Young India Fellowship Admissions Head Gets Rousing Welcome At Southern Institutes

The Young India Fellowship admissions head has received an enthusiastic welcome from students at top Bangalore universities and colleges during the first leg of his two-week Southern tour.

YIF Deputy Dean Dr Anunaya Chaubey said, in some cases, more than 100 students had attended presentations at St Joseph’s College and St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Christ University and Mount Carmel College. The presentations in Bangalore and Chennai are to explain to potential 2012 admissions Fellows the unique characteristics of the Rs 8 lakh scholarship programme, whose second batch starts the academic year in May next year.

Dr Chaubey said students were particularly thrilled about the breadth of the courses, the faculty from all over the world, the opportunity that YIF’s indigenous Experiential Learning Module provided to work on live projects in an area of their interest, and the mentors associated with the programme.

“In many cases, students were already aware of the programme but they got very excited when they heard more. They were telling me it’s as though the scholarship is too good to be true,” Dr Chaubey recounted about the presentations.

The Deputy Dean said, to ensure the holistic nature of the programme, the YIF admissions team was seeking a balance between students from science-engineering students and the arts-humanities. During the Bangalore visits, he had been seeing more social science and humanities students, including music students and also those interested in becoming politicians.

"We are looking for young men and women with deep interest in extra-curriculars and passion for something outside of their academic pursuits,” he said. “A prospective Fellow should be someone with dimensions to his or her personality, and not just someone who has been brilliant only in the area of academics. They should be someone who has the capacity to integrate diverse interests and learning to be best at whatever he or she may want to do in life, and to become a change agent.”

Dr Chaubey said the admissions round presentation experience had also been thrilling for him. “I have come across such a large number of promising youngsters with deep interest and substantial experience in music, sports, politics, literature and community work,” he said.

The YIF admissions team has visited 18 universities and colleges, including the IITs in Delhi and Kanpur, BITS Pilani and SRCC, St Stephen’s, Lady Sri Ram and Miranda House in Delhi since admissions opened at the end of October. Dr Chaubey will visit Chennai in the week starting Monday, 5 December, giving presentations at Loyola College, SRM University and Women’s Christian College.

More than 2300 young people have registered for applications and 129 have already filled out online application for next year’s intake.

For more information, visit[http://youngindiafellowship.com/Apply-Now.aspx]

Media inquiries: Inga Butefisch, Ph: 9958 170 246, email: inga.butefisch@yifp.in

About YIF:
The Young India Fellowship (YIF), in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania, is the first academic programme in the country to fill the void in higher education for a holistic, multi-disciplinary course based on the liberal arts. A one-year, fully funded Rs 8 lakh residential scholarship, YIF has been specially conceived and designed to create the country’s finest, most socially conscious leaders. Each year’s batch of 50-plus Fellows will take subjects including Analytical Thinking, Leadership, Writing and Listening Skills, Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, History, Economics and Statistics as well as classes designed to bring out their creativity, such as Art Appreciation and Latin Dancing. They will undertake a unique experiential learning internship, and gain practical work experience through a real-life project. Fellows will be taught by leading thinkers from respected universities both in India and abroad, and will be mentored by some of India’s best known leaders, chosen for their ability to be outstanding motivators and role models. YIF is the precursor to Ashoka University, a world-class university focused on the liberal arts and sciences, set to open in the Delhi NCR in 2013. Ashoka’s founders, the International Foundation for Research and Education (IFRE), envision the university as India’s finest centre of higher education, comparable to the leading research-based, multi-disciplinary universities in the world.

Young India Fellowship

New Delhi - 110017, India

This release was published on openPR.