Hope is fundamental to learning and to living. Hope recruits the imagination, giving us temporary respite from the difficult present while we consider how things might be made different. Research tells us that, particularly during periods of uncertainty, hope tilts us toward action and toward engaging with life – even as we remain uncertain about what will happen next
Denise J. Larsen
Earlier this month, we gathered at the Danish ambassador’s residence to celebrate and support the Fund for Education Abroad (FEA). Led by the formidable and inspiring Angela Schaffer, FEA provides scholarships and ongoing support to students with financial need who are underrepresented among the US study abroad population.
This year’s gala was more inspiring than ever. Joyful. A thousand embraces between colleagues and friends, old and new, from across and beyond the field. A celebration of the people who, far from being left at the margins of international education, are pushing us as a field to be more accessible and more inclusive – to imagine new possibilities.
As we posed for this picture, we decided (somewhat champagne-driven) that it needed to be the cover piece for an article, if not Vogue. What would be the title? How this new era before us will impact women? The struggles ahead? The collective freakout and reverberations and angst?
No. Look at us. Relaxed. Confident. Smiling. We’ve got this, and we know it. We’ve been through it before. Transfers of power. A pandemic. The dawning spectre of AI. And so much else. The beat goes on.
We will not curl up into a fetal position. We will not stress and prognosticate and scurry beneath a sky that threatens to fall. We will greet all that comes with grace and strength and the knowledge that together, as colleagues and as a field, we can meet whatever comes. We believe so strongly in our mission, we do not have one glimmer of doubt about its value. Quite the contrary – we know that the work we do is of vital, ongoing importance to the world, as so many have said in the past week, more now than ever.
In practice, this means doubling down on curiosity and hope. Why are we willing to be curious when abroad, but not always in our local communities? How do we turn our sophisticated intercultural pedagogies back upon ourselves? How do we connect and build bridges with people at home who may see the world very differently than we do? We cannot compartmentalise our curiosity and openness to difference – limit them to those beyond our borders.
We will greet all that comes with grace and strength and the knowledge that together, as colleagues and as a field, we can meet whatever comes
Hope, too, is central to our work – not a naive, passive hope, but an action-oriented hope that keeps us engaged even when it can all feel a bit much. Hope that also includes creativity and innovation. We can keep asking ourselves: who is not included in what we are doing, and what can we do better? We then feel more energised and less daunted, because together we can reimagine ever more expansive possibilities for all. Together, the mission drives us.
Yes, the world presents us boundless reasons to be concerned. But there is solace in action. In turning disappointments – even desolation – into a willingness to welcome new ideas, to accept our own blind spots, and to inspire the up-and-coming generations whose path we are helping to forge. Indeed, is it not most often when under pressure and in times of uncertainty that we at our most creative, our most innovative?
As we remain laser-focused on the promise of global education to help birth a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world, we can remind ourselves – as that evening with FEA did – that what can and should give us the greatest hope is the alchemy between the students we serve, the work we do, and the bond among colleagues in our field whose generosity, power and strength should never be underestimated,
We know that we are resilient. We know that we are resourceful. We know that individually and collectively we are powerful. We’ve got this. Onwards, full of heart, to whatever lies ahead.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The PIE News.
