Foresight Fellows on a Path to Equity and Access

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In this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Mason Pashia dives into the critical importance of elevating youth voice and agency in shaping the future of education. Joined by Izumi Vasquez, a recent Harvard graduate and UNICEF Youth Foresight Fellow, alongside Caitlyn McCurn and Shai Naides of UNICEF, the conversation explores how young leaders are reimagining educational systems to be more equitable and inclusive. From addressing global education challenges to designing systems that prioritize student voice, this episode highlights the intersection of community investment, civic leadership, and innovative approaches to learning. Tune in to learn how empowering youth as co-creators can transform education and prepare learners for a rapidly changing world.

Outline

• (00:00) Introduction: Youth Voice in Education
• (01:54) The Student Experience: Gaps in Support
• (06:34) UNICEF’s Youth Foresight Fellowship
• (15:35) Building Confidence and Finding Voice
• (34:10) Global Skills for an Uncertain Future

Introduction: Youth Voice in Education

Mason Pashia: You’re listening to the Getting Smart podcast.

Mason Pashia: I’m Mason Pashia. Over the past few months, we’ve been running a series of blogs that envisions different aspects of a learning ecosystem in the year 2040. So far, we’ve highlighted a day in the life of learners, educators, and parents.

It’s a kind of storytelling that helps you wrap your arms and your mind around possible futures that can otherwise be pretty difficult to grasp. We’re also leading a pilot with Issaquah Public Schools, where we’re gathering student voices and encouraging the students to design a new school together.

So, based on the data they’re collecting from their peers, how can they build consensus toward a common vision of what school could be? Today, I’m super excited to be joined by a team that’s been asking some similar questions globally. They’ve also been including the voices of young people in the conversation.

I’m super excited to dig in today. We’re joined by Izumi Vasquez, the United States Youth Foresight Fellow for UNICEF; Caitlyn McCurn, Managing Director of Global Programs at UNICEF USA; and Shai Naides, the Chief of Youth Engagement and Strategy at the UNICEF Innocenti Global Office of Research and Foresight. Welcome, all of you. It’s so good to have you here with me today.

We’re across the country. We’re across the world. We’ve got Singapore represented, San Antonio, soon-to-be San Francisco, and also Vermont. So, it’s a fun one. I’m smack in the middle of the U.S. today. Zumi, I want to start with you. As the United States Youth Foresight Fellow, why are we having this conversation? What was the occasion for this foresight work that you’ve been doing, and what isn’t working in the education landscape that you’re trying to solve for?

Izumi Vasquez: I am very interested and passionate about youth inclusion in shaping the education landscape in the U.S. and abroad as well.

The Student Experience: Gaps in Support

Izumi Vasquez: From my experience as a student—especially a student who has done pre-K through 12th grade in the public education system—I feel that students’ voices often aren’t taken into consideration when it comes to the actual learning experience.

I specifically felt that when I was applying to college. I felt unsupported in that process and have learned from students from similar backgrounds who have experienced that lack of support or disparities between different schools when it comes to transitions from secondary education to higher education, as well as transitions between elementary school and middle school.

I feel like there are a lot of different pain points, per se, where there can be student input on how they can be best supported in these important milestones and transitions in their educational journeys.

Mason Pashia: That’s great. Thanks so much for setting that scene for us. Caitlyn, I want to come to you next. Zumi is a great part of this initiative for UNICEF. Tell me a little bit about UNICEF’s role in education and help us understand how you all sit in this space.

Caitlyn McCurn: Sure. UNICEF actually has one of the largest capacities of any education provider globally. Currently, UNICEF provides education programming for young people across more than 150 countries. UNICEF’s focus is really on addressing three critical priorities and tackling the major education challenges that children are facing—especially the most vulnerable children.

The first is really around access. Globally, about 272 million children remain out of school. These are largely the most vulnerable children: refugees, migrants, girls in many cases, and children with disabilities. A lot of UNICEF’s work is focused on breaking down the barriers that prevent those children from accessing an education and making sure there are alternative pathways and flexible learning models that allow them to catch up to their peers and eventually reintegrate into the formal school system when possible.

So, there’s a lot of work being done on access. Actually, that’s an area where there’s been some improvement.

The area where we’re seeing a lot of setbacks because of COVID is really around the learning crisis and quality education. Today, about two-thirds of all 10-year-olds can’t read with comprehension. This is the result of a lot of different factors. But what we know is that the current strategies being used are just not effectively teaching kids and equipping them with foundational skills and 21st-century skills.

A lot of UNICEF’s focus is on how we address that learning crisis. I think now is a pretty exciting moment in which UNICEF is using a lot of digital technology and new tools to create more personalized learning and to think about how we can use those technologies to improve learning outcomes.

Teachers are also an important part of this. UNICEF does a lot to build the capacity of teachers and engage community members and parents to be part of this process, which is key to improving learning outcomes.

The last area of focus is really on children in emergencies. Oftentimes, during an emergency, education is one of the first services to be suspended and one of the last to be resumed. Yet children themselves often prioritize education over a number of other services. UNICEF is working in contexts around the world, in some of the most difficult settings, to ensure the continuity of learning for children—providing them with temporary learning centers and supplies, training teachers, and offering emergency education support.

There are a lot of other strategies as well, but those are the three main areas of focus in UNICEF’s current education strategy. Another important part of our work is focused on research. Everything UNICEF does is very much grounded in evidence, and this is such an important part of UNICEF’s approach. Shai does a lot to make this possible, so you could speak a bit more to what we’re doing to advance research.

