MANILA, Philippines – For the third straight year, Rappler will be choosing young Filipino civic leaders to be delegates to the One Young World Summit to be heldin Cape Town, South Africa, from November 3 to 6.

Four slots are up for grabs to attend the world’s largest gathering of youth leaders, where Rappler CEO and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has been serving as counsellor and speaker since 2024. 

For this year’s selection process, Rappler will name four young people as its OYW scholars who can mobilize their organization to build community and mobilize action through the Rappler app. 

The app, free to download on Android and Apple phones, is Rappler’s answer to tech platforms that prioritize profit over safety, and algorithms that separate people from facts and journalism.

The challenge for aspiring Rappler-OYW scholars is to get the organizations they lead on the Rappler app and use it to hold meaningful conversations or drive change in their sector and community.

Click the button below to apply: 

Read below for more details about the application process. 

Who is eligible?   

This year’s summit is open to Filipinos aged 18 to 30 who are currently leading Philippine-based organizations that seek to make positive change in a sector or community. Only one applicant per organization will be selected.  

Applicants older than 30 may also be considered if they have demonstrated outstanding work, leadership, and impact in their field. 

Applicants should hold a leadership or officer role in their organization. They don’t need to be the head or founder, but must have a formal role of leadership or responsibility in their organization.

What is the application and selection process like?

OYW scholarships open doors for extraordinary young changemakers to join the OYW summit and global community.

To apply, the applicant must fill out the Google Form above to give us an idea of their leadership experience, advocacy commitment, organization they lead, and their proposed plan to use the Rappler app to facilitate conversations and action points, pushing forward their organization’s advocacy. It is advised that the person who will fill out the form will be the organization’s representative, if ever they get shortlisted, to the summit.

The deadline for the application is June 30, 11:59 pm. Responses generated by AI will be disqualified.

By July 31, the applicant must get at least 80 people from their organization, or who are related to or affected by their organization’s advocacy, to download the Rappler app and join any of the chat rooms in the Community tab. 

For validation purposes, the applicant needs to send a Google Sheet of email addresses of those who they got to download the app. (Note: Rappler strictly follows the data privacy law. We will not share your data with any other organization.)

By mid-August, Rappler will choose four applicants who fulfilled the requirements and who have a compelling community-building plan. We will announce their names by August 31.

From August to October, the successful applicants will implement their plan to engage with their community through the Rappler app. This can take the form of a community chat, an Ask Me Anything session, or using the chat feature during their organization’s event.

The Rappler-OYW scholars will then fly to Cape Town for the November summit, where they will get to meet Maria Ressa, network with youth leaders from all over the world, and attend any of the workshops and activities of the conference.

Over 2,000 young people participate in One Young World summits from over 190 countries. Rappler has brought five Filipino scholars to the Montreal summit in 2024, and to the Munich summit in 2025.

The scholarship is part of Rappler’s arrangement with One Young World, given Maria’s involvement as counsellor to the yearly summit. It is Rappler’s way of helping young Filipinos strengthen their commitment to their advocacies, widen their network, and cultivate their leadership skills. 

The end goal is to empower young Filipino leaders, in step with strengthening journalism and its connection to communities. 

For any questions regarding the application process, please email move.ph@rappler.com. – Rappler.com