the academy
Life in MedellÃn
Why Medellin?
-
MedellÃn is on an exciting upward trajectory. It is one of the 10 Coolest Cities to visit according to Forbes, joined the 100 Resilient Cities Network in 2013, and won Urban Land Institute's Most Innovative City Award in 2013 and the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize in 2016. In 2019, MedellÃn was also selected to host Latin America’s first Center for Davos’ Fourth Industrial Revolution. Importantly, it is also known as The City of Eternal Spring!
-
Given how beautiful, fun and livable it is, MedellÃn has a surprisingly low cost of living
-
MedellÃn is conveniently located: it is in the center of the Latin America & Caribbean region, and has easy flight access to Florida, NY, Washington, DC, Texas, California and Madrid.
-
MedellÃn’s unique history of transformation will enrich our leadership program. MedellÃn has experienced the most remarkable transformation in just two decades. This turnaround has been so dramatic, and so recent, that we now plan to turn the city into our campus. MedellÃn's transformation is full of powerful stories of community leadership, of institution-building, of public-private-social collaborations, and much more.
Living spaces and life skills
-
We aim to prepare you to take ownership of your own life. You will share apartments and create co-living arrangements with your peers to create a microcosm of a beautiful culture and society.
-
To make this experience fun and safe, we will live in Provenza, the safest neighborhood in MedellÃn and one of the most modern spaces in the region. You will live in a wonderful environment that you will feel proud to care for.
-
By deliberately practicing life skills in community you will leave LALA with essential interpersonal skills that will support your personal growth.
independent work
-
Inaugural Cohort participants will have the opportunity to participate in a range of practical, entrepreneurial and professional capacity-building experiences.
-
All students will co-construct with their LALA coaches a parallel work-study-life skills program. For example, students may play residential leadership duties, volunteer at a local non-profit, do remote online work, and so on.
safety at lala
Safety of our students, faculty and staff is our biggest priority. All residences where our students live will have security. We will insist on contractual obligations that will organize travel and curfew norms. And scholars and parents will have access to faculty and staff in the event of urgent communication.
healthcare
MedellÃn has eight of the best hospitals in Latin America: facilities with world-class infrastructure and personnel, at a much lower cost found elsewhere. The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks Colombia’s health system as #22 out of 191 countries it ranked. This is ahead of Germany (#25), Canada (#30), Australia (#32) and the United States (#37). Furthermore, no countries in Latin America were ranked better than Colombia by WHO in terms of health systems. (source: )