YSEALI Fall 2025-Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Professional Fellows Program

The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Professional Fellows Program (YSEALI PFP) is a two-way U.S. Department of State exchange program designed to strengthen people-to-people ties between young leaders from Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and the United States. Through activities and intensive fellowships designed to broaden their professional expertise and enhance their leadership capabilities, YSEALI PFP provides emerging Southeast Asian leaders with the opportunity to gain first-hand experiences in, and exposure to, U.S. public and private sector offices.

In 2025, YSEALI PFP will bring five NGO leaders from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam to Seattle for one-month-long immersive fellowships with local organizations. Through YSEALI, the Fellows will enhance their leadership and professional skills, build lasting and sustainable partnerships, and foster mutual understanding between the U.S. and Southeast Asia.

Host a Fellowship Placement at your Company

• Each Fellow will participate in and observe the operations of a host U.S. organization from his or her business sector. Through collaboration with their fellowship host organizations, Fellows will develop action plans to carry out upon their return to their home communities. Interested? Check out the brief bios of our Fellows below, and contact Camille Adkins-Rieck, the director of our Global Leadership Exchange team.
• Being involved as a YSEALI Fellowship Host is an opportunity to create a network with and learn from a peer in another country pursuing a similar mission.
• YSEALI will empower a new cohort of young Southeast Asians business and social entrepreneurs to grow their ventures, foster global partnerships, and positively impact the economic development of their communities.

Host a Fellow in your Home

• The hosting dates are September 26 - October 25, 2025.
• We provide a small stipend to the Homestay Host of $10 per Fellow per night of the Hosting duration ($70 per week), in order to assist with groceries, laundry, increased cost of heat, etc. (so you will receive $280 for hosting!).
• Each Fellow is expected to have their own room with a door that locks as well as access to the internet – either by using their laptop in their room or by having access to a household computer. The Fellows do not need their own bathroom, but please let them know what the bathroom schedules generally are for members of your family and where they can keep their things. Because it will be unlikely that they’ll have space to pack towels in their suitcase, please share your towels with them.
• The Fellows have been informed that they should pay for their own meals, groceries, entrance fees, etc. when going out.
• The Fellows can take public transit to get around the city and to their fellowship placements.
• We ask that you consider the Fellow part of your family and treat them as you would a family member. Especially in the first few days, help the Fellow know where key landmarks in the area are (hospital, grocery store, etc.), and consider helping them shop for groceries, so that they can learn how the local supermarket structure works.

Meet our Fellows:

Sovardy Bora (Vady) Vady Vady is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Air Plus Clinic in Cambodia, where she provides clinical care and family consultations. She co-founded AROM Station, a grassroots initiative promoting culturally sensitive mental health support, peer engagement, and public education for Cambodian youth. With fellowship training in France and experience in transcultural and migrant mental health, she also co-led a cross-cultural psychiatric training project between Dutch and Cambodian professionals. Through a U.S. fellowship, she aims to explore nonprofit governance, sustainable funding, and integrated mental health models. Additionally she plans to expand AROM Station into a youth-led, multi-generational platform offering peer support, dialogue circles, and culturally grounded workshops.

Yuda Almeria Pratama Lebang (Yudu/Rio) Yuda, from Samarinda, Indonesia, leads advocacy and education efforts at AJI Samarinda to protect press freedom and promote ethical journalism. He develops training programs on media ethics and journalist safety, mentors student reporters, and builds partnerships between media and civil society. He has co-founded an anti-corruption school and led investigations into illegal coal shipments in the region. Through a U.S. fellowship, Yuda aims to learn how media organizations create sustainable, youth-focused journalism programs that emphasize fact-checking and critical thinking. He plans to expand his journalism school and anti-disinformation campaign in Samarinda to equip young people with media literacy and ethical reporting skills.

Thanh Ming Hong (Steve) Based in Vietnam, is a serial entrepreneur and the CEO of Cypher AI Labs, where he leads the development of AI-powered tools for data analytics, finance, and chatbot applications. He has co-founded several ventures, including Leah Study, a generative AI learning platform for kids, and Vietnam AI Solutions, which developed Vietnamese speech recognition tools for government use. He also founded a volunteer-led leadership initiative focused on youth empowerment. Through a U.S. fellowship, Steve aims to explore how AI education is delivered to youth, with a focus on ethics, curriculum design, and public-private partnerships. He plans to pilot and scale Leah Study’s AI curriculum in five Vietnamese schools, including rural areas, to promote digital literacy and responsible AI understanding among students.

Mahmud Syakiran Shahran (Kiran) Kiran is an Application Engineer at Brunei Shell Joint Venture Companies, specializing in ITSM service request workflow automation and systems innovation. He has led impactful tech initiatives, including organizing the Brunei Indie Game Jam 2024 and developing the social impact game JellyShop with international collaborators. Kiran aims to deepen his understanding of systems thinking and explore how U.S. organizations create sustainable, community-based solutions. His goal is to build a support framework for Bruneian youth in creative tech through mentorship, bootcamps, and digital platforms

Kanokphorn Chanphloi (Aoy) Aoy is a project coordinator at a media organization in Northern Thailand, where she supports citizen journalists and activists through editorial guidance, content production, and community engagement. She co-founded Lanner, a local news outlet focused on democracy, and has led initiatives like Youth and Direct Democracy TH. Aoy hopes to explore how citizen journalism operates in other countries, and improve her skills in managing media projects, and learn new strategies for engaging communities through digital platforms. Her goal is to launch a training and mentorship program for 20 citizen journalists to foster solution-driven reporting in Northern Thailand.