Innovator Spotlight: Tim Logan and Jennifer Bahrami creators of the IB Festival of Hope

I would love to introduce our speakers for today. They are both the creators of something called the IB Festival of Hope. So without further ado, I will let Tim and Jennifer go ahead and introduce themselves, and we will get started today.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Michelle. Lovely to see some familiar faces. These are our soon-to-be more familiar faces. But Jen, do you want to start us off?

Sure, well, it's great to see you, and I'm happy to see someone who from a school that's actually hosted a Festival of Hope on here, so maybe we can also hear from them. My name is Jennifer Bahrami. I am speaking with you today from Washington, D.C. in the U.S. I have been working with the International Baccalaureate for many years now. I was actually an IB student way back when in Lima, Peru, And about 3, 4 years ago, as we were emerging from the pandemic, I started hearing from young people all around the world, and they were feeling a sense of weight on their shoulders about their future. And it felt really critical and important to not ignore those, um, those voices and those feelings. And so that's kind of how we began this journey. I'll stop here, and Tim, if you want to introduce yourself as well.

Sure, thanks, Jen. Yeah, we're getting into the wave, so I thought I'd flick to the wave. But yeah, my— just quickly, my name is Tim Logan. I'm really happy to be here. I am an educator by background and have been— had the great pleasure of working with Jen and with the IB for the last 3 and a half years. To co-create this thing that I think feels like the young people are asking for, and we're learning a huge amount as we go through the process. But it's a real privilege to be able to build it, co-build it with young people, with educators all over the world, and of course with the International Baccalaureate. I think probably for the purposes of today, we're going to assume you know who the IB is. We're not going to spend too much time talking about the IB. We can obviously give you more information if you need, but This is an initiative of the IB. And as Jen has started to say, this was something that just coming out of the pandemic, this was the why for it. So as Olli Pekka Heinonen, the Director General of IB, kind of connected myself and Jennifer, and then we started talking to young people all over the world, listening to them just to, you know, understand what it is that they were being challenged by and asking for of a large organization. Like the IB?

So if you think about it, there are more young people than ever before in the world. They're more capable, they're more globally aware, they're more ready than any generation that has come before them. Yet what we've found is that they're chronically underrepresented in the decisions that are going to shape their future. And it's not because they lack the will, it's because they're not given the space. And while You know, I personally think education is probably one of humanity's greatest achievements. The world that our young people are inheriting is just moving so much faster than the system that's designed to prepare them. And while it's not a failure of any of the intentions behind education, it is a signal that something more is needed. And that is what we thought of when we thought of Festival of Hope. It was something that goes beyond the classroom, and it's something that meets young people where formal education cannot reach them. So when we looked at, you know, back in 2022 as we were emerging from the pandemic, as war was beginning in Ukraine, as more young people were asking us, how are you going to help me live a, you know, a prosperous, flourishing, thriving future? The research validated what we were hearing. If you look at, you know, any of the research dating back to 2022, the majority of young people in countries around the world believed that the world was becoming a worse place to live. They were deeply concerned about the state of the world and they wanted to do something about it. We all know about the mental health crisis and feeling less in control of their lives than at any other point in recent history. And just, I think, 2 months ago, the World Economic Forum Youth Pulse Survey came out and it said, you know, 95% of young people say that they want to be part of a community of a a space where they can learn, they can grow, and they can dialogue. And that's the— that, that was why we set out to build this Festival of Hope space.

