Global Disruptors : The Act of Kindness | AFS IEW 2025

Thank you for celebrating International Education Week 2025 with us! From November 17-21, AFS hosted a week-long webinar series celebrating the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. We appreciate everyone who participated!

Global Disruptors : The Act of Kindness
November 17, 2025 at 9 AM ET

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 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.

Speakers
Katherine Yngve, Purdue University (Facilitator)
Nadine Aboulmagd, Instructional designer and faculty development
Sarah Lee, Ecole Pratique de Service Social
Mark Lenhart, CET Academic Programs
Andy Pring, International edupreneur
Shawn Wall, World at Hand
Linda Stuart, AFS Intercultural Programs (Host)