• AYLF Program Facilitators at AYLF Chicago Dreams 2023

    Connecting Through Leadership

    What Energizes AYLF's Program Facilitators

    By Solcyré Burga, AYLF Senior Fellow

    When Georgianna Torres Reyes, an associate vice president at DePaul University serving as a facilitator with the Aspen Young Leaders Fellowship’s (AYLF) inaugural Chicago cohort, first logged onto a Zoom call in December 2020, she [...]

  • You Never Know What Lies Across the Ocean

    Travel to Africa

    Mickeeya Harrison, AYLF Staff

    I received a message last week on my LinkedIn account from Stella, a friend that I met while in Ghana when I was 16 years old. She messaged to share that she gave birth [...]

  • Dante walking and talking with other fellows

    Beyond the Shadows

    My Journey as an Aspen Young Leaders Fellow

    By Dante Apaéstegui, Senior Fellow and Seminar Facilitator

    I walked into Ackerman Hall in Newark, New Jersey, saw my name on a crisp white table tent, smiled, and sat down. Looking around the large square table, I did not yet realize the [...]

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Cultivate curiosity and courage.
Explore ideas. Collaborate in community.
Be a Fellow.

Our Why

Only 32% of youth have access to leadership development programs by age 25. 1

Only 50% of colleges and universities offer formal leadership programming despite evidence that it contributes to college persistence. 2

AYLF invests directly in young adult changemakers in the communities where they live and lead.

Our Why

Only 32% of youth have access to leadership development programs by age 25. 1

Only 50% of colleges and universities offer formal leadership programming despite evidence that it contributes to college persistence. 2

AYLF invests directly in young adult change makers in the communities where they live and lead.

Key Results

97%

5-year college
graduation rate

96%

job placement rate
among Fellows who
completed year one

100%

learning gains from
50th to 85th-90th
percentile

95%

increased civic engagement
behaviors to the 95th
percentile of youth
nationally

247

fellows

14

cohorts

Our Network

Chicago, Illinois

Mississippi/Arkansas Delta

Miami, Florida

Newark, New Jersey

St. Louis, Missouri