In addition to our first session, we’re thrilled to share that we’ll also be presenting a highlighted session at CIES2025!

👉 Highlighted Session: Empowering Futures — Possibility Development and the Role of Technology in College and Career Readiness

📅 March 25 | 🕓 4:30–5:45 PM | 📍 Palmer House, Burnham 4

Session link: https://lnkd.in/eyJztusD

This panel will explore possibility development as a comprehensive framework that focuses on adolescents’ internal understanding of their possibilities and empowers students in shaping their futures. Originally applied to middle school students, several practical applications have expanded this framework to guide adolescents in navigating the complex decisions they face in college and career readiness. Although technology has expanded the scope of possibilities for youth, it has also complicated students’ decision-making surrounding their future possibilities. This presentation flags students’ tendency to overly rely on external experts or technologies to inform their decisions surrounding post-secondary planning. Through theoretical insights, on-the-ground experience, and practical applications, the panelists will offer practical strategies rooted in possibility development that maintain student agency while bolstering college and career readiness. We believe that technology, when used as a facilitator, can enable students to find their own answers rather than providing them.

We’re looking forward to connecting with colleagues and sharing insights on youth development, mentoring, and future planning!

Looking forward to joining a great group of colleagues for a symposium at CIES2025:

Arts-Based Research in the Field of Comparative International Education
📅 March 24 | 🕡 6:30–8:30 PM | Sponsored by the CIES Youth Development and Education (YDE) SIG

Location: Chicago School 325 N. Wells St. RM.412

If you're interested in arts-based research and its role in youth development and education, we’d love to have you join the conversation!

Excited to share that we’ll be presenting at CIES2025!

Join us for “Possibility Development: A Model for Theorizing and Catalyzing Youth Development” on Monday, March 24th, 9:45–11:00 am (Palmer House, 7th Floor, LaSalle 3).

This panel will explore the concept of possibility development — helping youth imagine and pursue life possibilities while navigating barriers and building support.

It will cover:

• The theory and applications of possibility development in youth mentoring and counseling

• The role of social media in expanding youth horizons

• Workforce development and local labor strategies post-COVID

• How out-of-school programs foster civic engagement among refugee youth

Join us for a conversation on fostering resilience, creativity, and opportunity in young people across diverse contexts.

You can view the session details here: https://tinyurl.com/2a6zcovn

Elevating Youth. Reimagining Philanthropy: The Promise of Youth-Possible Philanthropy™

Philanthropy has long been a force for social change, yet it often overlooks one of the most powerful catalysts for transformation: young people. Too often, marginalized youth are seen as beneficiaries rather than as co-creators of the solutions that shape their futures. Youth-Possible Philanthropy™, pioneered by Dr. Kimberlin Butler, challenges this outdated approach by embedding youth as strategic partners in philanthropic governance, decision-making, and systemic change.

This session will explore how philanthropy can move from transactional engagement to transformational partnerships, positioning youth as leaders, decision-makers, and visionaries within funding strategies. Through compelling case studies, research, and lived experiences, Dr. Butler will highlight how funders can integrate youth voices to reshape education, workforce, community development, and other systems.

Attendees will gain actionable insights into:

• Aligning youth aspirations with systemic change efforts

• Implementing participatory grantmaking models that center young leaders

• Bridging philanthropy with cross-sector collaborations for maximum impact

• Ensuring trust-based philanthropy empowers youth agency and innovation

By shifting power dynamics and prioritizing youth-driven strategies, philanthropy can become a true catalyst for equity and possibility. This talk will provide funders, social impact leaders, and change makers with a roadmap for embracing Youth-Possible Philanthropy™—a future where young people are not just included, but are thriving and leading the way.

BIO

Dr. Kimberlin D. Butler is a globally recognized social impact leader with over 20 years of experience in education, philanthropy, and public affairs. As the Founder and Chief Possibility Catalyst of The L.E.A.D. Agency, she sparks transformative change by centering marginalized youth as experts and partners in shaping equitable philanthropic strategies. Dr. Butler is the architect of Youth-Possible Philanthropy™, a framework that redefines traditional philanthropy by integrating youth voice into systemic reforms and investment strategies.

Throughout her career, Dr. Butler has held pivotal leadership roles, including Senior Director of Foundation Engagement at Mathematica, where she designed the Equity Community of Practice and developed an evidence-informed grantmaking and strategy framework. She has advised U.S. Secretaries of Education, led White House convenings on community investments, and collaborated with over 600 foundations through Grantmakers for Education to address systemic inequities and drive economic mobility.

