What Yale Young African Scholars (YYAS) Program actually covers.
Yale Young African Scholars (YYAS) is an intensive, fully funded academic and enrichment programme hosted by Yale University and specifically designed for African secondary school students preparing for tertiary education and leadership on the continent. The programme runs in two formats annually: an online College Prep Workshop lasting six days in July, open to approximately 240 students from across Africa, and a fully funded residential Leadership Summit held in Kenya over nine days in August, open to approximately 110 students. Both programmes are free of charge, with the residential summit providing housing, meals, and all academic materials at no cost. Need-based travel grants are available for students admitted to the summit who reside outside Kenya. YYAS participants work through rigorous academic workshops on writing, critical thinking, mathematics, and science, while also receiving detailed guidance on how to apply to universities in Africa, the United States, Europe, and beyond. The leadership curriculum helps participants understand their own strengths and how to use them for community impact. Since its founding, YYAS has built an impressive alumni network of thousands of young Africans who have gone on to study at top universities worldwide and take on impactful roles in business, medicine, government, and civil society. Eligibility is restricted to citizens or permanent residents of African countries currently enrolled in secondary school in an African country, in 10th or 11th grade, and between the ages of 14 and 18. Applications typically open in late November and close in January, with decisions released by March.
Who can apply.
Open to secondary applicants seeking to study in United States. Eligible nationalities are listed below.
46 more eligible countries — full list available on the official application page.
Every academic discipline is accepted.
This programme does not restrict by field. Research proposals across humanities, sciences, engineering, agriculture, and medicine are all accepted.
Four steps to a complete application.
Scholar Africa is a discovery and tracking platform — the application itself is submitted directly through the official provider site. The steps below mirror our HowTo schema.
Check eligibility
Confirm your nationality, academic level, and field of study match the criteria above.
Eligibility checklist
Prepare documents
Transcripts, recommendation letters, personal statement, and a valid passport.
Document checklist
Submit the application
Submit before January 21, 2027 via the official portal.
Submission checklist
Track your application
Use your Scholar Africa dashboard to monitor status and deadline reminders.
Post-submission checklist
What we checked, when we checked it.
Every scholarship on Scholar Africa goes through six checks (link, contact, organisation, winners, third-party, manual review). Yale Young African Scholars (YYAS) Program currently scores 0.0/10.
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Other scholarships worth a parallel application.
Same eligibility window or destination. Many strong applicants apply to three or four programmes per cycle.