Leadership and Mentoring Program for US Exchange Alumni

Background and Context: To foster greater global understanding of the United States, each year, the U.S. Department of State sponsors cultural and educational exchange visits to the U.S. for students and young professionals from India. Approximately eighty young Indian students between the ages of 17 and 25 visit the U.S. on exchange programs such as the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study program (YES), the Community College Initiative Program (CCIP), Study of the United States Institutes for Student Leaders (SUSI), and the Near East and South Asia Undergraduate Program (NESA-UGrad). Many of these programs, especially YES and CCIP, are targeted at high school and undergraduate students from traditionally disadvantaged and underrepresented sectors. The young exchange participants return to India often with greater self-confidence, initiative and motivation. It is important to engage young alumni to enhance their leadership and communication skills, in an effort to boost the number of international leaders and strengthen India s regional role. Program Objectives With this program, PAS aims to ensure that the alumni have the necessary skills and networks for taking on more active regional and global roles. The recipient organization would work with PAS Delhi to develop a framework for the leadership and mentoring workshops, to be conducted with young exchange alumni aged 18-25 years in 20 Indian locations. In order to mold future voters and leaders of tomorrow, the program will develop the skill-building workshops as a stepping-stone towards a longer mentoring program. The program objectives are as follows: To help the young alumni develop their communication, learning, and leadership skills; through tools and activities that help them become not only more self-aware, but also more conscious of the role that they can play in the region. To facilitate the identification of global issues and develop an action project on issues of the alumni s choice to be implemented after the workshops. To pair the young alumni with mentors from a pool of older exchange alumni, who will guide them in implementing the action project over the course of three months.