An accomplished speaker, avid volunteer, and trusted advisor, Dr. Butler inspires audiences with insights on philanthropy, equity, youth engagement, and cross-sector collaboration. Recognized as one of DC’s Top 50 Women Leaders and an Atlanta 40 Under 40 honoree, she holds a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University, and a B.A. in Mass Communication from Louisiana State University.

Email: Kimberlin@leadagencyllc.com

Relevant Links about the Speaker:

https://theleadagencyllc.com/services/youth-possible-philanthropy/

https://cep.org/blog/the-fierce-urgency-of-now-delivering-lasting-change-through-radical-accountability/

To register, click here

Looking Back to Go Forward: Essential Elements of the Facing History & Ourselves Approach to Moral Development and Civic Learning

The international educational nonprofit organization, Facing History & Ourselves, “...envisions a world where students and teachers realize the power of their decision-making to promote a more humane and informed citizenry. Together, we are strengthening democracy by preparing the next generation to build more just and civil societies based on knowledge and compassion” (www.facinghistory.org).  Since its inception in 1976, the program has provided curricular resources and professional learning to support secondary level humanities teachers and school leaders in reaching this vision. This session will highlight how Facing History’s approach is grounded in moral development theory and practice, including video clips of the founder describing essential elements of the approach and teaching a lesson. We will then engage in an activity that illuminates how the approach integrates ethical, emotional, intellectual and social dimensions of learning to meaningfully inform students’ moral decision-making and civic involvement. Next, we will share results from several program evaluations that speak to its effectiveness. Finally, we will zoom out to describe the current state and scope of the organization’s work with teachers, schools and districts. There will be time for discussion and Q&A.

Dennis J. Barr Ed.D., is the Senior Director of Evaluation for Facing History & Ourselves, an international nonprofit organization that supports humanities educators in preparing their middle and high school students to be informed and ethical civic participants. In his role, Dennis has conducted and supervised dozens of evaluations to support program improvement and investigate program outcomes. He was the Principal Investigator for a study published in Teachers College Record: A randomized controlled trial of professional development for interdisciplinary civic education: Impacts on humanities teachers and their students. Dennis has co-developed theory-driven measures of adolescent social and ethical awareness and teacher development. For nearly 20 years, Dr. Barr taught courses on educational approaches designed to promote adolescent social and civic development as an adjunct faculty member for the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dennis is also a licensed clinical psychologist.

Phredd MatthewsWall is a Senior Associate Program Director for Staff Development at Facing History & Ourselves. In this role, he works to maintain the high level of quality of Facing History’s professional development offerings, especially for events put on in the summer months. Currently based in the Chicago office, Phredd is familiar with many aspects of Facing History, having spent the past 37 years at the organization. He also has a wealth of education-related experience from his time as a classroom teacher, program coordinator, and curriculum and educational consultant. Phredd holds a B.A. in Education and Curriculum Development from Tufts University.

Zoom link and registration click HERE

Top-Down or Bottom-Up?: Insights from 20 years of socio-emotional policies in Colombia

In 2003, a new Minister of Education was interested in giving citizenship, socio-emotional development, peaceful relationships, and democratic education as much relevance in the Colombian educational system as mathematics and language. With great trust in academia, she asked me to lead a group of experts to construct the national standards of citizenship competencies and a national test to evaluate those standards. This started a large top-down movement of the whole educational system which continues today, twenty years later.

Meanwhile, many inspiring teachers, students, parents, schools and organizations have been developing very creative bottom-up innovations to promote peaceful relationships throughout the country. These local initiatives have generated great enthusiasm and engagement from the communities, favoring sustainability. One of their main challenges, however, has been that these initiatives are based more on intuition than on research.

In this talk, I will share how we are currently promoting a synthesis of top-down and bottom-up approaches to support socio-emotional development in Colombia. In particular, I will propose how each approach has challenges and advantages, but integrating rigorous research with local expertise can favor impact and sustainability, even at large-scale implementations.

