YSEALI Global Environmental Issues: Pre-Departure Paper Guidelines

Your paper in Word format and any slides in powerpoint format should be emailed to by Friday, August 25.

YSEALI Global Environmental Issues is an exciting opportunity to explore both your academic and cultural interests in the U.S. To help us support you with the best possible program and to focus you on your upcoming experience, we ask that you write a two-page (double-spaced) paper prior to arriving in the U.S. This paper is due to Caitlin Sager via e-mail by August 25.

Your objective is to summarize a critical environmental issue that you are currently facing in your home country. We understand that there are likely many issues facing your country, so please choose one that you are personally passionate about addressing. Your paper should focus on the one most critical issue of greatest interest to you that you may wish to address in your academic, professional, or volunteer work as follows:

  • Identify one critical environmental issue currently facing your home country
  • Provide specific examples of this is an issue in your home country
  • Explain why you are personally interested in this issue
  • Identify aspects of this issue you would like to learn more about while in the US. Looking at the program goals and the draft program book, do you see any parallels in our program to the issues you have identified?
  • Discuss how collaboration with other YSEALI Fellows would be useful to better understand this issue and identifying potential actions you could take in your home country to address this issue

Please note that we expect to receive a short paper no more than two pages long (double spaced). This will be an exercise in summarizing important points, as well as identifying areas that require further research. Papers longer than two pages will be returned for editing.

September 5 Presentation: On September 5, you will be asked to deliver a three-minute presentation on the topic of your paper to the program team and the rest of your cohort. Please do not read your paper. The presentation is only three minutes as an exercise in speaking succinctly and learning how to communicate your main points directly. This should be an engaging presentation where you perhaps draw from a few notes, but you should be speaking from the heart and from your personal interest. This is not a formal report. This is a time for you to share your areas of interest with the rest of your group, and to identify other Fellows with similar interests. You should not expect to spend a lot of time preparing your presentation, since you will simply be sharing the main points you have already written in your paper. You are not required to deliver a digital presentation; however, if you decide that you would like digital visual aids, please limit your presentation to no more than 3 slides, and please be sure to email your slides together with your paper on August 25. If you do not send slides at this time, we will assume that you will deliver an oral presentation without digital slides on September 5.

Please contact us with any questions you have regarding this assignment. We look forward to learning from you!