Where ambitious African diaspora youth become global leaders.
Twelve is a six-week experience where ambitious high-school students explore identity and ideas, learn from extraordinary people, build with ambitious peers, and turn what they discover into something real.
Applications close Nov 15, 2026 · Cohort begins Jan 16, 2027
Get program updates- 6 weeks
- /2x a week
- /Live online
- /D.C. option
01 / 12
Four things happen at Twelve.
Know more of who you are.
Go deeper into the histories, ideas, achievements and forces that shaped Africa and its diaspora.
See what they can teach you about how you move through the world today.
Know more of who you are. Go further because of it.
See what’s possible through people who have already done it.
Ask how people made decisions, what changed their thinking, what they got wrong, and what it actually took to get where they are.
- Netflix
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- JPMorgan Chase
Meet people from leading universities and hear directly how they think about students, opportunities and the paths that can take you there. Admissions professionals, university leaders, faculty, students and alumni.
- Harvard
- Stanford
- Penn
- Columbia
Organizations shown indicate individual speaker, mentor or guest affiliations and do not imply institutional sponsorship or endorsement.
Find people who get where you're coming from—and where you want to go.
You’ll debate big ideas, build something together, meet amazing leaders. And you'll probably leave with a group chat that keeps going long after Twelve.
After six weeks, the relationships keep taking you further.
Make something worth showing.
Turn an idea you care about into work you can present, share, develop further—and be proud to point to when someone asks what you’ve done.
The Twelve
Project
What can you begin changing today?
Choose something about the world you care about. Go beyond the surface. Talk to people. Form a point of view. Then build a response.
Build it
- 01 / 05
Question it
Choose something you think should work differently.
- 02 / 05
Investigate it
Research what is really happening. Go beyond assumptions.
- 03 / 05
Talk to people
Interview people affected by the issue and people who understand it.
- 04 / 05
Take a position
Decide what you believe should change.
- 05 / 05
Make something
Turn your thinking into something real.
- Prototype
- Policy proposal
- Research brief
- Short documentary
- Campaign
- Service concept
- Data story
- Design
- Community experiment
- Event
- Media project
- Technology concept
- Another thoughtful artifact
It doesn’t have to be a startup, a nonprofit or a business.
Present it
Put your work in front of people who have built, led and changed things themselves.
At the end of Twelve, students present their work to executives, founders, mentors and leaders connected to organizations such as Netflix, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic.
- You make something.
- You stand behind it.
- You present it.
- Accomplished adults ask you questions.
- You respond.
- Netflix
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- JPMorgan Chase
Organizations shown indicate individual speaker, mentor or guest affiliations and do not imply institutional sponsorship or endorsement.
Take it with you
Leave with proof of what you can do.
Your Twelve Portfolio is the record of your project: what you asked, what you found, what you made and how you presented it.
A project.
A presentation.
A point of view that’s yours.
- 01 · The question you investigated
- 02 · Your research
- 03 · Your point of view
- 04 · What you created
- 05 · Your role
- 06 · Final artifact
- 07 · Final presentation
- 08 · Reflection
- 09 · Selected feedback
- 6Weeks
- 2Sessions / week
- ~12Core sessions
- Jan 16, 2027Cohort begins
- Nov 15, 2026Application deadline
- $600Program tuition
Two in-person days. A different kind of access.
Students choosing the Washington, D.C. Experience can begin and end Twelve together in person—with additional conversations, mentorship and opportunities built into both days.
Meet mentors face-to-face
Spend more time in small-group conversations with people you’ve been learning from.
Meet founders + executives
Go beyond the stage into smaller conversations.
Meet university admissions professionals
Ask candid questions directly.
Conduct the Executive Interview
Prepare for and conduct an interview with a senior executive from a major company. The students ask the questions.
Live Twelve Project showcase
Present your work in person to executives, founders, mentors and other accomplished guests.
Cohort time
Meals, conversations, reflection and time spent together outside the formal sessions.
Opening day
Full day · morning → early evening- 01Cohort introductions
- 02Mentor circles
- 03Founder conversation
- 04University conversation
- 05Executive Interview preparation
- 06Shared lunch + cohort time
Closing day
Full day · morning → early evening- 01Live Twelve Project showcase
- 02Direct feedback
- 03The Executive Interview
- 04University or industry conversation
- 05Reflection
- 06Cohort celebration
Opening and closing sessions are part of every student’s program; D.C. students attend them in person in the Washington, D.C. region. Travel and accommodation are not included.
Long before Stanford, EY or the London Stock Exchange, we were shaped by Togo and Nigeria.
Those roots shaped how we learned, worked, led and contributed in demanding spaces around the world.
We built Twelve so the next generation can go even further, and use who they are as a source of strength in every room they enter.
- STANFORD
- UCLA
- EY
- LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE
- GATES FOUNDATION
- Stanford
- UCLA
- Ernst & Young
- London Stock Exchange
- Gates Foundation
Know more of who you are.
Enter any room.
Change what happens inside it.
Ready to see where you could take this?
We’re looking for high-school students who are curious, ambitious, open to new ideas and ready to contribute.
- 01Apply
- 02Conversation
- 03Decision
- 04Join your cohort