The Next Cycle of Young Aurora Goes Live!
12 May 2022
We are delighted to announce the next cycle of Young Aurora is now live! Presented by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative in partnership with the United World Colleges (UWC), and with the participation of Teach for All and the African Leadership Academy (ALA), this award provides student teams from UWC and ALA with the opportunity to enter project proposals, tackling pressing humanitarian issues affecting their school communities.
All student proposals will be evaluated according to their level of creativity, sustainability, quality of research and potential for impact. Three finalists will then be chosen to present their ideas and plans to a panel of highly accomplished humanitarians, entrepreneurs and world leaders for the chance to win a USD 4,000 grant towards the further development of their project. All participating teams will also benefit from personalised feedback and support to help refine and further develop their project plans.
Since 2017, Young Aurora has helped many student projects create a positive and long-lasting impact in their local school communities. Last year’s winners, presented by students from Waterford Kamhlaba UWC of Southern Africa, are working in eSwatini to deliver their Seed of Hope project, which is designed to empower young people at Malindza refugee camp through the creation of a youth hub, serving as both an online education centre and social space. Despite ongoing civil unrest in eSwatini, the Seed of Hope team impressed the judges with their unwavering commitment to improving the lives of refugees. They have since expressed the gratitude they feel for being able to bring such a project to life:
“We are extremely grateful to Young Aurora for enabling us to have hands-on experience of engaging in and positively transforming this community. Without this prize, our enthusiasm and commitment to change the lives of hundreds of young refugees would have remained just a dream, rather than a reality.” - Seed of Hope team member, Prince Bashangezi (WK UWCSA, 2020-2022).
Previous winners have included Beehive Divide (2020), a team of students from UWC East Africa who constructed a beehive fence to address the human-elephant conflict in Sanya Hoyee village, Tanzania. And there have also been many notable runners-up, such as Amaavasya (2018), which continues to enable women in Maharashtra, India, to engage in taboo-breaking conversations around the stigma of menstruation.
With varying COVID-19 restrictions still affecting some school campuses, the programme will remain online to encourage maximum participation. We cannot wait to see the kinds of innovative and creative projects UWC and ALA students put forward for this new cycle of Young Aurora!