Professionals launch 'The Young India Fellowship

Updated on: Sunday, February 20, 2011

A group of India's most successful professionals and entrepreneurs announced the launch of the Young India Fellowship (YIF), a first-of-its-kind, one-year multi-disciplinary learning and leadership development programme for postgraduate students.

The programme aims to challenge the current trend of specialisation in our higher education system by offering students the chance to explore fields beyond a typical narrow engineering, commerce or business curriculum.

Introducing the YIF, Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder & Director, YIF & Founding Dean, ISB, said, “This initiative will bring together 50 young leaders from different parts of the country for a one-year residential post-graduate programme in Delhi. Delivered by top-rung faculty, especially selected for their inspirational teaching, the curriculum aims to broaden perspectives and help our fellows carve their own paths, aligning who they are with what they do in life. While it resembles an academic programme, it is really a unique life experience. �

The YIF promises to take 50 exceptional minds and nurture them into agents of change and innovation for India in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania’s (UPenn) School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS).

UPenn is one of the eight Ivy League universities in the US and is ranked within the global top five for several of its undergraduate and post-graduate programmes.

Prof. Eduardo D. Glandt, Dean, SEAS, UPenn, said, “We are proud to support the Young India Fellowship. Nearly a dozen faculty from Penn will teach in the YIF programme. The Fellowship is designed not only to build perspectives and open minds but also to impart practical skills of problem solving, which include scientific thinking, engineering and business analysis, writing and communication, teamwork and leadership to the participants.�

The fellowship is open to final-year undergraduate students or graduates with less than two years of work experience. Students from all disciplines are eligible to apply –engineers, scientists, accountants and lawyers, as well as those who have graduated with degrees in history, sociology, literature, or any of the other liberal arts.

Applications are open from the 24th of January, 2011. For more information applicants can visit www: youngindiafellowship.com. Classes begin on May 30, 2011.

Donated by group of leading professionals who want to give back to the country and want to make a difference to higher education in India, every deserving canditate will receive a scholarship of Rs 8 lakhs to cover the full cost of tuition, board and lodging for the YIF.

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