Jamaica cohort embarks on YLAI Fellowship Programme

Nine Jamaicans who were selected for the US Department of State’s Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) Fellowship Programme, left the island on Monday, May 8 for the US to begin four-week professional placements with US 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. Jamaica’s awardees are: Anita Alcott, Danielle Thompson Briton, Evone Walters, Jomarie Malcolm Gordon, Jordon Freeman, Khess Anderson, Paul Stennett, Phelisa Ricketts, Rahje Shields and Renea Bromfield.

A release from the US Embassy noted that this year’s YLAI fellowship programme brings together some 280 young leaders from 37 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada. “We are pleased to announce that nine Jamaican young leaders have been accepted out of over 1,800 applicants throughout the Western Hemisphere. The 2023 YLAI Fellowship Programme, sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State, was launched in December 2022 with a virtual Fellowship leadership curriculum and orientation and continues through June 2023. Addressing YLAI Fellows at a meeting held at the US Embassy, Public Affairs Officer Bobby Adelson congratulated the Fellows on their accomplishments and urged them to “capitalise on opportunities to forge alliances, that will bolster synergies between US and Jamaican businesses”. He told the group that their participation “supports US Government efforts, to strengthen commercial ties that will contribute to a diverse Jamaican economy”. The programme concludes with a Closing Forum in Washington, DC. in June 2023. Fellows will return to their ventures with new skill sets, resources, ongoing support from US counterparts, and a broader network, strengthening business synergies between the US, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada. Launched in 2015, YLAI empowers emerging entrepreneurs from the Western Hemisphere to enable the full economic potential of the region’s citizens.