Young India Fellowship at Ashoka University invites applications for the Class of 2020-2021

Sonepat: The Young India Fellowship (YIF), at Ashoka University, is inviting applications for the Class of 2020-21. It is a unique one-year multi-disciplinary postgraduate diploma programme in Liberal Studies. The online application form opens on August 20, 2019. The Fellowship brings together a group of 300 bright young individuals from diverse backgrounds across the country, and trains them to become socially committed agents of change. The YIF started in 2011, making 2020-21 the 9th year of operation.

Taught by some of the finest teachers and practitioners from around the world, the YIF exposes Fellows to a diverse set of subjects like Sociology, Economics, Statistics, Physics, Philosophy, Psychology, Art, History, Literature, Business, Leadership, International Relations, and Critical Writing. The curriculum is designed for Fellows to understand team-building, develop critical thinking and gain problem-solving skills by combining academic work with on-ground experience.

The programme has gone from strength to strength, starting off with 58 students, whereas today the call is for 300 individuals who will undertake eight month-long engagements on live-projects with established organisations, companies and institutions from different sectors, as part of the Experiential Learning Module.

YIF partners with some of the best institutions of the world, which include the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), University of Michigan, King’s College London, Sciences Po, University of California, Berkeley, Trinity College Dublin, Yale University, among others.

The Young India Fellowship makes it possible for all deserving students to be a part of the programme by offering need-based financial aid that fully or partially covers tuition and hostel expenses.

The Fellowship is open to individuals with a recognised undergraduate or postgraduate degree (final year undergraduates may also apply). The upper age limit for the applicants is 28 years as on May 31, 2020. There is no application fee for the programme. The programme has a rigorous selection process which includes an application assessment, a telephonic interview, a comprehensive test and a personal interview. The application assessment takes into account an applicant’s academic performance through school and college, their involvement in extra-curricular activities, and the personal essays submitted by them.

Placements and Further Education:

After the completion of YIF, the Fellows have been placed at top corporate houses like American Express, BCG, McKinsey, Microsoft, Schlumberger, Ernst & Young, Genpact, Goldman Sachs, Business Standard, Deloitte, Axis Bank, among other well-known organisations. Fellows have also joined organisations like Samagra, Pradaan, World Bank, World Wildlife Fund, Amnesty International, National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), UN Sustainable Solutions Development Network, Samaj Pragati Sahayog and PRATHAM, in the development and sustainability sectors. Some have also shown entrepreneurial spirit, setting up their own ventures or continuing with those they were already part of.

Fellows have also gone on to study at some of the world’s leading universities like University of Oxford, Stanford University, Yale University, Kellogg Business School, London School of Economics, Sciences Po, University of Michigan, Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design, Columbia University and the University of Chicago. Alumni from the Fellowship have been awarded prestigious scholarships like Chevening, Commonwealth, Fulbright and Rhodes.

For more information, log on to www.ashoka.edu.in/YIF.