Yleana Leadership Academy

Free academic summer program Application open March 1 - March 31, 2023

About Yleana Leadership Academy

Who are we? Founded in 2013 to give youth a chance to close the standardized test achievement gap, the Yleana Leadership Academy is a three-week summer sleep-away program on a college campus dedicated to:

  • Improving SAT exam skills

  • Giving students a taste of college life

  • Working on soft skills for college/career readiness

  • Enjoying a traditional summer experience

This year, up to 80 students from Baltimore, Boston and the North Shore, New York City, and Philadelphia will be selected to attend the program on full scholarship: room, board, meals, transportation, and all program-related costs are taken care of by generous donors and fundraising. 

Why SAT Prep?

Even if you only apply to test-optional colleges, the SAT may still impact your outcomes.

  • Students who submit SAT scores are up to 2.3 times more likely to be accepted to college than students who don’t submit scores.

  • Most HBCU’s and many other colleges still require SAT scores to award merit aid/scholarships.

  • Scoring a total SAT score of 1000 or more may help you place out of remedial college courses, saving you time and money.

Who Is Eligible to Participate?

Applicants must be:

  • a member of one of our registered partner organizations

  • current juniors in high school

  • low-income (verified by a range of questions in the application)

  • fully COVID vaccinated (including any applicable boosters). All students and staff must be vaccinated or willing to be vaccinated before the program, and should be prepared to follow any mask mandates or other safety procedures that either of our campus partners may require.

Applicants do NOT need to have taken the SAT before, be a U.S. citizen, or meet a certain GPA requirement.

Summer Program 2023 Important Dates

  • March 1: Application open

  • March 31: Student applications due through apply.yleana.org

  • April 5: Partner org recommendations due through apply.yleana.org

  • First week of May: Admissions decisions released

  • As of February 2023, we are planning to run two, in-person sessions of the program adhering to the following dates. Students will be able to indicate their session preference in the application.

    • June 24 - July 15: Session 1 at Colgate University (Hamilton, NY)

    • July 17 - August 7: Session 2 at Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA)

  • August 17, 19, 22, 24: Follow-up Program

    • The Follow-up Program takes place in each of our partner cities from 10am-6pm on these days. Run like a day of our Summer Program, students will practice the strategies in preparation for taking the official SAT on August 26. Students are required to attend all sessions of the Follow-up Program as a condition of their acceptance to the program.

  • August 26: Official SAT

How to Apply

  • NOTE: The application is best viewed on a computer, rather than a phone

  • All applications must be completed online through apply.yleana.org

    • Yleana CANNOT accept any hardcopy applications. If you have trouble uploading something, email it to us and we will upload it into your account. Contact us for more details or if you have questions.

  • Register for a free account on apply.yleana.org, then sign in to start your application

  • In order for applications to be considered complete, they must have:

    • a completed student application, including:

      • completed FERPA waiver signed by a parent/guardian or other primary caregiver

      • short answer questions

      • personal statement

    • a completed partner org recommendation

      • this must also be completed through apply.yleana.org by a representative of your partner organization

      • a recommendation letter from a teacher does not count; the recommendation has to be completed on apply.yleana.org

Need Help with Your Application?

Book a time with a member of our staff here to get all your questions answered. All application help will take place on Zoom. https://yleanaleadershipfoundation.as.me/app-help 

For Partner Organizations

  • If you have never used our online system, apply.yleana.org, to write recommendations and help your students apply, you should have received an automated email with a link to set your password and log in. The link will expire 24 hours after the email is sent. Let us know if you aren’t able to set your password within that time frame and we will resend the link.

    • If you have used apply.yleana.org in the past, your login information will be the same. If you forgot your password, there is a link to reset it. Contact us if you aren’t able to log in.

  • In order for a student’s application to be complete, the student needs to complete the application through apply.yleana.org AND the partner org needs to complete the partner org recommendation, also through apply.yleana.org. Applications will not be considered complete if the partner org recommendation is not complete.

    • Partner orgs will have additional time to complete the recommendations after the student application deadline. The student application deadline is March 31. The deadline for partner org recommendations is April 5.

  • You can still nominate students to apply - they’ll get a notification that they have been nominated and instructions to apply

    • Nominating students doesn’t affect how we view their applications. It is an optional tool for you to help encourage students to apply