What is Young Minds Academy?

“Young Minds Academy ”is a youth development and citizenship program of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. that is aimed at developing young emerging leaders to (i) become responsible and pro-active citizens and accountable leaders; (ii) become part of a generation of successors ready to serve the public and its interests and; (iii) become world citizens promoting the virtues of peace, pluralism, respect, and multi-cultural understanding through awareness,  education, immersion and open discourse.

The activities involves (i) research, understanding, and critical analysis of societal issues and concerns; (ii) exposure to different situations and exchange of experiences among participating youth; (iii) proposal development (in the form of recommendations on programs, projects, and policies directed towards civil society, private sector, and government); (iv) presentation, advocacy, and engaging elected and appointed government, civil society, and private sector leaders to take action on their respective proposals in a Young Minds conference and; (v) project awards competition where the chosen proposal will be given seed money for pilot implementation.

The Approach:

Young Minds, a youth citizenship academy, is an experiential and team based approach constituted in a semi-structured learning environment. Young Minds is a scholarship provided by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. It is open for application on an annual enrollment basis to all Filipino youth ages 12-30 interested and committed to be “equipped” and to serve the community in various areas of social development. The scholarships will be granted on a team basis (5 members in each team) per category. Interested candidates will undergo the process of enrollment, screening, and panel interview before they will be admitted to the academy and awarded with the scholarship. A covenant will be signed between the academy and the team scholar. The academy then admits all “team scholars” to the program.