Enrique Chaux is Full Professor in the Department of Psychology at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. He holds a doctorate degree in Education from Harvard University, a Masters in Risk and Prevention from Harvard and a Masters degree in Cognitive and Neural Systems from Boston University. His main interests include: prevention of aggression, school violence, citizenship competencies, socio-emotional development, conflicts, bullying, cyberbullying, peace education, and humane education. He led the teams which created the Colombian National Standards of Citizenship Competencies, the National Test of Citizenship Competencies, and the school-based program Aulas en Paz (Classrooms in Peace). He has advised the Colombian government on topics related to peace education, school violence, citizenship education, and socio-emotional development. In 2012 he was awarded as one of the best leaders in Colombia.

Zoom link and registration HERE

Using Rapid-Cycle Evaluation to Improve Program Design and Delivery

Mathematica’s mission is to bring evidence to bear on the world’s most pressing policy questions and social challenges. For over 50 years, Mathematica has been a trusted partner for government, philanthropic and private-sector organizations globally, offering support in using data for policy decisions. Our monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) activities provide insights for decision making, learning priorities, and impact amplification. We collaborate to ensure that our efforts are responsive to our partners’ learning needs and programmatic contexts and actionable, adapting our approach to evolving priorities and changes in the internal and external landscapes.

Mathematica has a diverse portfolio of work in international education. Our research spans the education continuum, including all levels (from early childhood development and education through tertiary education and workforce development), contexts (stable contexts to crisis and crisis-affected environments), settings (formal and non-formal), and providers (state and non-state), often with a focus on the most marginalized and vulnerable populations.

In this talk, Emilie will discuss rapid-cycle evaluation (RCE) approaches to aid implementing partners in program design, mid-course corrections, and adaptive management. Through rapid, short-term tests, we provide decision-makers with actionable evidence on cost-effective operational variations to improve program effectiveness. RCEs can be used to diagnose challenges, identify facilitators to implementation and take-up, and test potential solutions. RCEs can be useful at early stages of implementation or program design to help identify operational choices that can maximize chances of a program’s success, as well as during program implementation if a program does not appear to be achieving the desired results. RCE approaches can also be used to test short-term program effectiveness, when taking a program to scale, or when seeking to adapt a successful implementation effort in a different context. Emilie’s presentation will focus on her chapter from the Oxford Handbook of Program Design and Implementation Evaluation (2023) that describes the steps involved in implementing RCE and describes examples of using RCE for program design and improvement.

Speaker:

Emilie Bagby is a Principal Researcher and the Director of Global Education at Mathematica. She specializes in designing and conducting rigorous evaluations, including impact, rapid cycle and performance, of education and workforce development programs in low- and middle-income country contexts, with a focus on disadvantaged populations. As a learning partner, she excels at identifying and implementing the appropriate methodology to generate learning, working with stakeholders to identify the most meaningful research questions to inform decision making, and combining available secondary data with primary data collection. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Future-Ready Skills: Blending Youth Insights and Generative AI to Develop Holistic Digital Education

IREX is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing education, independent media, local leadership, and inclusive governance worldwide. Central to IREX’s mission is empowering youth, recognizing their potential as catalysts for transformative change at local, national, and global levels. 

In response to the rapidly evolving workforce landscape, IREX launched the "Digital ESE" initiative in 2024 to enhance youth workforce readiness for an increasingly digital economy. This initiative is rooted in research showing that youth in low- and middle-income countries are engaging online more than ever to secure their economic futures. Faced with systemic barriers that often exclude them from traditional education and training, many young people are taking the initiative to acquire and refine their digital, technical, and soft skills through non-traditional, self-directed means. However, this increased digital engagement also exposes youth to heightened risks of harm and violence, particularly affecting women and other marginalized groups. 

To tackle these challenges, IREX has been actively developing digital skill-building programs that dismantle barriers to educational access and foster essential skills for lifelong learning. The Digital ESE curriculum is grounded in real-life experiences shared by Kenyan youth through youth-led research. By harnessing the power of Generative AI, IREX has created a story-based curriculum featuring character-based scenarios and interactive activities designed to develop practical skills. These include setting learning goals, maintaining motivation, identifying digital threats like misinformation and cyberbullying, and building peer and professional networks. This approach enhances learner engagement and retention by presenting material that resonates with their lived experiences and incorporates relatable stories, examples, and opportunities for authentic practice. 

In this talk, Maxie and Brittany will delve into the Digital ESE development process, detailing how youth were engaged from inception through research, development, and piloting. They will discuss the role of Generative AI in crafting compelling and realistic learning experiences, as well as how these innovations can support personalized learning trajectories with timely, relevant content, all while addressing essential considerations regarding data security, privacy, and protection. Join us to discover how IREX is paving the way for youth to thrive in the digital economy! 

