In the year 2000 the Alliance for Global Sustainability (a unique university partnership between MIT Boston, University of Tokyo, ETH Zurich and Chalmers University) started an initiative under the title Youth Encounter on Sustainability (YES) to realise intensive two-week summer courses in a small mountain village in Switzerland.

The aim was to bring together students from all over the world to discuss and debate, share diverse cultural and disciplinary experiences, plan their own strategies and visions towards a sustainable world and define their roles as future academics and scientists in the process of sustainable development. To date, more than 800 students from over 90 different countries have been trained in the YES courses.

The Youth Encounter on Sustainability is an intensive and experimental short course with a focus on communication and knowledge sharing in an international, inter-cultural, and multi-disciplinary context. The core purpose of the course is to act as an academy to develop knowledge, core skills and a moral and ethical framework to foster the capabilities of tomorrows´ decision makers to address global challenges.   The network of Alumni from the YES courses form a movement of ambassadors for positive change.

Some core components of this philosophy are the experimental learning, the holistic pedagogic approach that includes emotional and cognitive elements, and the promotion of life long learning in connection to long term personal and societal development.

For additional information on content and structure of the YES courses please click here.