Pitch-style competition, InnovateEA: Igniting Change in Education Abroad, was backed by AIFS Abroad and CEA CAPA Education Abroad, and invited finalists from across the field, gathered in Toronto, to present bold solutions to some of global education’s most enduring and emerging challenges; from access and assessment to inclusion and cultural diplomacy.
Forum president and CEO Melissa Torres told The PIE, “The InnovateEA pitch competition grew out of the phenomenal ideas generated by organisers of the [2024] closing plenary.
“Our participants’ enthusiasm and creativity was incredible. Based on the high-quality proposals we received for the initial competition and the positive feedback from this year’s conference participants, we’re excited to keep building the momentum and creating an environment for innovation at next year’s annual conference in Nashville,” said Torres.
One of the organisers of the event was Emily Merson, outgoing executive director of AIFS Abroad, who asserted that InnovateEA was designed to disrupt outdated frameworks and make space for fresh thinking.
“As we face many external and internal challenges,” she said, “the status quo of program options, organisations, and power centres will not allow us to adapt fast enough… By welcoming new voices, ideas, and innovators, we expand the conversation and create a platform to design the future of the field.”
By welcoming new voices, ideas, and innovators, we expand the conversation and create a platform to design the future of the field
Emily Merson
The competition featured five finalists, with the winning pitch coming from Worldkind Executive Director, Meg Ramey, whose platform uses storytelling and virtual collaboration to combat ethnocentrism in global learning environments. She said the event was as much about building community as it was about presenting ideas.
“Innovation and entrepreneurship can be incredibly difficult and lonely work,” Ramey shared with The PIE, noting that InnovateEA helped her find a mentor, meet fellow changemakers, and feel the momentum of “a room full of colleagues cheering on our vision.” For her, “the connections and the support from participating were the real wins.”
Fellow finalist Asia King of University of Maryland, who co-developed the Seeing Me initiative with colleague D’Kiya Bynum, acknowledged that innovation hadn’t always been a comfortable label.
“It’s hard to imagine myself as an ‘Innovator,’” King admitted, but she shared how the field’s response to their work shifted her perspective. The initiative focuses on co-creating global experiences with students, focusing on those from historically excluded backgrounds.
Quoting an African proverb that has guided their work, King said: “Something without us, about us, is not for us.” She added that the program is already transforming due to student feedback and envisions a future where inviting students into program development “will be the norm.”
Access was also the central theme for CulturaGo CEO Liam Kelly, whose project, The Global ROI Assessment, proposes a data-driven model to demonstrate the career value of global experiences, thus increasing participation in global education.
Kelly argued that broadening access requires more than affordability; it demands evidence. “Expanding access is not just about reducing costs or creating more opportunities,” he told The PIE. “It is about demonstrating value.”
By collecting data on the skills students gain abroad, Kelly believes the field can make a compelling case to funders, institutions, and students alike.
Finalist Takeo Suzuki, executive director of the Centre for Global Education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, urged the field to see innovation not just through a technological or pedagogical lens, but also as an act of diplomacy. “We must remind ourselves that it is also important to remain entrepreneurial in promoting soft diplomacy and people-to-people diplomacy.”
For Suzuki, the most effective global learning programs ignite curiosity, meet students where they are, and connect personal growth with intercultural understanding.
Rutgers global executive director, Dan Waite’s pitch also challenged long-held assumptions, and he praised the Forum for creating a space that allowed educators to “play a bit of the contrarian.”
Chatting with The PIE after the event, Waite said the competition revealed how eager the field is “to explore ideas that can help us better prepare students to address our world’s pressing grand challenges.”
He called for more of these “innovation-fostering spaces where we can imagine a preferred future, shape new narratives, and create new modes of programming.”
Though the five projects were distinct, they shared a common thread: the desire to reimagine not only how education abroad is delivered, but also who gets to shape it.
