The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, also known as YSEALI (pronounced ), is a highly-competitive cultural exchange program for Southeast Asian emerging leaders sponsored by the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs. YSEALI programs are known to have 1-2% acceptance rates and are usually awarded to emerging leaders with outstanding work and potentials in their chosen fields or advocacies. The initiative was launched by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

in Manila in December 2013 as a way to strengthen leadership development, networking, and cultural exchange among emerging leaders within the age range of 18 to 35 years old from the 10 member-states of the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...

and

Timor Leste East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-wes ...

. YSEALI's programs include prestigious exchange fellowship programs to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, professional short courses and diplomas, virtual and on-ground workshops within

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

, and seed grant funding opportunities. The programs fall under the key core themes of civic engagement,

sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and ...

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, social norm, norms, power (social and political), power or language of an organized society over a social system (family, tribe, formal organization, formal or informal organization, a ...

, and the

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

. Alumni of YSEALI programs later assume key positions in government, civil societies, and corporations after their programs. Notable alumni of YSEALI include

Vico Sotto Victor Ma. Regis "Vico" Nubla Sotto (; born June 17, 1989) is a Filipino politician serving as the incumbent mayor of Pasig. Sotto first entered politics when he ran for a seat on the Pasig City Council in 2016. He won the election as an indep ...

Syed Saddiq Syed Saddiq bin Syed Abdul Rahman (born 6 December 1992) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Muar since May 2018. He served as the Minister of Youth and Sports in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administra ...

Carrie Tan Carrie Tan Huimin ( zh, s=陈浍敏, p=Chén Huìmǐn; born 1982) is a Singaporean politician. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Nee Soon South division of Nee Soo ...

, and

Lee Chean Chung Lee Chean Chung () is a Malaysian politician who is currently serving as a Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya constituency since November 2022. Prior to that, he had served as Member of the Pahang State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Semamb ...

. As of September 2020, the program has more than 5,000 alumni and 150,000 members across member countries. In 2021,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

representative Joaquin Castro filed a bill in the

US House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

to strengthen YSEALI as a law.

YSEALI Academic Fellowships

The YSEALI Academic Fellowship Program which brings the participating delegation from each Southeast Asian country to study in an academic institution in the United States for six weeks to learn about their chosen advocacy, comparable to the

Young African Leaders Initiative The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) is an initiative of the United States Department of State. It was begun in 2010 by President Barack Obama. YALI is a programme aimed at educating and networking young African leaders with activities inc ...

's Mandela Washington Fellowship program. Institutions that have hosted the Academic Fellowship Program are the following: *

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

East-West Center East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *''East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salma ...

Kennesaw State University Kennesaw State University (KSU) is a public research university located in the state of Georgia with two different campuses in the Atlanta metropolitan area, one in Kennesaw and the other in Marietta on a combined of land. The school was fou ...

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

University of Nebraska Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was originally kno ...

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

YSEALI Seeds for the Future

The YSEALI Seeds for the Future is a small grants competition for youth-led innovative projects in Southeast Asia established by the U.S. Mission to ASEAN, as implemented by

Cultural Vistas Cultural Vistas is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that facilitates internships and professional exchange programs and services for visitors coming to the U.S., and American students and professionals seeking experiential learning opportunit ...

. Since its establishment in 2017, the YSEALI Seeds for the Future has provided funding to 100 youth-led projects within the ASEAN region and

funding at most US$15,000 for each successful winner.

2021 Grantees

* Accessed Educators * ActivateGov * Bebas Sampah ID * Dayadik * #DisasterBusters * #FEMNIMITR * Hub R Sar * InPsychOut * Kilang ReRoot * LEAPS * PantiCT * Pongo Academy * Project Kayamanan * Project TURO * Purrfect Writers Club * Real Money Real Youth * Right Thing to SEA * SMAYL * Sokola Tengger * Technify * The Green Dots * TrailX: #LifeGoals * Project YEA * WEGO * Youth in Action for Youth Budget * Yowana Subak

Notable alumni

Philippines

Joyce Pring Princess Joyce Enaje Pring (born May 4, 1993) is a Filipina television personality and host. Born in Tondo, Manila, she began hosting as a video jockey after winning at Myx VJ Search in 2011. Pring became a Sparkle artist for her hosting in th ...

Singapore

(YSEALI Professional Fellowship, 2015)

Thailand

References

2013 establishments in the United States

External links

Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
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