From October 26-28th, Global Schools attended the prestigious HundrED Innovation Summit in Helsinki, Finland to accept an award as one of the most scalable and innovative K12 education programs to watch in 2023! This year, the theme of the HundrED Summit was "The Beautiful Risk of Innovation". The Global Schools Program was represented at the Summit by Program Manager, Amanda Abrom.
Day 1
The first session of the summit featured four speakers. First, The Mayor of Helsinki, Juhana Vartiainen gave an opening address on "Education is a Prerequisite for a Functioning City."
The mayor shared various aspects of Helsinki's education system and how Finland promotes quality education for every child.
Then, Lant Prichett, the Research Director at RISE gave a keynote address titled, "How to Adress the Persistent gaps in Educational Outcomes?".
Two additional speeches were given by Varsha Pillai, Associate Director for Dream a Dream, and Kunal Sen, Director of UNU-WIDER, on "From a Single Solution to a Strategic Partnership with Governments" and "Can we Increase Social Mobility Through Education?", respectively.
In the evening, awardees attended the global awards ceremony to celebrate the top 100 impactful and scalable innovations in the Global Collection 2023.
Day 2
Day 2 of the Summit was hosted at Helsinki City Hall. The first panel, titled "Innovation Showcase: How to Stay Resilient and Hopeful for the Future," was moderated by Dr. Stephanie M. Jones, Director of EASEL Lab at Harvard. The panel also featured a video address from journalist Anya Kamenetz on COVID impacting children's lives. In the afternoon, panelists participated in the Big Education Conversation, a workshop/dialogue designed to share answers to key questions related to education systems and transformation. The last session was hosted by Dr. Fazal Rizvi, a Professor at the University of Melbourne, on "Thinking Creatively About Educational Futures."
Dinner was hosted at Jätkäsaari school, an innovative educational facility for 800 primary/secondary students in Helsinki. A keynote address was given by Deepak Ramola, Founder and Artistic Director of Project Fuel.
Day 3
Day 3 of the Summit featured 3 workshops on "Toward Data-Driven Education Systems" "Learning Through Play" and "Transforming Sytems with Innovations". Representatives of the Jacobs Foundation, Lego Foundation, the Brookings Institution, HundrED, Learn to Play, BRAC, and more were panelists across the various workshops.
The final session was on "A Power Pause of Expression" where Jigyasa Labroo, Founder of Slam out Loud, took participants through an innovative poetry workshop as an exercise in emotional connection and self-expression.
Global Schools is grateful for this recognition and is looking forward to joining the HundrED community!
