Ten years ago, when Ariel Zeng returned from abroad and founded YRI, she carried one central question with her:
How can we cultivate talent who will remain competitive 20 or 30 years from now?
At the time, China’s international education market was still in its early stages, and the impact of artificial intelligence had not yet become fully visible. Ten years later, that question has not faded and has, in fact, become even more urgent.
Since its founding in 2015, YRI has been seeking its own answer to this question. As an educational organization outside the traditional school system, YRI focuses on research mentorship and academic profile development for high school, university, and graduate students. To date, YRI has served more than 180,000 students.
Headquartered in Beijing, YRI also has offices in New York, Silicon Valley, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Nanjing, covering key regions across China and major international education hubs. Through its global mentor network, YRI directly connects students with world-class academic and industry resources.
Our Education Pathway: A Double Helix of Technology and People
Future talent development must face the impact of technology directly. We cannot pretend that AI does not exist, nor can we allow people to become subordinate to technology. What remains truly worth cultivating are creativity, empathy, collaboration, and judgment.
YRI’s educational philosophy is built like a double helix, tightly integrating technological fluency and human-centered education:
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Expression → Perception → Connection → Creation
This pathway develops the human strengths that remain essential in a technology-driven world. Students learn to communicate ideas clearly, understand people and the world with empathy and insight, build genuine connections, and create value in diverse environments.
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AI Skills and Real-World Application
Students should not only learn how to use tools; they should also understand the logic behind them. More importantly, they should be able to apply technology flexibly in research, business, design, and other real-world contexts – making technology an extension of human ability, not a replacement for it.
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Cross-Cultural Perspective and Global Vision
International education is not just about language ability. It also requires cross-cultural collaboration, an understanding of global issues, and awareness of international rules and systems. With mentors from leading universities and laboratories around the world, students are naturally immersed in international academic and industry contexts throughout their learning journey.
Faculty Strength: A Global Network of Academic Talent
YRI has built a large international mentor network, collaborating with more than 4,500 mentors from leading universities.
These mentors come from world-class institutions such as Stanford University, the University of Cambridge, Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Oxford, and Carnegie Mellon University. The network includes:
Patrick Baert
Tenured Professor of Social Theory, University of Cambridge
Christos Constantinou
Tenured Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, with nearly 60 years of teaching experience and 20 years of experience as a Stanford admissions officer
Daniel E. Agbiboa
Associate Professor of Social Sciences, Harvard University
Venkatesan Guruswami
Tenured Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley
These academic leaders are not only accomplished in their respective fields. They also bring YRI first-hand research methodology, international conference experience, and deep insight into top university admissions.
Educational Outcomes: Visible Student Transformation
YRI’s results are direct and measurable: in the latest application season, 55% of YRI applicants were admitted to global Top 30 universities.
One student from Hwa Chong Institution in Singapore participated in YRI’s one-on-one research program and received mentorship to compete in the S. T. Yau High School Science Awards. She went on to win the Silver Award in Economics and Financial Modeling at the Yau Awards, tying for first place globally.
Reflecting on her experience, she shared: “What impressed me most was the amount of time I had to communicate with my mentor. I had many opportunities to work with Adam, a Cornell University PhD in Economics, and we later built a deep academic connection. So, I never had to worry that limited class hours would prevent me from learning enough.”
Another student from the No. 2 High School of East China Normal University combined ancient Persian culture with computer vision in an interdisciplinary research project and later received an undergraduate offer from Stanford. Through YRI, she found an international mentor from the University of Chicago specializing in ancient Near Eastern history. Her paper was eventually indexed by CPCI, one of the world’s three major literature indexing systems.
For her, the humanities research experience at YRI opened a new door to linguistics in her university application journey.
There are many similar examples: students have received offers from Cambridge Economics, substantial scholarships from Yale, fully funded PhD admissions from Stanford, and more. Behind these outcomes are rigorous research training and sustained academic support.
Five Core Programs: Comprehensive Academic Empowerment
YRI Research Education offers five core programs covering the full academic pathway from secondary school to PhD applications:
Small-Group Courses with Professors from Top U.S., UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Chinese Universities
These courses combine overseas academic mentorship, top domestic university professors, and real-world industry case analysis. Students are exposed to advanced academic theory, international research and publication standards, and practical industry applications.
Young Researcher PhD Pathway
Supported by more than 3,000 mentors from leading universities, this program provides customized guidance for PhD applicants, covering school selection, application essays, targeted professor outreach, and interview preparation. It supports students throughout the journey toward top global PhD programs.
YRI Scholars Program
This program designs customized research topics for students and guides them through different levels of academic output, including research proposals, international conference papers, and domestic journal publications. It helps strengthen students’ research competitiveness while addressing potential weaknesses in GPA or language scores.
Higer Academic Tutoring Center
Drawing on more than 3,000 mentors from global Top 100 universities, this center provides one-on-one academic tutoring, course planning, and paper support across a wide range of scenarios. Its goal is to help students improve academic performance and adapt smoothly to overseas academic systems.
Global “Walking with Academic Experts” Offline Research Camps
These immersive in-person research camps are taught by professors from overseas Top 30 universities and PhD mentors. They combine theory, industry practice, and laboratory experience. Students may produce international conference papers, receive completion certificates, and obtain professor recommendation letters, while connecting directly with world-class academic and industry resources.
Core Values: Guardians of Academic Integrity
“YRI will never offer ghostwriting services, and we will never recommend conferences that could harm a student’s future.”
This is part of YRI’s DNA. We are committed to upholding these principles.
YRI believes that research outcomes must come from genuine thinking and practice. Any shortcut may leave hidden risks in a student’s future academic or professional path.
In a fast-moving world, YRI continues to uphold its values of:
Integrity and rigor, openness and inclusiveness, proactive ownership, and a champion mindset.
This commitment has also been recognized externally. In 2024, YRI received ISO 9001 international quality management certification and obtained a national invention patent related to research education and teaching.
Recognition: Affirmation from Academia, Education, and Industry
YRI’s development and commitment have earned recognition from the academic, education, and industry communities.
YRI’s Founder Ariel Zeng has received honors including Hurun China Under30s and CYZone’s 30 Under 30 Entrepreneurs. She was also invited to speak at the Harvard China Education Forum, where she shared YRI’s experience exploring research education in China.
YRI has been recognized as a National High-Tech Enterprise and selected for the Zhongguancun Golden Seed Enterprise Program. It has also established long-term partnerships with universities and research institutions, including the Duke Kunshan University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center and Tsinghua University’s MINI GAP Program.
Future Vision: Cultivating “Surfers” of the Era
YRI’s core educational goal is to help students develop both technological application capabilities and the human qualities needed for collaboration through hands-on research projects, enabling them to truly adapt to this technology-driven era.
Ariel uses the idea of a “surfer” to describe this capability:
“What the future will need most is not more powerful technology, but wiser people – young people who receive strong technical training and a human-centered education from an early age. They will not be swept away by change – they will be prepared to ride those waves and shape the future.”
This is YRI’s original mission and remains YRI’s future direction.
YRI’s mission is to help Chinese students learn through inquiry, explore knowledge beyond the classroom, and develop a deeper understanding of the world. This mission is not just a statement; it is reflected every day in the work of our team.
