Sophia Chun

“Meet a new friend at school, make conversation with the customer behind you at the grocery store, or approach acquaintances in your community and often times conversations begin with “how are you?” followed by a lingering silence. However, throughout the two weeks I spent at YYGS, rather than trying to come up with conversation starters, conversations led themselves. “Where are you from?” could easily flow into a discussion of culture, politics, food, or a plethora of fun facts that even the internet couldn’t provide.”

Xabier Sardina

“One of my favorite seminars simply posed the question: How we should allocate liabilities for ransomware attacks and data breaches? We ended up taking the entire time of the seminar debating different theories and possibilities and their implications for future technological advancements. This became an educational experience that opened my eyes to the correlation between technology and federal policy.”

Thembisile Gausi

“The experience which warmed my heart and made me truly feel at home at YYGS was the day of my birthday, the 19th of June. During my breakout session, one of my new YYGS friends announced my birthday and my whole group sang Happy Birthday to me in over 10 different languages! In that moment I knew I had found lifelong friends and family which I would utterly miss at the end of the program.”

Aristides Merida

“Burning the midnight candle talking to an immigrant from Rwanda about whether or not there is a god. Listening to a Jewish student from London explain why the failure of the Two-State Solution can be blamed on Israel, a nation I thought he’d be intent on defending. Having dinner with a self-proclaimed Marxist professor living in the United States. Not once in my life did I ever see myself having these conversations. But one thing is for sure. After having these conversations, a lot of flaws in my thinking were laid bare.

Madina Abduvohitova

“I felt like I’m at home and found the community of like-minded peers to which I truly belonged. I met so many new people with different backgrounds and views of life and learned a lot from them.”

Recently I accepted a year-long voluntary mentorship position in Young Debater School Mentorship Program. I’m excited to mentor prospective students. My responsibilities as a new mentor are to motivate and guide students to achieve their goals and help them work on their personal development. This is my chance to make one more positive impact in my community.

Yeun Gye Choi

“YYGS Asia in the 21st Century was a great program that really opened my eyes and allowed me to have great connections with great, special people from around the world. Meeting a lot of new people from every continent including Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas, YYGS was my first and the greatest opportunity to meet diverse people from different countries.”

Ulviya Chisty

“My seminars helped me learn and discover more about my identity than I ever thought they could. Growing up a Muslim subconti girl with loud political and feminist opinions has always been quite challenging. Perhaps it was because my society was constantly enforcing certain ideologies on me which I didn’t associate with myself, my identity, or my religion. But attending three different seminars that tackled the idea of feminism in Islam and progressive Islam allowed me to learn and decide what I believed in. I finally felt like I knew who I was.”

Ore Adeogun

“YYGS helped me realise there are so many different perspectives on every issue. Before, the program, I considered myself absolutist when it came to global problems, but now I realise not everything is so black and white; it’s all shades of grey.”

Agustin Etchegoyen

“Yale Young Global Scholars was one of the best times of my life. It was an experience that gave me a taste of what college was going to be like. Having roommates, running around the campus to get to classes on time, and being immersed in my field of interest were some of the things that made YYGS priceless.”

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