abuse and who sought to expose COVID-19’s correlation to opioid addiction. Throughout our group’s time together, we created a non-profit (https://beyondtheneedles.org) with the intent to publicize support and awareness for drug addiction recovery. To this day, we have accumulated over 3,700 followers on our Instagram page, and we continue to exchange ideas amongst each other on how to scale our organization further.

Alia Kafil

YYGS has given me the opportunity and resources to discover new passions. For example, in my “Glamorizing Suffering” seminar, I learned about the exploitation of minorities’ suffering in the media. This seminar, much like every other lecture and seminar I attended at YYGS, has opened my eyes to issues I was unaware of. It pushed me to think critically about the media I was consuming and how it could affect my perception of the world. Through YYGS seminars and lectures, I learned that my actions have impacts that extend far beyond my personal narrative.

Elina Deshpande

YYGS is a global education program that enabled me to increase my cultural exchange but also helped me to see the world without stereotypes and befriend some of the most genuine and talented people I now know in my life.

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