The week-long immersive boot camp will be held between December this year and February 2019 in Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil. Focused on leadership and social innovation, all six programs bring together 30 promising students aged between 14-18 years old from all over Latin America. They will receive intensive training in topics related to leadership development, social-emotional learning, social innovation, and community engagement.
LALA was founded with the aim to promote sustainable economic development and strengthen democratic governance in Latin America by developing and connecting a new generation of socially innovative leaders. The boot camp is designed to reshape the leadership landscape of Latin America by developing the changemakers of tomorrow.
“Many great leaders begin changing the world at a young age,” said Diego Ontaneda, founder and CEO of LALA. “Our boot camp strives to seek out these young leaders and help them find their voice to become the next figureheads in our society, whether that be in spheres of politics, business, health care, education, the environment or beyond.”
During the boot camp, teenagers will be exposed to new leadership concepts, get in touch with other like minded youths in the region, and meet leaders and entrepreneurs who are already generating social impact in society. Students will also receive mentorship from inspiring social innovators who can open doors and guide them into a more purposeful life.
All students from previous LALA boot camps have gone on to impact their society, with many even founding their own venture. Davyd Tokarski, 17, an alumnus from the LALA boot camp in Brazil is now the founder and CEO of his own initiative. Tokarski set up Homefull, which is a non-profit organization which seeks to unite compassionate people through the purpose of transforming the lives of the most afflicted.
“I had the opportunity to work closely with the Brazil Leadership Bootcamp team, which instructed me on how to organize my ideas for the initiative,” said Tokarski. “So far we have been able to take 7 homeless people off the streets.”
Applications are open until Nov. 2 and LALA has scholarships available for those that cannot pay for the program.
“Our dream is to inspire and empower thousands of young leaders from all over Latin America, no matter what their financial background is,” said Ontaneda.
To apply, students must have been born in a Latin American country, have an intermediate level of English, and most importantly, be passionate and committed to addressing the problems around them.
Check out a video of last year’s leadership boot camp in Colombia.
