My Experience at YYAS 2018, by Nana Adwoa Abban

I am Nana Adwoa Abban. I'm 17 years of age and in my final year. I attended the Ghana session in 2018. I got accepted for the YYAS program during my second year of high school. I was browsing the internet and I found out that the YYAS application was open. I hesitated before applying because it was left with only two days to resume school and unfortunately, phones are not allowed in my school. I started the whole application and completed it on the second day.



I left for school and when I came back, saw a message that I had been accepted into the program. I was very happy.

The YYAS program has really helped me, both in my academic life and social life. It introduced me to so many things that I didn't know about. First of all, the cultural diversity of the countries made the program fun too. I got to learn about many cultures.



In my academic life, the seminars helped me. Some seminars that I took were entitled: "How to Think", "Automated Cars", "How to Get away with Lying" and "Sports and Philosophy". These seminars broadened my scope. I got more information about some things I didn't know. The university guidance session was also very useful as we were taught when, how and where we should apply for various universities. We were also given financial aid guidance and informed about the mistakes people always make when applying for universities so that we'll avoid them.



The SAT lessons helped me to practice my SAT. During the program, we wrote a practice SAT and that was my first. The discussion of the various parts and more practice have now made me better in SAT.

At the end of everyday, we broke out into our workshop groups. During workshop, we discussed all that happened during the day and our problems were addressed during that period. My workshop group is my family for the program. It helped me to socialise with the people in my workshop.

The Yale Young African Scholars program is a very good program. It enhances your academic skills and improves upon your social life as you get to meet people from all over the continent. I urge all of you eligible to apply for this program because it'll make a difference in your life as it has done to mine!