Around the world, millions of people live in extreme poverty and simply aren’t afforded the opportunity to develop their gifts and talents through a quality education. Without access to a quality education, many remain unemployed or without income generating opportunities, which keeps the cycle of poverty going through the next generation. This cycle is vicious and incredibly hard to break.

Education, including higher education, is crucial to breaking generational poverty and creating paths to social mobility. Ultimately, higher education can help the rising generation become community change agents and open doors to jobs, resources, and skills to help our world’s young not just survive but thrive.

While establishing a farm in Ecuador, Gary and Mary Young recognized a need for quality education in the community of Chongón where fewer than 20 percent of children graduate from secondary school. Understanding the impact education could have on the entire community, they established the Young Living Academy in 2009.

After celebrating the Academy’s first graduating class in 2016, it became apparent that while many of the graduates were academically equipped to attend a university, the socio-economic status of their families made it hard to come up with enough funds for their continued education.

This has been the same story with other Foundation partners around the world that are working in vulnerable communities: there are talented and gifted youth that lack opportunity. In several cases, students excel in primary and secondary education and are well positioned to excel in higher education, but the costs associated with advanced education are just too high. Thus, promising students end up setting aside their dreams to support their families’ day-to-day needs. For other students, even though they receive a partial scholarship from a university, they still cannot afford the remaining amount.

To see these students work so hard and have their dreams cut short due to financial limitations means we can do more.

The D. Gary Young Global Leadership Fund for Higher Education supports our mission to protect and empower our world’s young by providing leaders the opportunity to pursue an education, equipping them to drive sustainable community change.

The students that are graduating from secondary schools through the support of our projects and partners in communities across the globe have ambitious goals to make an impact in their communities by pursuing dream careers in medicine, business, law, engineering, and agriculture.

The Leadership Fund is established for the purpose of supporting these bright graduates by offering them the opportunity to apply for a scholarship to help cover the costs of their higher education.

The Leadership Fund will provide a hand up to graduates who want nothing more than to pursue their dreams for the sake of their families. A higher education degree or certification opens doors for opportunity in communities around the world.

For every additional year of schooling a young person accomplishes, their income increases an average of 10 percent. With a university degree or vocational certification, higher education graduates can enter the skilled labor workforce.*

Skilled labor generates a higher income and empowers these individuals to more readily meet the everyday needs of their families and, in time, fuel the dreams of their own children.

* 2016 UNESCO GEM Report

Students that are supported by our Foundation partners and projects around the world, who have excelled in secondary school and have proven themselves to be exemplary young leaders may be recommended by the Foundation partner to apply for scholarship support if they are accepted or enrolled in a university or trade school. The D. Gary Young Global Leadership Fund for Higher Education can be used to cover the costs associated with higher education including tuition and additional fees such as books, supplies, and transportation.

For applicants who qualify, award amount will be determined by a number of factors including socio-economic status, academic performance, leadership initiative, extracurricular activities, letters of recommendation, and enrolled institution type. Once awarded a scholarship, the student becomes part of a global network of Young Living Global Scholars. 

The D. Gary Young Global Leadership Fund for Higher Education is an investment for the future that demonstrates the long-term commitment we are making to support the dreams of our world’s young, even after they graduate from secondary school. Following a sponsored students' graduation, sponsors have the opportunity to continue to support their graduate and their peers by directing their monthly $75 contribution to the Leadership Fund.