Speakers: 

Dr. Maxie Gluckman is a Senior Technical Advisor for IREX’s Center for Applied Learning and Impact. In this role she leads research and innovation around improving equality and inclusion in youth programs globally. Prior to joining IREX, Maxie worked for more than 10 years as a program designer, evaluator, and researcher for the United Nations and international non-governmental organizations across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa. Maxie has a PhD in education from the University of California, San Diego. 

Brittany Aubin is a Technical Advisor II for IREX’s Education Practice, focusing on integrating educational technology and ICT4E trends. Previously, she led instructional design for EdX’s graduate health programs, partnering with over twenty universities to enhance educational access. Brittany is passionate about leveraging technology and learning science to improve education. She began her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia, working on rural teacher training. Brittany holds degrees in journalism and international development from American University and a master’s in public health from George Washington University. 

Register for this event HERE

Transforming Pathology into Purpose: A New Vision for Positive Youth Development

For over three decades, Search Institute’s applied research has been foundational to the practice field of youth development across multiple sectors and systems. Together with other innovators in the field, our work sparked the Positive Youth Development (PYD) movement, which coalesced around the belief that all young people have strengths and reshaped how youth-serving programs and professionals as well as neighborhoods, families, businesses, health care providers, religious institutions, and other resources within young people’s developmental ecosystem understood and approached adolescence.

Search Institute and the field are now reaching a critical juncture. We’re at a moment with an opportunity for a knowledge transfer to a new generation of PYD scholars that are coming into leadership with both a deep respect for the first wave of PYD and with new sensibilities to more effectively address issues of equity, inclusion, and justice. This is also a time when the newest generation of youth workers – most of whom grew up in the shadow of No Child Left Behind and the hyper-focus on grades and accountability – are hungry for the energy, possibility, and connectedness that come from the deep well of applied knowledge and research available in PYD, particularly when integrated with the new generation of research.

Recognizing and nurturing strengths is particularly salient in a time when young people are being increasingly portrayed as trapped in a mental health crisis, victims of predatory social media empires, and/or as reckless perpetrators of crime. These narratives risk disempowering young people, families, peers, educators, youth workers, clergy, and others from their genuine capacity to make a difference through their everyday interactions with and advocacy for youth. Furthermore, the nation’s polarization and its mindsets about young people also bring urgency to regenerating a shared commitment to a strength-based shared vision for young people in the United States and globally. It is time to move beyond a pathology-based narrative toward a purpose-based vision that harnesses the incredible potential that all youth have to thrive when provided equitable access to relationships and resources. 

As we continue to achieve our mission of promoting PYD and advancing equity for young people, we are deeply invested in identifying ways to scale our impact sustainably. This work is motivated by a central question, “How might we empower action across the broad youth support ecosystem with a reimagined approach to positive youth development, enabling all youth to thrive?” 

In this talk, Ben will share some of the ways Search Institute is thinking about this central question in hopes of stimulating meaningful dialogue and generating fresh perspectives. The goal is to inspire collaborative action and innovative approaches that not only honor the legacy of PYD but also adapt it to meet the complex challenges of today's world. Together, we can forge a path that ensures every young person has the opportunity to thrive.

Speaker:

Dr. Benjamin Houltberg, a developmental scientist, former tenured faculty member and experienced marriage and family therapist, has been president and CEO of Search Institute since 2021. He feels strongly about the role of youth development work and has a sense of purpose around investing in a generation that will have tremendous impact not only on the future, but the here and now. As CEO, he amplifies the message of a shared responsibility to promote youth thriving, while also inspiring Search Institute to always have the organization’s vision in mind. He works closely with Search Institute’s many partners and is focused on recruiting a diverse group of talented individuals to address the needs of the communities that the organization serves. He is widely published on topics such as adolescent social and emotional development, resilience through relationships, and character and identity development through sports.

Seeds for Progress Foundation´s Cultivating Education Model

Seeds for Progress Foundation (SFP) is a non-profit organization that has collaborated with the integral development of rural communities in coffee-growing areas in Guatemala and Nicaragua through education with the support of local and international partners. Since 2013, SFP has impacted more than 30,500 children with quality education in more than 25 schools in 149 communities, trained more than 500 teachers with 10,000 hours of professional capacity-building, and developed 50 school infrastructure projects with an investment of $2.5M for a total 9 million dollars in its projects and programs. Currently, SFP works in 15 schools and 6 seasonal child labor prevention centers that benefit 2,400 children with quality education, 140 teachers with professional capacity-building in rural communities in Guatemala. SFP programs integrate teacher training, provision of educational materials and school supplies, prevention of child labor, business training for students, and monitoring.