And, you know, in, in the spirit of everything that we believe, we'd love you to listen to Albany. I'm not sure I'm going to get sound, but I will try and reshare with sound if I need to. But, um, this was coming off the back of our event in Costa Rica, co-created with young people, and just she reflected so powerfully on what it meant to her. And to Jen's point, sometimes we're working hard as educators in classrooms. There are things we do there. There are limits to what we can achieve there. And what Albany reflects on is the connection to something much bigger than herself, the IB, but more broadly what it means to be a young person at this time. So let me see if you've got—

Okay, I just want to say how much I love this event. I think it makes the IB more human. It makes it more approachable to us students because in the middle of like the EAs, the IAs, other things we need to do, this makes us realize that we're part of something bigger, of a bigger mission, of a universal mission that is not only here in Costa Rica but also in other places in the world. And yes, there's room for improvement, but this shows us what we're doing in class, what we're reading in those books, what we're putting in the test, it's actually something that we're going to use for make the world better. And the skills we're doing are gonna make this a better place. And just like Having this space is connecting with other teenagers that are also struggling as we do, but also—

There we go. So I mean, as you can hear, Jesse was fired up after the event and just felt this sense of connection with the young people. She was one of the co-leads of the event, and I just think that is such a powerful thing. We, of course, we all get caught up in the thing, the must-dos every day of the curriculum and the exams and the IAs and the all of that, it's necessary. But what is this bigger reason why we're connecting around these important issues? And I think that, you know, it's just great to hear her reflect on that. So moving on to perhaps what it is. Jen, do you want to?

Sure. Are you playing this, Tim, or am I talking about it? Yeah, just let me— Okay, great. So, and just as a note, that slide that Tim showed, if this is shared with everyone, there is a 3.5-minute video that I, you know, definitely have a look at because it brings everything we're talking about to life. But when we created this, it really was an opportunity for us to say, how do we create spaces outside of the classroom that really bring hope, create action? We believe at Festival of Hope that there is no hope without action, and so we really wanted to spend time saying if there's really complex challenges, how do we have young people lead in creating those spaces so that they can say what they need? One big part of Festival of Hope is while it can be done in your own school community or just even in a classroom or with a group of students, we like when you bring in diverse voices and diverse young people who maybe don't know each other. That tends to really create the, the rich opportunities that happen. So it can be a live in-person event, it can be a virtual event. It is really about dialogue, it's about workshops, it's about creativity. It's really about creating that space for young people to lead and to think about and talk about those things that are really important to them. We've been intentionally broad So what you will not find at the end of this presentation is a step-by-step guide on how to plan or host a Festival of Hope because it really needs to be within the context of those young people's lives, their community, and their, their lived experience. And that's only possible when you leave it open enough for them to create that.

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I would say really the only non-negotiable in the way we've, we've created Festival of Hope is that it has to be co-created with young people. Everything else is, is somewhat up for grabs. So as you can see here, the kinds of the themes and topics that come up are broad, but they come up all over the world. They're quite universal. So often around well-being or flourishing, mental health, physical health, climate of course is coming up a huge amount. Our relationship with technology, how do we use it for good, how do we respond in a rapidly changing context of technology, peace and conflict and justice, of course, particularly now. And then how do we, what do we need to create a better future? And you can see in the image here, this was our event in Bogotá in Colombia. And this was the young leaders there really wanted to focus around mental health and wellbeing, but particularly through the lens of then What can you do about that in relation to creative arts? So this was an amazing group who were using drumming and the movement and the dance to kind of express how do you— what's the relationship with social change and how can music be an important force for social change? Just as one example. And then there were other— there was a DJ workshop, there was a knitting workshop, there was all sorts of things, but all around this theme of well-being and flourishing for those young people. So like I say, that's really our only non-negotiable is you part of the first step is getting a group of young people together and co-creating with them. So it really is, I mean, if you know anything about the IB, it is very much aligned with an IB approach of inquiry, reflection, and action. But as Jen said, this isn't about sitting in a room and talking. This is about how do we get to action, but in a really thoughtful way. Intergenerationally together, thinking what is needed in this space. But, you know, the hope is generated by, by the doing, by the reflecting together and working together.

