Join us in celebrating International Education Week! AFS is hosting a week-long webinar series celebrating the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. Join our free webinars to:
How can we, as inclusive intercultural and international educators, more purposefully and intentionally use the methodologies of kindness to create a more compassionate and peaceful world? This is the main topic of this session: kindness.
Rooted as it is in notions of compassion and friendship across meaningful personal and national differences, intercultural/international education is nevertheless typically embedded within societal systems that trend toward preserving differences and nurturing elitism and discrimination. Moreover, and more alarmingly, in the year 2025, intercultural, global, and international education in the USA is under severe threat, in ways that have wreaked harm and cruelty upon those who strive to connect positively, civilly and with compassion across difference.
In this powerful session, we will joyfully challenge and support one another in thinking about the places and the spaces where we can bake more intentional caring into our international education and intercultural learning professional lives. Join us to become a true Global Disruptor by mastering the vital Act of Kindness in your practice.
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In an era of unprecedented global collaboration, what skills make professionals truly stand out? This expert panel convenes corporate and academic leaders to explore Global Competence: the essential, human-centric skills vital for the current and future workplace. We will explore how abilities like cross-cultural communication and adaptability have become the ‘power skills’ that organizations are actively seeking in their collaborators.
Hear directly from leaders at the forefront of workforce development and global learning as they discuss what are the critical skills professionals need for the world of work today, which competencies are in highest demand and how we can better cultivate globally-minded talent.
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This session will explore what makes an online environment truly safe, exploring core characteristics of positive digital communities and confronting challenges like misinformation and digital well-being. The discussion will delve into how organizations and educators can equip learners with essential digital literacy and critical thinking skills, share successful programs for empowering community builders, and explore collaborative solutions for a safer digital world.
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This session introduces a series of unprecedented, coordinated research projects that form Education Abroad: The Career Catalyst. This ambitious, field-wide effort is led by The Forum on Education Abroad and supported by major global education partners. You will learn about: (1) Career Outcomes: Findings from the largest known career-focused survey of education abroad alumni to assess how the experience shaped their professional trajectories; (2) Salary Data: Comparative analysis from four flagship public universities measuring starting salaries for business majors who studied abroad versus those who did not; (3) Economic Impact: Results from a new U.S.-focused economic impact study, including state-level data, demonstrating how education abroad adds tangible value to employers and the economy; (4) Skills Mapping: New projects mapping student experiences (like blog posts) to the specific skills they develop while abroad, (5) Employer Value: Data gathered in partnership with NACE on how employers truly value education abroad for talent and skill development.
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Join us for an interactive workshop led by Professor Anat Bardi, Professor of Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a leading scholar in the field of values. Drawing on research findings, Professor Bardi will present a well-established values framework that shows how educators can foster global citizenship values and behaviors through their everyday actions, offering practical resources and strategies for educators to apply in their own classrooms. The session will also explore how such values and behaviors can be reinforced and expanded through international student mobility programs.
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Join us for this engaging panel with Gen Z alumni who have experienced the transformational power of intercultural exchange firsthand, alongside insights from three leading education abroad organizations, comparing how Millennials and Gen Z experience and shape global learning today. We’ll explore how today’s learners are approaching global education differently from previous generations, what captures their attention in a world shaped by social media and global events, and how intercultural experiences are influencing who they become – not just what they learn.
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Join AFS and Fox Valley Technical College for a session focused on how community colleges are paving a path for international education. Panelist Samantha Rosario holds expertise in learning abroad opportunities and will share about the lessons learned from offering study abroad programs, models in place at Fox Valley and how to resource it all. Faculty member Maria Carone will share about embedding global competence education into core curriculum so that students are prepared for a global workforce. Bring your questions, thoughts and ideas along with you to this thoughtful discussion.
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