Cultural Exchange Programs
MEPI Youth Summer Leadership Institute for University Students
Application Deadline: January 07, 2009
The U.S. Embassy in Yemen is pleased to announce the opening of the competition for the 2009 Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Student Leaders Program.
The MEPI Student Leaders Program is designed for undergraduate student leaders between the ages of 19 and 23 from the Middle East and North Africa. The Student Leaders will participate in a five-week program at a U.S. university to begin on June 29, 2009. The program consists of leadership training, community service, educational travel, and follow-on activities. The theme of the program will be how leadership is conceived and practiced in different capacities (governmental, community, civil society, private sector, etc.) and in different regions of the United States. The two key components of the program are an academic residency, conducted at a U.S. university, running approximately four weeks; and an educational study tour to one or two other regions of the United States, running approximately one week (including Washington, D.C.), designed to directly complement and reinforce the concepts explored in the academic residency program.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
Competition for the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Student Leaders Program is merit-based and open to anyone who:
· Is a Yemeni citizen;
· Is between the ages of age 19 to 23
· Current university student
· Is proficient in spoken and written English at the time of application;
· Committed to returning to their home country following
· completion of the program;
· Demonstrates strong leadership potential;
· Indicates a serious interest in learning about the United States;
· Has a sustained high level of academic achievement, as indicated by academic grades, awards, and teacher recommendations;
· Demonstrates a commitment to community and extracurricular activities;
· Has had little or preferably no study or travel
· experience outside home country; Nominees with travel to
· the US after their twelfth birthday will not be accepted.
· Is mature, responsible, independent, confident, open-minded, tolerant, thoughtful and inquisitive;
· Is willing and able to fully participate in an intensive academic program, community service, and active educational travel program; and,
· Is comfortable with campus live, sharing living accommodations while traveling with a multinational group of participants from the Middle East and North Africa and with U.S. citizens, and making adjustments to cultural and social practices different from those of their home countries.
To apply to the programs you should fill in the attached application form and specify which program you will would like to apply to.
Please be sure you have included all of the REQUIRED components mentioned in the last page of the application.
The deadline for applications is January 07, 2009. Applications are accepted via fax (755-2282), email (PASSanaa@state.gov), or hard copies can be dropped off at the U.S. Embassy in Sana'a.