The Embassy is proud to announce the 2022 cohort from Argentina for the U.S. Department of State’s Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) Fellowship Program. Launched in 2015, YLAI empowers emerging entrepreneurs from the Western Hemisphere to enable the full economic potential of the region’s citizens. This year’s YLAI fellowship program launched in December 2022 and will continue through June 2023, bringing together 280 young leaders from 37 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada. We are pleased to announce that nine young leaders from Argentina have been accepted out of over 1,800 applicants.
The 2023 YLAI Fellowship Program, sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, launched in December with a virtual Fellowship Leadership Curriculum and orientation. In May, fellows will split into cohorts and travel to 19 cities across the United States for four-week professional placements with U.S. businesses. They will collaborate with their peers to address shared business challenges, as well as engage in virtual and in-person events and cross-cultural activities. Since 2015, more than 1,240 YLAI Fellows have built connections with 900+ U.S. fellowship placement organizations; 84 percent of these Fellows attracted new resources within one year of completing the program.
The selected Argentine entrepreneurs are: Constanza Orias (Cordoba, Cordoba), Elisa Altuna (Gualeguaychu, Entre Rios), Federico Berton (Villa Mercedes, San Luis), Federico Lanati (Yerba Buena, Tucuman), Federico Furey (Cordoba, Cordoba), Guido Sirna (City of Buenos Aires), Leandro Ciappina (Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires), Matias Acosta (City of Buenos Aires) and Shams Selouma (Cordoba, Cordoba). They are entrepreneurs from emerging companies and organizations, working in areas such as fashion, community development, education, tourism, electronics and technology, data analysis and IT, and business services.
The program concludes with a Closing Forum in Washington, D.C. in June. Fellows return to their ventures with new skills, resources, ongoing support from U.S. counterparts, and a broader network, strengthening business ties between the U.S. and Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada.
You can find more information about the YLAI Fellowship Program and the YLAI Network at https://ylai.state.gov/, and you can follow the fellowship on social media using #YLAI2023