Tell us about your company and the problem it solves, or its benefit to learners or educators.
The International House Association (IHA) connects a global network of residential and cultural centers devoted to one enduring mission of fostering peace through understanding. The first International House opened in New York in 1924, and the model quickly spread to Berkeley, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Delhi and beyond. Each House serves as both a community space and a learning lab — where people from around the world share daily life, conversations, and experiences that build cross-cultural trust.
Today, IHA expands that model for a globalized, digital era. Through shared programs, alumni engagement, and global convenings, we help students, scholars and educators translate intercultural experience into lifelong competencies – empathy, adaptability, and leadership. In an age defined by polarization and fragmentation, our work reminds learners and institutions that global citizenship isn’t an abstract value. It’s a practice rooted in community, curiosity, and dialogue.
What is the challenge educators face today that is fixable?
One fixable challenge is the gap between diversity as a policy and diversity as a lived experience. Most universities have diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that articulate noble goals. What’s missing are environments that make real dialogue possible, especially across differences. Too often, students share classrooms but not community – they coexist without connecting.
Intentional community design can close that gap. When you create spaces where students from different backgrounds cook, study, and share daily routines together, empathy becomes habitual. That’s what International Houses have been doing for a century – turning abstract ideals into lived experience. The lesson for educators is that belonging can’t be engineered through slogans or training modules, but instead built through shared experiences that allow differences to be seen, heard, and humanized. The fix is better design – spaces and systems that make understanding inevitable.
What is the challenge educators face today that will persist?
Polarization will remain one of higher education’s defining challenges. It’s not unique to campuses – it’s a reflection of a broader cultural moment, but universities feel it acutely because they’re meant to be spaces for open dialogue. At IHA, we believe the deeper risk is retreat. Too many choose silence over disagreement because they feel unsafe or uncertain about how to engage.
Progress begins with listening. Real civility grows from curiosity, courage, and the willingness to engage with respect. It takes daily practice, shared spaces, and leaders who show by example what open dialogue looks like. The International House model provides a framework for doing exactly that – communities intentionally built around trust, respect, and curiosity, where disagreement is part of learning. We won’t eliminate tension, but we can reframe it as a pathway to understanding, and that’s what keeps education vital.
What are the areas of education or training and workforce development that are being overlooked?
One area consistently overlooked is global fluency – the ability to collaborate, communicate, and solve problems across cultures. Employers say they want graduates who can navigate ambiguity, lead diverse teams, and work across borders. Yet most curricula still treat intercultural skills as optional, or as something students pick up informally.
At International House, global fluency is the foundation of our institution. Residents from over 100 countries learn by doing, negotiating shared spaces, celebrating differences, and finding common ground. That lived experience produces leaders who are not only technically skilled, but personally attuned too, able to understand people as well as problems. As institutions focus on preparing students for the technical demands of the future, we can’t lose sight of the human ones.
What do you foresee will be a challenge in education in three to five years?
In the next five years, education’s greatest challenge won’t be technology itself but trust. Trust in institutions, in information, and in one another. As AI and automation accelerate change, the human side of learning will matter more, not less. Students will need to feel grounded in communities that cultivate ethical reasoning, emotional intelligence, and moral courage.
At IHA, we see firsthand how those qualities are strengthened through intercultural living. When you build a community where people listen deeply and learn from each other, you lay the groundwork for resilience – the kind of resilience that education will need to navigate constant change. The future of learning is still deeply human, and the challenge will be keeping those human connections at the center as we innovate.