Fully Funded YSEALI Professional Fellows Program || Apply Now

The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Professional Fellows Program (YSEALI PFP) is a two-way U.S. Department of State exchange program designed to strengthen people-to-people ties between young leaders from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and the United States. Through intensive fellowships designed to broaden their professional expertise and enhance their leadership capabilities, YSEALI PFP provides emerging Southeast Asian leaders with the opportunity to gain first-hand experiences in, and exposure to, U.S. public and private sector offices working in the areas of civic engagement, economic empowerment, governance and society, and sustainable development and the environment.

The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) is the U.S. government’s signature program to strengthen leadership development and networking in Southeast Asia. Through a variety of programs and engagements, including U.S. educational and cultural exchanges, regional exchanges, and seed funding, YSEALI seeks to build the leadership capabilities of youth in the region, strengthen ties between the U.S. and Southeast Asia, and nurture an ASEAN community.

The YSEALI Professional Fellows Program is part of the broader Professional Fellows exchange program. For more information on the Professional Fellows Program, click here. For more on YSEALI, click here.

Eligibility and Application Overview:

• Be citizens and current residents of one of the eleven YSEALI countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam); 
• Be emerging leaders in government, civil society, or the private sector who have demonstrated expertise pertaining to the respective theme for which they are applying;
• Be 25 to 35 years old at the start of the program, currently employed, and have two or more years of relevant professional work experience; 
• Be self-directed with demonstrated leadership and collaborative skills and able to work effectively in a cross-cultural setting; 
• Be able to identify an objective/project of their own selection that the participant would like to implement in their home workplace or community;
• and Have demonstrated proficiency in written and oral English.