So just to kind of recap on kind of what we focus on is, first of all, youth at the center, local and global issues. That's very open and should be contextualized. As Tim said, some places call us and say, we're going to do a Festival of Hope because there was a major flood in our city, and we, we want to bring a sense of hope. We want to make sure that everybody is okay. And it's a very local Festival of Hope tied to something that has just happened, and they bring and activate their community around that issue. Other times, we, we just hosted a Festival of Hope actually in Peru last September, and they wanted to be around peace and conflict. And they explored it from two angles. One was a global angle, but then also what was, you know, what were the issues that impacted their own country and prevented their own country from, from being at peace. And so definitely it's, it, what I always find amazing is that just as educators, when you open up the space to say, what do you really want to talk about? It's— they are ready. They are ready to just dive into the issues. Since we have someone from Pathways, when we were at Pathways, we spent a lot of time exploring spirituality and its connection to hope. And then when we went to Mumbai, we spent time exploring technology for good. So all of these areas are, you know, are opportunities for workshops and spaces. And maybe I can also share a little bit about spaces. When we think about what a Festival of Hope is, think about how do you take everyone outdoors? How do you get people moving so it's embodied? How do you get out of, you know, that idea that we have to only engage and learn on stages or in classrooms? Because that's where the magic really happens. And, you know, creativity probably plays a leading role in all of our Festival of Hopes. In India, we had open mics where young people had come up with stories and poems and music that felt like it was how they could process everything that was happening in their lives, in the world. In Indonesia, similarly, art— they made, created a beautiful hope quilt from every student in the class, in a, in the school, having a little patch that they could draw on and symbolize hope, and then they put it all together in their classroom. So there's tons of ways to do this, both big and small.

And I think maybe, Jen, I'm not sure we've said this yet, but it's worth, worth emphasizing this is not just open to IB people in IB schools. This is absolutely universal, open to everyone. That's been a really intentional point that we are trying to bring together communities that maybe don't interact public schools, private schools, IB, non-IB, all together. And that's a really important principle for us. This is not gatekeeping around being a particular IB product. This is absolutely an open invitation to intergenerational dialogue and co-creation with young people across the world. So I just, I think that's, you know, important to say. You can see if you want to, I think the best way to see it is just seeing the examples and you can see here just some of the the examples from our YouTube channel all around the world. I mean, you know, we've had, we've seen it pop up in so many different communities. Sometimes we know it's happening, sometimes even better, we don't know it's happening, and suddenly it's just, we find out afterwards that 19 schools in, in Lebanon have all got together in, in Beirut for an amazing event altogether, and we discover afterwards. And, you know, so it's the resonant, the resonant idea, I think, is, is getting together around the idea of hope and the young people's questions. In some schools, that may not be that innovative because it's, it's something that happens through units of inquiry every day. In other schools, it's completely, completely different to anything they've ever experienced before. So I think that's also important to say, you know, all schools are not the same. And this, for some, some contexts in some schools, this is a really, really kind of a new kind of experience to co-create with young people step out of the educator role and say, what do these young people want? How do we work together to, to build something together?

So I would, I would definitely add to that, that one of the things that we've found has been a role that Tim and I have had to play is just loosening an educator's grip on controlling an event of something that's happening that the students are leading. And definitely the best most kind of fun, amazing Festival of Hopes have been the ones where the educators have really stepped back and served as, you know, elevators of the youth ideas and passion and champions of it more so than leading them or guiding them step by step. So that's definitely been probably one of the more interesting pieces that maybe because we drink our own Kool-Aid and we love this, we often forget that it's not always every day something that's in schools. But the flip side of that is a lot a lot of schools have amazing opportunities in school to bring in this idea of hope through things that already exist in your calendar. And I just wanted to bring that up as well. It doesn't have to be a standalone effort. It can be tied to something else that you're already doing, and it's just another layer to create that slightly different space in the moment.

And so just, I mean, in relation to stepping into it and actually taking some concrete actions, we have kept it deliberately open, as Jen said. We haven't given, we're not gonna give a recipe for how it should be done in every situation. But on the flip side as well, some people have asked us for more guidance to say, you know, okay, this is an unfamiliar kind of process to co-create with young people for us. We are willing to step into the space. We're feeling like this is something we really wanna do,, but can we have a bit of guidance to, to do that? So one of the things we've created is a playbook which has got 20, you know, plays, you know, moves that you can make as an educator, as a, as a community or a school that wants to step into this. So that's— so we're going to offer a few different resources that might help. This will— we'll share the link with you in a moment for— this is one that's freely available and it may be useful with some links out to other resources and other pieces of inspiration from previous events that we've held. And then, Jen, did you want to mention FOH Engage?

