Mentorship

Summer Leadership Institute

Summer Leadership Institute

New York, NY 10002

Deadline

Jun 14, 2025

Posted

May 27, 2025

SLI is a program through Chinatown Youth Initiatives (CYI), a youth organization located in NYC’s Chinatown. They’re dedicated to building a space for Asian American high school youth and recent high school graduates to engage with social identities, learn team-building and critical thinking skills, and carry out project initiatives for community issues they care about.

SLI consists of a series of in-person weekly workshops held on Thursdays or Saturdays over the summer, complete with free programming and free lunch every week. Workshops will convene at 111 Norfolk Street in Chinatown, New York. The program will start with workshops running the week of June 30th to August 18th from 10AM-4PM EST. SLI participants are generally high school students who are interested in becoming better-versed in their identity, their communities, and Asian American issues, but we have historically also had participants in college and middle school as well. Workshops are typically facilitated by high school and college students who are passionate and knowledgeable about the above topics.

At SLI, you discuss the intersections of our identities, including but not limited to race, class, gender and sexuality, ability, nationality, and language. Participants will walk out with lasting friendships, a rich understanding of Asian American history and contemporary issues, and the tools and confidence to become creative leaders in their community. These past few years have been particularly difficult for the Asian American community, so we hope to better support your Asian American students by guiding them through conversations on topics such as the model minority framework, U.S. empire, anti-Blackness, and activism.

Requirements

High school students in the New York City metropolitan area available once a week (either Thursday or Saturday) in July and August.

Application Instructions

The deadline to apply is Saturday, June 14th 11:59pm. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScxQmkk39YZValI0ivBf7NRz8Z0Z7pLbou-J9ksWLbDoQYd8A/viewform?usp=dialog