The Rockefeller Center hosts the Young African Leaders Initiative this Summer

This is the first in an ongoing series of articles on the Rockefeller Center's participation in the Young African Leaders Initiative, or YALI.

In April of 2013, President Obama announced the creation of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) during his visit to Africa. The program, overseen by the U.S. State Department and the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX), will bring more than 500 young African leaders to twenty U.S. schools for six weeks this summer. They will receive leadership training, academic coursework, and mentoring in one of three areas: business and entrepreneurship, civic leadership, and public management. With nearly 1 in 3 Africans between the ages of 10 and 24, YALI is the President's effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders.

President Barack Obama speaks last year at a YALI Town Hall event in Soweto, South Africa

This Summer, Dartmouth College will provide hands-on training to twenty-five young African leaders as part of President Obama’s effort to promote economic prosperity, democracy, peace, and security in their home countries. The YALI program is an opportunity to establish a framework for supporting similar large-scale, multi-disciplinary programs at Dartmouth. The fellows will work with the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy each week in a leadership seminar. Every session will be covered and explored.

Session 1: Leadership and Storytelling with Sean Kavanagh, CEO of The Ariel Group

Session 2: Leadership in Context with Gama Perruci, Ph.D, Dean of the McDonough Leadership Center

Session 3: Leadership and Self Awareness with Beatrice Selotlegeng, Academic Advisor and Director of Junior Executive Business Program, Ohio University

Session 4: Leading High Performing Teams with David Ager, Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School

Session 5: Constructively Managing Differences with Roy J. Lewicki, Irving Abramowitz Memorial Professor Emeritus and Professor of Management and Human Resources at The Ohio State University

Session 6: Putting it all Together: Translating Theory to Practice with Vincent Mack, Program Officer at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth College