Bringing together the hearts and minds of International Education!

As we finished one of the most talked about Higher Education conferences of the year with IC3 Movement last week, I am still reflecting on all the discussions. It allowed the teachers to be students again and learn how to define and enable the continued success of our students. With more than 1000+ participants in person and many more joining online, the conference brought together more than 300 high schools and 200+ international institutions from the US, UK, Middle East, Canada, Australia, Europe, and many more regions. We shared perspectives on how to support our young minds in their journey toward the next phase of education.

As a first-time participant in the IC3 Movement , the first thing I was attracted to was the energy, its found Ganesh Kohli brought to the platform and how every participant (1000+) felt connected to him and his mission of "Providing Higher Education Counseling" to every student globally. The conference made me realize how much of effort counselors put in and work backstage to bring the best solutions for their students. In just 1.5 days, we had multiple discussions questioning the current practices of the Education Industry and exploring various higher education possibilities we can provide to our students. And all of it was with the single-minded focus of learning more to give more to our students.

It was truly a celebration of learning for the entire fraternity!

As a company, we at Duolingo believe that our solution Duolingo English Test (DET) was designed keeping our test-takers in mind. As I met some of the flagship universities who vouched how accessible it has become for their applicants to provide their English Language certification with #DuolingoEnglishTest I realized that we are not just enabling our test-takers to kickstart their #HigherEducation journey, but also bringing peace of mind to our Institution partners as well. One of our partner university representative told me "DET is my favorite thing about the pandemic" and I can only imagine what a delight we have brought to our partners.

However, my most heartwarming moments were when the high school counselors and principals shared what a boon #DuolingoEnglishTest has been for their students, to be able to put their best foot forward. I look forward to supporting the high schools and our students, to facilitate their journey with International Education with our thoughtful and responsible solutions.

Coming back to IC3 Movement the only concern I shared with Ganesh was having parallel sessions on such interesting topics as below and was delighted to learn that all of these discussions will be available for all of us to consume in our own time on IC3 Youtube channel very soon

• Unmasking Student Recruitment in Post Covid world
• Raising the standards for career guidance in schools
• Looking at access and inclusion through a global lens
• Understanding the changing education policies to harness CBSE opportunity
• Ethics in University Recruitment

And many many more...

My colleague Laura Kaub who counsels students looking for financial aid and merit scholarships on behalf of Duolingo and also is UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency University access advisor ( Duolingo English Test ) had one of the most attended sessions discussing and sharing her ideas and solutions for students and counselors alike. And one of the things she said to the participants who asked "How to explain to parents" and I quote from her: "We are advisors and our job is to advise, so let us give that our best!"

As Laura Kaub and I represented Duolingo 's commitment to access to education, as a Diversity and access sponsor, we were honored to be in the esteemed company of #IC3Scholars who were felicitated for counseling their students irrespective of the challenges and lack of resources they had back home. Thank you!

Which session did I enjoy the most you may ask, which I had to decide after so much deliberations, from a rooster of amazing topics, it was -

Creative Intelligence beyond Howard Gardner by the mindblowing pianist Anil Srinivasan and Akhila Krishnamurthy How beautifully they weaved in the notes of music and the role of creativity in different aspects of intelligence was beyond music to my mind

His musical delights are to be heard to be believed... and I hope to get the opportunity to hear him play as well as talk soon, it made me want to go back to school to attend one of his classes at Krea University With Anil presenting the keynote address and attending his session as the last one at the conference, my entire experience with IC3 Movement was indeed like a musical rhapsody!