This article is part of a series of posts written by NAFSA Global Partners. These institutions represent a broad range of perspectives, develop innovative approaches that enrich the field, and bring a wealth of expertise to the international education community. This post was provided by Explore, where Ciara Newby is senior director of global university partnerships.
You don’t always see a delegation of K–12 professionals at the NAFSA annual conference. But this past May, the first NAFSA-Explore Summit in Orlando, Florida, brought together senior leaders, counselors, university staff members, and sector experts to exchange insights into an important challenge facing today’s educators: how to prepare students for a dynamic future that none of us can comfortably predict.
Over the course of a half day, educators representing more than 50 institutions from Canada, India, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States participated in keynote sessions, workshops, and panel discussions. There was plenty of data, plenty of debate—and a healthy dose of optimism.
Throughout the summit, five themes kept surfacing.
1. We need more opportunities to talk to each other.
Whether participants were in K–12 or in higher education, they emphasized again and again how much they valued the opportunity to speak with their peers in other parts of the field.
School counselors found it useful to hear directly from university leaders. Higher education colleagues appreciated hearing the realities that their counterparts at other educational levels navigate every day. It sounds obvious, but secondary schools and universities shape the same students, yet educators don’t often sit down together to design solutions.
Participants had a real appetite to keep these conversations going and to move beyond transactional relationships and build genuine partnerships.
2. Counselors carry a lot of responsibility.
Data shared during the session illustrate just how influential school counselors are with students. According to a recent Explore survey of around 3,500 prospective undergraduates, 72 percent of students identified their counselor as their primary resource for university recommendations. That finding demonstrates a remarkable level of trust.
Yet counselors are increasingly asked to advise students on career paths and industries that are evolving rapidly, without the information they need to do so confidently and responsibly.
One of the clearest asks from the room was for universities and sector organizations to work together to provide better tools and insights related to employability and regional industry trends, not simply marketing materials.
3. Everyone is talking about AI, but no one has all the answers.
Unsurprisingly, AI featured in almost every conversation.
There was broad agreement that AI literacy matters, but participants still had plenty of unanswered questions: What does AI literacy actually look like at different stages of education? Who owns it? How should it be assessed?
Perhaps the strongest sentiment was that AI and human capability need to develop together. The risk isn’t that students use AI but that they stop thinking for themselves and look to AI as a substitute rather than a way to support their own thinking.
The workshop design deliberately incorporated AI into discussions about future skills and scenarios, rather than treating it as a separate topic. That approach seemed to resonate with participants.
4. Human skills matter more than ever.
As technical skills become easier to access and, in some cases, easier to automate, participants repeatedly mentioned the importance of qualities that are much more difficult—if not impossible—for machines to replicate: empathy, resilience, ethical judgment, and the ability to build relationships.
One participant summed it up perfectly: “The key learning was the importance of making sure students know how to be real humans, not only relying on tech.”
Participants expressed concern about students’ ability to deal with uncertainty and questioned whether institutions are sometimes too quick to solve problems for students instead of helping them develop the confidence to do so themselves.
Perhaps preparing students for the future isn’t only about teaching new skills. We also need to make sure we don’t lose the most human ones.
5. Alumni are an untapped resource.
One idea emerged independently from multiple conversations throughout the day: the value of alumni.
Participants saw enormous potential in alumni communities—not just as ambassadors, but as a source of real-world insight, mentors for current students, and trusted voices for families navigating unfamiliar systems.
The fact that the value of alumni came up repeatedly, without prompting, suggests that institutions recognize the opportunity. The challenge is to find ways to engage alumni more intentionally.
What comes next?
We identified some problems and discussed solutions, but this summit was only the beginning.
Conversations moved naturally from teacher training and career readiness to partnership models and practical collaboration, and we kept these discussions going throughout the conference.
Schools and universities have always worked with the same students. We simply haven’t always had enough opportunities to work with each other in a way that can truly benefit our students.
This summit felt like a really encouraging start. And perhaps that’s the biggest takeaway of all: When colleagues from K–12 and higher education come together, good things can happen.
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