Overwhelming Response To First-Round Admissions For 2012-13 Young India Fellowships

Online, January 4, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Second and final round open in search for 2012-13 batch of Young India Fellows

- Almost 1000 applications already received in first round of admissions for this unique multi-disciplinary post-graduate programme in association with Ivy League, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn)

- World-class faculty from various domains of expertise - names such as Andre Beteille, Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Radha S. Hegde, Vivek Bhandari and UPenn professors, Kenwyn Smith and Dwight Jaggard - expected to return for 2012-13 academic year

- Last date for submission of applications: 28th February 2012

New Delhi, January 2, 2011: Following the success of the first application round for 2012-13 Young India Fellowships, admissions have opened for the second and final round. A total of 915 applications were received for the 50 places, more than the 750 overall received for the inaugural 2011-12 batch. Applications have come from graduates of institutions including IITs, BITS Pilani, St. Stephen's College, Loyola College and Jadavpur College, and from engineers, lawyers, doctors, architects and social science, humanities and fine arts students. Graduate students now have until February 28 to submit their applications for the second round of admissions.

Run in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), the Young India Fellowship Programme (YIFP) is a one-year, fully funded multi-disciplinary post-graduate course based in New Delhi. It seeks to create India's next generation of socially conscious business and community leaders by providing them with an education that integrates academic breadth with real-life work experience. A minimum of 50 recent graduates from diverse subject areas, who combine excellent academic ability with an evolved interest in an area outside their field of study, will be selected to be a part of the Fellowship for 2012-13.

Dean, Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, also founding dean of the Indian School of Business, said YIFP was searching for India's brightest young people, those who wanted to make a difference and discover their true potential. "I strongly encourage university graduates who have the vision, drive, passion and ability to achieve at the highest level and who aspire to be change agents for India to apply for the Fellowship," he said. "We believe that YIFP is unsurpassed in its ability to create tomorrow's leaders. YIFP's multi-disciplinary academic course, its practical and focused internship project and many opportunities to interact with some of India's and the world's finest thinkers and leaders is unrivalled."

During the first round of admissions, applications have been received from graduates hailing from villages to major metros, and there is an equal proportion of female and male applicants. Online applications were filled out by 865 applicants and an additional 50 applied by mail. Three-hundred are subsequently being called up for telephonic and personal interviews, with in-person interviews beginning January 1 and continuing till January 21, 2012.

Applications are invited from students across the country - from diverse academic and social backgrounds. The rigorous admission process for YIFP starts with applicants filling out a detailed application dossier designed to give an insight into their multi-faceted personalities. "This is followed by a telephone interview and an exercise to test applicants' ability to work as part of a team before the final personal interaction to select a Young India Fellow," YIFP Deputy Dean, Dr. Anunaya Chaubey, said.

To ensure it gets the highest-calibre applicants, the YIFP admissions team will resume presentations at higher education institutions this month - at Kolkata, Mumbai and Guwahati, covering such institutions as St Xavier's, Presidency, Jadavpur, HRM College of Commerce and TISS. They have already visited institutions ranging from Kashmir University and NID (Ahmedabad) to IITs, Delhi University, St Xavier's College, Loyola College (Chennai), Christ University (Bangalore) and Symbiosis (Pune), among others.

Meantime, the inaugural 2011-12 batch are completing Term 6 of the year-long programme, having recently studied courses such as leadership, visual communication and algorithms. They are now heavily engaged in their Experiential Learning Module real-life internship projects with corporations and organisations including Genpact, Harley-Davidson, Bharat Light and Power and the Council for Environment, Energy and Water (CEEW). Their attainments since joining YIFP include winning a Fulbright Scholarship, the 2011 World Bank Essay competition and the opportunity to represent India at the UNESCO Youth Forum in Paris.

YIFP Faculty is drawn from UPenn as well as other leading universities in India, the US and the UK. Fellows are mentored by industry leaders such as NR Narayana Murthy (Founder, Infosys), Deepak Parekh (Chairman, HDFC), Kiran Karnik (Satyam), Keki Dadiseth (Sony) and Anoop Prakash (Harley-Davidson).

The academic session starts in June 2012. Visit www.youngindiafellowship.com and click on "Apply Now".

Media inquiries: Inga Butefisch, Ph: 9958 170 246, email: inga.butefisch@9dot9.in

About YIFP: The Young India Fellowship Programme (YIFP), in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), 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 residential scholarship, YIFP 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. YIFP 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.