Alumnus of the AIRE Master, Ed Stevenette is a project manager in the international Alliance at the Learning Planet Institute. His job focuses particularly on youth and student engagement. A meeting with someone passionate about supporting youth to actively shape the future of education.
What has been your career path within the CRI/Learning Planet Institute?
I arrived to the Institute as a Master student in 2018, in the Learning Sciences track, and then over the course of doing also internships here, developing my student project, I then joined the international team as the LearningPlanet Alliance co-founded with UNESCO, was founded in 2020 and where I’ve been since.
How did the CRI/Learning Planet Institute environment enable you to transition from a student initiative to a sustainable activity?
I think the LPI environment really helps to take student projects into long-term programmes, firstly through the trust placed in students. When I arrived here from the very beginning, I was able to make, break and learn from projects with other students and staff here, notably, for instance, the Ikigai project. So I think the opportunity to be trusted, to develop workshops, learning programs, events for the community here and further afield is a huge asset.
And I think secondly, the interdisciplinary culture is a massive plus and is what we don’t often see in traditional learning environments. And what that helped me to do is be able to, initially as a student, take projects and be able to find different perspectives, ways of challenging my approach, also developing myprojects. I’ve continued this as well, as a staff member, being able to collaborate across a wide range of skills and disciplines on a lot of the projects that require lots of soft skills and various different competencies, in order to be a success.
Every year, around 24 January – International Education Day – the LearningPlanet Festival, launched by the Institute in partnership with UNESCO, takes place. How does this event provide an ideal framework for mobilising young people around the world?
Each year, around the 24th of January, the International Day of Education, we host the LearningPlanet Festival, a global celebration of learning and where we bring together mainly different populations to be able to collaborate, create, to share their ideas, through events hosted by communities around the world, online and in-person. The festival provides a fantastic opportunity for young people around the world to discover great innovators in education, but also to be amplified. And so that access is really important. It was great to be able to see young people, for instance, in Zimbabwe, be able to join sessions led by Imagination in every classroom group on reimagining schools. And so there are lots of opportunities to be able to collaborate across the community and also showcase a lot of the work that the young people do.
You launched the Learning Planet Youth Design Challenge two years ago. What is it about?
The youth design challenge was created for young people aged 15–26 from around the world to pitch their educational projects – existing or new – that create real-world impact in their communities. Last year, over 200 projects were submitted, with 12 going through a training and mentorship programme to connect with fellow young leaders and develop their project prototypes.
We launched this year’s edition as part of the UN General Assembly, with submissions open until 15 January. This year, a larger cohort of 60 will be selected to go through a training and mentorship programme to advance their projects. From this, an international jury will select 12 to receive a grant and the title of YDC ambassador.
What message would you like to convey to future students?
Come here with an open mind and be ready to make, break and learn from projects and ideas that you have! And just benefit from the completely international, interdisciplinary, diverse culture of just really great people that want to learn from each other. And, you certainly come out of here a more enriched learner and also with lots of projects and ideas and opportunities in order to make a better impact on the world tomorrow.
