Jedi Initiate

A Jedi Initiate or Youngling refers to a Force-sensitive child who is undergoing the early stages of Jedi training at a Jedi academy. In the Old Order, the term was used to denote members of the Order from the time they joined a communal learning group known as a clan, until the time they passed the Initiate Trials and were selected by a Jedi Knight or Jedi Master for one-on-one training as a Padawan. During peacetime when the academy functioned on a standard teaching regimen, Initiates' training was restricted to the academy at which they were based, rarely venturing outside of its walls. Youngling was a term that existed in Galactic Basic Standard to refer to a child in a species-neutral way; the term was often used affectionately by the instructors that oversaw Initiate training.
The youngest members of the Order, these Force-sensitive children were given the rank of Initiate when they began their communal training in clans. Recruited from worlds throughout the galaxy where blood testing was required upon birth, Initiates were removed from their families and brought to a Jedi academy for formal training.
Because the Order was comprised of many different species that matured at different rates, the rank of Initiate was not given at a certain age, but when an individual reached the maturity to begin formal education at the academy. While still in infancy, the Jedi fosterers that oversaw the care of the babies would foresee where an individual belonged and would organize the soon-to-be-Initiates into clans. These clans stayed together day and night, learning, eating, and sleeping together from around the age of three standard years until they were chosen as a Padawan around adolescence.

Alternative Naming

Youngling

Related Organizations

• Jedi Order