Sure, sure. So I think just a couple other pieces. Our website is available in 10 languages. It's also maybe important to note Festival of Hope can be done in any language in any way. We really, if you think about it, is kind of an open source kind of effort in the sense that we have countries and communities who have said, well, this logo doesn't quite work for us, so we want to be— we're gonna— our young people are inspired to create a slightly different one. So in Brazil, for example, the students wanted to merge the HOPE logo with the Pau de Açúcar mountain that represents them in Rio, and so they created their own. Tim is heading out tomorrow to the first Festival of HOPE in Beijing, China, And they've also created their, their own approach to what hope looks like and means for them. And so we do provide all of those resources. They can be linked to from the playbook, from the community guide that's on our website, and you can also look at— we also offer, if you are, if there's a language we haven't translated something into, we are more than happy to work with educators to help with that as well. We have about 300 pieces of professional development classroom resources on the IB Exchange website, which I know not— if you're not an IB educator, you can't access. We are working to get those all onto our, to our Festival of Hope website very soon, so that will be coming. But I do just want to share briefly what we could, what that looks like, and in terms of as you think about what you can do right this minute when you hang up. So if you think about it, if we have a YouTube, sorry Tim, let me see if I can share this. Yeah, it'll go through. Can you see my screen now?

It's coming. Yeah, there it is.

Yeah, great. So, you know, if you think about the YouTube videos, one of the opportunities there is to find a video that you think, a topic and a video, and we do have them sorted, that connects with maybe something your young people are thinking about, and then think about the process with which you would want to take them through an exercise. So as an example, we have a really cool interview with a young woman named Sarah who meets Reshma Saujani, who is just an amazing woman who's done so many incredible things in her life. She's the founder of Girls Who Code. She also started an organization called Moms First here in the United States, and she ran for office and she lost. And so she talks a lot about bravery and just trying things and going after things. And so one of the things that we can talk about is, you know, what happens when you, for younger kids, you put them in a, you have, you host a bravery circle. You think about the actions that you could take as you, as you're being brave and then you share in it. We try to bring movement into those activities. We bring discussion and reflection as well. So we have an exercises like this for almost every single one of the videos that we have on our YouTube channel, which, you know, and, and we break them down into whether it can be— let me see if I can get to that video— a provocation, a sense of understanding, something tied to the learner profile, and then the action that you can take as you go through them. So that would definitely be just, you know, right off the bat something just looking at the YouTube videos and saying, what, what could I share here that would be interesting?

As educators, we work in, in certain constraints, of course, and we have many needs that we are trying to fulfill in our roles as educators, for sure. But I think this is where, for me, where Festival of Hope, you know, gets really interesting because it can seed more of those kinds of small spaces that begin to shift education to the kinds of co-created, you know, learning spaces that we're talking about. And it, you know, it can happen in really, really small ways. As Jen said, it doesn't have to be that you stop everything for 2 days and run this major event involving, you know, your entire school community. It can really be a 5 or a 10-minute space where you ask, as Jen said, ask the students about their stories or listen to what their concerns are, or ask them to frame some questions about the things that they care about. It is, you know, it is more common practice in IB schools, but it's not always that common to really kind of, you know, just give them some space to reflect and ask them what, 'What do they actually think about this issue?' Or, you know, and just try and carve out those spaces. That might seem like a really small thing, but then, you know, as you enable those small spaces, they can then begin to grow into larger ones where it may be project-based work or where you start asking them to, you know, you take them out and you ask them to engage with the world out there and be noticing where are the things that they don't feel things are quite right and they want to change. Or so it's, I think it's, it's a, yeah, it can happen at multiple scales from the very small to the very large.