Young Leaders of the Americas (YLAI) Fellowship Program 2026 (Fully-funded) – Opportunity Desk – YOA

Deadline: May 15, 2025

Applications are open for the Young Leaders of the Americas (YLAI) Fellowship Program 2026. YLAI helps entrepreneurs to strengthen their capability to launch and advance their entrepreneurial concepts and successfully contribute to financial improvement of their communities. Since the initiative’s launch in 2015, greater than 1,750 YLAI Fellows from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada have expanded their management and entrepreneurial expertise by way of fellowships at companies and organizations throughout the United States.

Through the YLAI Entrepreneurial Leadership Curriculum and individualized skilled placements, YLAI Fellows have accelerated their industrial ventures’ success and developed particular motion plans to implement upon return to their home international locations. YLAI Fellows constructed networks, linkages, and lasting partnerships to draw investments and help for his or her entrepreneurial ventures.

Program Components

Program parts have included:

• Four-week Professional Placement: In cities throughout the United States, YLAI Fellows acquire invaluable skilled improvement abilities and expertise at U.S. entrepreneurial organizations from the Fellow’s enterprise sector.  Fellows will collaborate with their placement host on their Entrepreneurial Leadership Action Plan (E-LAP) which the Fellows will implement upon return to their home international locations.
• YLAI Entrepreneurial Leadership Curriculum: The YLAI Fellowship Program consists of on-line and in-individual coursework, developed by IREX and Arizona State University (ASU), that mixes technical entrepreneurship coaching and management improvement. Using the E-LAP, Fellows will set and obtain their entrepreneurial management objectives.
• YLAI Opening Orientation in the United States: The YLAI staff will meet Fellows in a U.S. metropolis upon arrival for a welcome occasion. Opening Orientation will welcome Fellows to the US and provides YLAI advisors and Fellows the probability to attach and go over logistics, dialogue of group pointers, and program insurance policies.
• YLAI Closing Forum in the United States: YLAI Fellows take part in the YLAI Closing Forum in Washington, D.C., in addition to networking occasions with enterprise entrepreneurial leaders, and U.S. authorities representatives.
• Post-Fellowship Sustained Engagement: After profitable completion of the Fellowship, YLAI Fellows proceed their collaboration with U.S. companions and have entry to ongoing skilled improvement alternatives, mentorships, networking, and alumni actions. YLAI Fellows could have the probability to welcome a U.S. host to their nation by way of the Outbound Exchange Program, sharing their experience on the entrepreneurship local weather of their nation.

Cost

There isn’t any payment to apply to develop into a YLAI Fellow. If chosen for the YLAI Fellowship Program, the U.S. Government will cowl all program prices. Financial provisions supplied by the U.S. Government will embody:

• J-1 visa help. No visa help will likely be provided to dependents, as that is an unaccompanied program;
• Round-trip journey from participant’s home metropolis to the United States and home U.S. journey, as required by the program;
• YLAI Entrepreneurial Leadership Curriculum coursework and mentoring;
• Closing Forum in Washington, D.C.;
• Four-week skilled placement with host group;
• A restricted accident and illness profit plan; and
• Housing and meal stipend throughout the program.

Eligibility

Candidates will likely be thought-about with out respect to race, colour, faith, intercourse, sexuality, nationwide origin, incapacity or another protected attribute as established by U.S. regulation. Applicants with disabilities are eligible and inspired to apply for the YLAI Fellowship Program. The YLAI Fellowship Program is open to younger entrepreneurs who meet the following standards:

• Are between the ages of 25 and 35 by January 1, 2026.
• Are a resident and citizen of one of the collaborating international locations*: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela.
  * In the particular circumstances of residency in Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten, citizenship in the Netherlands is accepted
• Are eligible to obtain a U.S. J-1 visa.
• Have a demonstrated monitor document of efficiently rising their very own enterprise for at the least two (2) years.
• Are not a U.S. citizen or everlasting resident of the United States.
• Are not a U.S. authorities worker.
• Are proficient in studying, writing, and talking English with out the help of generative AI.

Selection Criteria

The YLAI Fellowship Program Selection Committee makes use of the following standards to guage purposes and interviews:

• Demonstrated skilled entrepreneurial expertise and data.
• Commitment to group or public service, mentorship, or volunteerism in your home nation and to making use of entrepreneurial and management abilities, expertise and data to learn your group and nation.
• Demonstrated understanding of how your private {and professional} objectives align with program targets.
• Demonstrated management, dedication to your group’s or enterprise’s success, constructive angle, initiative, and perseverance.
• Ability to speak successfully in written English with out the help of generative AI*   

*Applications are thought-about primarily based on content material and program qualification, not grammar or spelling. English proficiency will likely be evaluated throughout the dwell semifinalist interviews, and so they encourage private and candid responses.  

Application

Click here to apply

For extra info, go to YLAI Fellowship.