Seeds for Progress Foundation developed the Cultivating Education Model as a flexible proposal for formal education aimed at rural children and youth in Central America, between the ages of 4 and 17. It is based on an approach of complete educational trajectories, from preschool, primary and secondary education; it integrates the principles, components and strategies of the Active School into the curriculum. Its backbone are competencies for entrepreneurship and leadership, that in turn link in a harmonious and flexible way three other groups of competencies (basic, socio-emotional and ICT) to ensure transition, progressivity and complementarity in the educational trajectory.  To develop, assess and transfer competencies, the Model takes elements from the context and adapts it in an interdisciplinary manner, developing Learning Projects to articulate knowledge, skills and values necessary for the consolidation of projects for life and generational linkage.

Speakers: 

Martha Alicia Moreno, specialist in educational sciences and community social development projects. Graduated from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, with a Master's Degree in Community Development Management and a Doctorate in Education from La Salle University in Costa Rica. With 30 years of experience working on social projects in Central America from the public, private and non-governmental organizations, with an emphasis on Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability and coordinating social development projects.

Josette Exprúa is a development and marketing specialist for non-profit organizations in Central America. Graduated from INCAE Business School with a Master´s in Business Administration and Marketing and a Bachelor of Science in Business from the University of North Carolina. With more than 20 years of experience working in the field of marketing and development for non-profit organizations and the sustainability of social programs for the betterment of the most vulnerable populations in Central America.

Possibility Development Instead of Failure and Punishment

We aspire to do great things, but we can only accomplish those through opportunity, effort, experimentation, and failure. The possibilities we open for ourselves—and others—depend in large part on how our botched attempts are received and understood. In this way, mistakes are catalysts, moving us toward ever more sophisticated and effective ways of moving in and acting on the world. 

Unfortunately, schools far too often treat failures and errors as evidence of intrinsic capacity. Mistakes become indictments rather than new pathways toward possibility. Failures legitimate lowered expectations and restricted opportunities instead of differentiated supports. And (mis)behavior is understood as character flaw rather than an opportunity to grow and repair. These misinterpretations have enormous implications for youth who are daily exploring possibilities in identity, vocation, community, relationship, and purpose in their academic and social experiences in school. Students from non-dominant groups are particularly vulnerable to the effects of having mistakes essentialized as denunciations of their potential. Consequently, examining how we apprehend and tend failure is a crucial component in any effort to achieve excellence, equity, and/or justice in education. 

In this talk, Dr. Toshalis will argue that failure should be an opening of possibility, not its foreclosure. Moving from theory to practice, he will consider three main systems through which possibility is routinely extinguished in our schools: grading, ranking, and punishing. Dr Toshalis will illuminate the possibilities that are unlocked when we dismantle these systems and replace them with liberating, responsive, inspiring, and developmentally-rich approaches.

—

Eric Toshalis has served in a variety of teaching and leadership roles in and around public school secondary classrooms for over three decades. In addition to his many peer-reviewed and practitioner-oriented articles, webinars, and online resources, Toshalis is the author of the award-winning book, Make Me! Understanding and Engaging Student Resistance in School (2015), and is co-author, with Michael J. Nakkula, of the widely-used text, Understanding Youth: Adolescent Development for Educators (2006), both by Harvard Education Press. His next co-authored book, to be released by Pearson this summer, is the 13th edition of Comprehensive Classroom Management: Creating Communities of Support and Solving Problems. Dr. Toshalis provides equity-focused independent scholarship and education consulting for a range of clients at EngagingResistance.com.

GPN Speaker Series with Dr. Ashley Cureton: Making a Change! Exploring Refugee Youth’s Civic Engagement in Out-of-School Programs to Cultivate Critical Consciousness

Join us for this month's GPN Speaker Series at the University of Pennsylvania for an exciting online event featuring Dr. Ashley Cureton from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Cureton will dive into her research focusing on refugee youth and the role of out-of-school time (OST) programs in cultivating opportunities for civic engagement and critical consciousness. She identifies the potential of OST programs to serve as an anchor for refugee youth, who lack familiarity with U.S. schools and communities.