Tell us about your company and the problem it solves, or its benefit to learners or educators.
International House Berkeley is a multicultural living and learning community where students and scholars from around the world come together to live, learn, and grow alongside one another. For nearly a century, our mission has been to foster intercultural respect, understanding, and leadership for a more just and peaceful world.
The challenge we address is simple to recognize and harder to solve. Many students arrive with academic ambition, yet too often they’re expected to succeed while feeling disconnected, overwhelmed, or alone. Talent can get students through the door, but belonging and mattering is often what helps them thrive once they are there.
That’s where I-House is different – we’re designed for connection. Through shared living, daily interaction, cultural exchange, leadership opportunities, and purposeful programming, students build the confidence and perspective that classrooms alone cannot provide. Educators benefit as well, because students who feel supported and engaged are more likely to participate fully, persist through challenges, and contribute to the wider campus community.
Tell us about your area of expertise and how your knowledge or work enhances the field or the edtech industry.
As the Chief Student Experience Officer at I-House, I lead key aspects of the resident journey that shape how students live, learn, and grow in our community. My work spans community life and intercultural programming, with a focus on creating a connected and supportive experience from a student’s first interaction with I-House through to graduation and beyond.
My area of expertise centers on how institutions can turn belonging into something tangible and into a true sense of mattering. This must be embedded in everyday experiences. It means designing thoughtful orientations, creating spaces where dialogue can happen naturally, using feedback to continuously improve services, and ensuring residents feel not only seen and supported, but are empowered to contribute in ways that meaningfully shape the community.
I-House is home to nearly 600 students and scholars from more than 70 countries, which makes it a living example of what global education looks like in practice. Our recent resident survey found that 90% of residents feel a sense of belonging. That foundation drives everything else, when people feel valued and part of a community, they engage more deeply, remain open to a new perspective, and build the resilience needed to navigate complexity. This is where real learning takes hold.
In the context of edtech, my work highlights a critical gap: access and innovation alone are not enough. Technology can scale learning and improve efficiency, but meaningful outcomes still depend on whether learners feel connected, confident, and able to engage. My contribution to the field is advancing a more holistic approach, one that integrates data, design, and human experience to intentionally foster both belonging and mattering. The future of education will come from combining innovation with environments where people not only belong, but know they matter.
Explain a problem in running an edtech company or selling products or providing service in the space that is related to the work you do?
One of the biggest challenges in edtech is assuming access alone guarantees engagement. Platforms can offer excellent resources, strong teaching, or sophisticated tools, yet learners may still struggle to participate fully if they feel isolated, disconnected, or uncertain about their place in the learning environment.
Learners do not engage with technology in a vacuum. They bring real pressures with them, adjusting to a new country, navigating cultural differences, managing financial stress, or questioning whether they belong at all. Those factors directly shape how confidently they show up, how consistently they engage and ultimately how well they learn.
This creates a critical gap in the field. Many edtech solutions are designed to optimize delivery, but not the human experience of learning. Without intentionally addressing connection, belonging, and a sense of mattering, even the most advanced tools can fall short of their full potential.
Our work is focused on closing that gap. By centering on the human experience, designing for connection, embedding feedback, and creating opportunities for learners to actively contribute, we are able to create spaces where students feel supported, confident, and ready to grow. That is what ultimately drives meaningful engagement and long-term success.
What are 3-5 specific tips to solving that problem?
- Listen before you build. Students will tell you where they feel friction, where they feel excluded, and what support would make the biggest difference.
- Create belonging from the first interaction. Orientation, communication, peer welcome, and early touchpoints often shape whether students feel they can succeed there.
- Design for connection, not just content. Shared experiences, peer learning, and opportunities for honest dialogue help people engage more fully.
- Look beyond surface metrics. Participation, confidence, retention, and sense of community often reveal more than clicks or logins alone.
- Work across teams. The strongest student outcomes usually come when academics, support services, and community experience are working together.
What other advice do you have for professionals working in edtech?
Stay close to the people you serve. Some of the best ideas come from listening carefully to students and educators describing their everyday experience in their own words.
Be intentional about the role of technology. Great tools can expand access and improve efficiency, but they cannot replace trust, mentorship, and certainly not community. Knowing where human connection is essential is just as important as building strong products.
Finally, remember that education is about so much more than transactions or outcomes. It shapes people’s confidence and identity and how they move through the world. The most meaningful innovations in edtech will be those that recognize learners not just as users, but as people developing as global citizens and the next generation of leaders.