The Crossroads program that Professor Can Erbil from the Department of Economics at Boston College has been supporting the last two years has grown and became an institute supported by Harvard, the Aspire Institute, formerly the Crossroads Emerging Leaders Program, a program launched at Harvard University by Tarun Khanna and Karim Lakhani, Professors at the Harvard Business School.

The mission of Aspire is to transform the lives of low-income, first-in-family-to-college students from around the world. 

Aspire Institute offers a fully-funded leadership development program to first-in-family to college from anywhere in the world.

The program started in 2017 with students from 35 countries in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and has since rapidly grown to cover 135 countries across all continents by 2021.

In 2022, they hope to receive applications from students in almost every country and focus on raising awareness among students in the United States.

Applications are currently open and students can apply at apply.aspireleaders.org.

Potential candidates can review this video for further details.

Professor Can Erbil will be also hosting an online info session on March 10^th, 11am EST. 

https://apply.aspireleaders.org/e/622113a46ab7286ab2000352

You can also direct any inquiries to him: erbilc@bc.edu

PS: Here is a longer video where Aspire Institute fo-founder and Harvard Business School Professor, Karim Lakhani, speaks about the Aspire Leaders Program alongside leaders supporting low-income youth https://youtu.be/IUxTSfXf-lM