Youth Empowerment for A Stronger Society or YESS USC is an initiative emerging from the History and Social Studies Department at the University of the Southern Caribbean, premised on the University’s ethos that the holistic development of young people is essential to their success. It caters to CSEC students writing the History and English exams. The holistic aspect of the programme is accomplished by facilitating the development of skills and attitudes that contribute to student success.

YESS: USC is coordinated by Associate Professor in the Department of History and Social Studies Dr. Fiona Rajkumar and team members include Dean of the School of Education and Humanities Dr. Loverne Jacobs-Browne, Chair of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Education and Humanities Dr. Allison Campbell-Sanderson, Dr. Terencia Joseph, Mr. Hayden Mckenna, Mr. Roland Sealy, Ms. Renis Gabriel, Ms. Fay White and Mrs. Leiba-Ann Ferreira all faculty members in the School of Education and Humanities. This mentorship programme began in January of 2018 with a pilot of 85 students. From September 2018 to March 2019, 550 history students and 25 teachers from 23 schools across both Trinidad and Tobago benefitted from the programme. This represented an increase of 500% compared to the 85 students who participated in the programe during its pilot phase. From September 2018 the Ministry of Education in Trinidad and the Division of Education in Tobago approved the offering of the YESS: USC History Mentorship Programme to students of Trinidad and Tobago. In 2019 the programm was extended to cater to Form 5 English students in Tobago. English students in Tobago were offered sessions in Summary Writing, Creative Writing and Argumentative Writing. Further to this in 2021 the programme extended even more to include other disciplines in the Humanities like Literature and Music.