InterGenerational Workshops

NESA InterGenerational Workshops are an innovation closely tied to the Learning Futures Summit goal of providing InterGen Teams – participating school teachers and students (Grades 7-12) from NESA Member Schools – an opportunity to share promising practices, collaborate, and learn from field experience. Both educators and student presenters are full participants and attend the entire LFS event.

Breaking Walls: A Social Impact Project that Builds Agency, Civic Engagement, and Lifelong Learning

MEENA BAJAJ, Secondary Spanish Teacher
NAWON & ZARA, Grade 11 Students
American School of Bombay, Mumbai, India 

This session showcases a Social Impact Project for Spanish Intermediate High learners that empowers Tenth Grade students as real-world changemakers. Using the film La Zona as a conceptual anchor, students explore the metaphor of “walls” – visible or invisible – that separate groups, prompting critical reflection on equity, empathy, and social responsibility.

Through authentic problem-solving, student choice, and collaboration with local stakeholders, students investigate real-world issues, research root causes, design feasible solutions, and propose implementation plans. Students demonstrate learning through multimedia presentations, interviews, and reflective writing, building agency, leadership, communication, critical thinking, and deep conceptual understanding. Participants will explore how this adaptable model fosters deep learning, civic responsibility, and meaningful engagement across diverse cultural and curricular contexts.

Sustainable Responsible AI in Education

WIAM MARSHOUD, IB DP Computer Science Teacher
JUDY, Grade 9 Student
American International School Kuwait, Hawally

This workshop invites educators to move beyond viewing artificial intelligence as merely a tool and instead engage with a structured, value-driven approach to AI integration anchored in the AI Integration Pyramid. The framework guides progression from ethical principles and classroom agreements to prompting skills, credibility checks, reflective assessment, and deep learning, ensuring responsible and purposeful AI use.

Through hands-on, experiential activities and collaborative exploration, participants examine sustainable, ethical AI practices that foster reflection, critical and creative thinking, agency, and civic awareness. Participants leave with classroom-ready strategies, reflective tools, and practical activities that position AI as a partner in inquiry – rather than a shortcut – and deepen learning across the curriculum.

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Unleashing Pawsibilities: A Student and Therapy Dog-Led Journey

MARCI CARREL, Elementary School Principal & Therapy Dog Handler (and Frankie, ASB therapy dog)
SHREE GANDHI, Speech and Language Therapist
SHREE, Grade 9 Student
American School of Bombay, Mumbai, India

This workshop explores how deep learning can emerge when adults intentionally step back and let authentic connection lead. Centered on a multi-year journey between a student and ASB’s therapy dog, Frankie, the session illustrates how agency, voice, and relationship-building can transform learning, especially for neurodiverse students.

We share how highly structured, goal-driven therapy sessions evolved into powerful, student- and dog-led experiences. As Shree – a Grade 9 student who began working with Frankie in Grade 4 – took increasing ownership, communication, engagement, self-advocacy, regulation, and confidence flourished. Participants will see how experiential, relational learning creates conditions for growth (that traditional approaches often miss) and leave with concrete strategies to nurture agency, co-construct learning pathways, and “unleash pawsibilities" in their own contexts.

Strengthening Sustainability Through Inter-School Partnerships

MEL PUBIL, K-12 Service and Sustainability Coordinator
LILY, Grade 11 Student
PENELOPE & MATTEO, Grade 10 Students
American Community School of Abu Dhabi, UAE

Schools do not operate in isolation. This workshop explores how interscholastic networks can fuel collective sustainability efforts, using the example of six MESAC (Middle East South Asia Conference – focused on athletics) schools that formed a sustainability network to examine and reduce the environmental impact of inter-school events.

Participants will learn how service learning and sustainability coordinators, athletics and activities directors, and student leaders collaborated to create a shared mission and structure to exchange ideas, set goals, and monitor progress. The session highlights overlooked networks as platforms for collective action.

Participants leave with an adaptable model, practical tools for sustainable event planning, and strategies to engage students and colleagues in long-term, cross-school improvement.

Beyond Classroom Walls: Designing Experiential Journeys

EVELYN MAROLF, Secondary Associate Principal and Experiential Learning Coordinator
BRANDON BARRON, Secondary Associate Principal
RAVIBIR, HUSAYN & MYRA, Grade 11 Students
RANIA, Grade 10 Student | AVA & MAURICIO, Grade 8 Students
American School of Bombay, Mumbai, India

How can schools authentically connect learning to the world beyond classrooms while elevating student voice and agency? This interactive workshop draws on the structure and philosophy of ASB’s experiential learning programs, which prepare students to experience the world through service, cultural immersion, environmental stewardship, challenge, and reflection. Educator and student co-facilitators will share real examples of intergenerational learning, highlighting what empowers students and how young people conceptualize risk, challenge, community connection, and identity.

Participants will examine intentional scaffolds – pre-trip learning, student-led reflection, risk management, and post-experience showcases – that support holistic, developmentally aligned experiential learning. You will engage in a hands-on program audit and rapid design sprint and leave with adaptable tools, frameworks, and strategies grounded in agency, equity, and real-world connection.

Learning By Doing and Lessons From Teaching: The Power of Student Leadership in Classrooms

GEETHA VENUGOPAL, Information Technology Teacher
CHAITANYA & MEHAAN, Grade 12 Students
American International School Chennai, India

This workshop centers on the principles of experiential learning and unpacks the academic and social benefits of student TAs in classrooms. Through a case study of a student serving as a TA in AP Computer Science, participants examine the TA’s impact on the class and the class’s impact on the TA.

The session highlights how three groups benefit: TAs strengthen their own knowledge, especially in logic-based fields, and allows them to take leadership roles; teachers gain opportunities for personalized support and valuable feedback on teaching methods; and students benefit from increased resources, peer-based learning, and greater comfort learning from someone their own age.

Empowering Changemakers

LUKE NANTZ, Second Grade Teacher
ARJUN, Grade 10 Student
American School of Bombay, Mumbai, India

We all want to make the world a better place. But what does that actually look like in school? This workshop will start with the research and theory about civic engagement in schools. What are the established pitfalls and the known opportunities?

We will then see how educators and students can apply those principles through two case studies from the American School of Bombay. One case study features Second Grade students navigating their unit of inquiry learning about historical changemakers, societal issues, and implementing their own changemaker project.

The second case study features a high school student’s “The Rewear Project,” promoting sustainable fashion by advocating for and facilitating the use of pre-owned clothing as an urgent environmental necessity.

NESA Member Schools presenting InterGen Workshops:

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