The Experience

GSYL aims to bring together some of the brightest young minds from around the globe to participate in a unique educational experience. For our Digital Summit, students (‘delegates’) will be assigned to one of several ‘streams’ or ‘colleges’, which are intended to represent the college system at the University of Oxford itself. During the summit, students will collaborate on projects and activities that complement their seminars and lectures. In the unique environment that is created, we hope to inspire and motivate the leaders of tomorrow through their interactions with some of the greatest mentors in our network. Over the course of our two-week programme, students are invited to apply their intellect to the most salient issues in our society. The resulting transformation, from a group of bright, talented individuals into a team of critical thinking analytical problem-solvers, is nothing less than extraordinary.

Summit timeline: Students will spend two weeks attending deep-dive seminars and participating in project work—interspersed with lectures by university professors—followed by project pitching and future planning, which will include career mentoring with our experts. Students will also engage in teamwork and leadership-building activities throughout the week.

During this experience, students will:

• Work in groups to identify solutions to a major global challenge that society faces today.

• Participate in interactive seminars that will enable the tackling of these challenges.

• Attend guest lectures by university professors on relevant topics such as AI, big data, social enterprise, and innovation.

• Network with ambitious and high-achieving peers from across the globe.

• Attend interview workshops to practice Oxford style interview questions (as well as Harvard style interview questions, for those interested in applying to Ivy League universities in the US).

• Attain certificates of completion for their courses.

• Receive mentorship from leaders with a variety of backgrounds, including doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, business executives, and University of Oxford professors.

How is GSYL different? Our students’ success matters to us not just while they are in our programme but also beyond. As such, our mentor relations do not cease at the end of the programme. For up to one year, we will offer continued support and mentorship for university applications, for projects identified during the programme (should students wish to continue working on them), and for other academic or work endeavours. These benefits will be available to the top 10% highest achieving students from the programme, who will also receive letters of recommendations from one of our mentors.