UNICEF’s Youth Foresight Fellowship

Mason Pashia: Shai, tell us how you make it possible.

Shai Naides: Thanks for that. I think it’s really interesting to hear Izumi speaking about agency—child and youth agency in the education space—and, of course, Caitlyn’s critical points about just how challenging the situation is and how business as usual is simply not working.

We do need to reimagine education. My role at Innocenti is as the Chief of Youth Engagement and Strategy. One of the projects we have is the Youth Foresight Fellowship.

If we think about future thinking as looking beyond the short term and being able to think of the future in structured ways, then strategic foresight is about how we can leverage that practice to inform strategies, investments, or the direction of policy design.

Our work with youth—specifically the Youth Foresight Fellowship—is really about working with young leaders emerging in this area. This year, we focused on education, specifically the futures of education. Izumi, as she mentioned, is part of this program.

The idea of this program is to work with young people, elevate their agency, their priorities, and their concerns, and train them in strategic foresight methodologies. This enables them to engage their communities, networks, and peers to explore and articulate possible futures.

Not just possible futures, but also probable futures and preferred futures. That’s a critical space where, through youth foresight, we create safe and structured spaces that are evidence-based and informed by the latest data. This allows young people engaged in the education space to provide practical recommendations after thinking about those preferred futures they believe we should be working toward.

The Youth Foresight Fellowship has been running for this entire year. These findings are being compiled into a publication—our report, the Young Visionaries Report on the Futures of Education, which is coming out in just two weeks. Izumi is one of 15 fellows from around the world, representing all regions.

I’m really excited about this publication because it brings in a different perspective and elevates the priorities of young people. There’s a lot in there that resonates with what UNICEF is doing, but Youth Foresight also allows us to think beyond what we could call a forecast—expanding on those possible futures.

As Izumi said, it really tackles the question of agency: how can the agency of young people come through strongly, where children and young people are saying, “Hey, we want to be more active in the conversation.” This is part of a bigger trend in youth participation in policy and decision-making.

Mason Pashia: I really appreciate the framing of the preferred future as well. At Getting Smart, we spend a lot of time talking about the futures, but we are always focused on what’s working. By default, we’re selecting over time toward a preferred future.

A lot of times in this work, I think most people actually have a vision of the future in their mind, but it’s probably a dystopic one. If they think about the future, it’s like The Handmaid’s Tale or 1984—a dystopian story about what could happen.

I love this idea of starting from now to design something that actually works better for everyone, rather than being reactive in a moment and saying, “How did we get here? This is terrible.” I think we need these conversations in our current times as well.

Izumi, I want to understand a little bit more about what it was like to be you in this process. What does it mean to say that you were engaging your peers in strategic foresight? You don’t have to paint the arc of the whole year, but maybe share a couple of instances where you were collecting feedback, gathering data points, or weaving a narrative. What did that look like?

Izumi Vasquez: In terms of youth foresight, I think first and foremost, I want to preface that a big part of my learning experience in the fellowship has been from my fellow participants. Hearing from them—especially since, as Shai mentioned, the fellows are from all over the world—has been an opportunity of a lifetime.

That is an understatement. Being able to learn from all of these different people, the backgrounds and cultures with which they grew up, and how those shaped their lives has been incredible. That has been one of the greatest opportunities of the fellowship.

Specifically, hearing from the other fellows about how their respective workshops have gone has been very insightful. The way the fellowship has been structured is that within the broader umbrella of “futures of education,” which is this year’s focus, each fellow has focused on a different aspect of education that is especially important to them.

For me, that was thinking about the futures of higher education in the United States, especially given the current political landscape. My workshop, which Tracy helped me coordinate, included members of the United States National Youth Council. We considered the different experiences of the attendees, what their high school experience was like, and how that might relate to their transition into college.

For attendees who were already college students, we reflected on how their high school experience shaped their experience in college and how their experience in college met, exceeded, or diverged from their expectations.

Mason Pashia: Has this always been a problem you wanted to solve? Have you been engaging in this over time, or how did you find your way into this program?

Izumi Vasquez: I think I definitely came into it more throughout college. College has always been something on my mind—not that I was always preparing for college or doing everything for college, but it was kind of an end goal my parents emphasized.

Education, more generally, has been a throughline throughout my entire life. But in terms of becoming an advocate within the education system and connecting with other youth to shape the future of education, I think I came into that later in my educational journey.

That came with more confidence, I would say, in navigating the education system. In high school, my experience was a little unique because of COVID. COVID happened during my junior year, so half of my junior year was online, my entire senior year was online, and my freshman year of college had a lot of regulations.

I think that once I got a more normal college experience, I felt more confident navigating the different resources that existed. As someone who just graduated this past May from Harvard, that was a very different environment than what I grew up with. I felt like, in many ways, I had imposter syndrome for much of college, to be honest.

It was only maybe at the end of my junior year or entering my senior year that I finally felt confident that I had earned my place and that I was going to make the difference I’ve always wanted to make in my community. With that confidence, I also gained a complementary desire to help others feel like they belong in this education system.

I wanted to go a step further and show others that they do have a voice and the power to help change the way things are run—the “business as usual” that Shai mentioned earlier. So yes, I definitely think it came with time, confidence, and incredible mentors I’ve had along my learning journey. They’ve always empowered me to put my best foot forward and believed in me when I didn’t always believe in myself.

That perseverance my mentors instilled in me has helped me find my voice and be that advocate.

Building Confidence and Finding Voice

Mason Pashia: Amazing. Well, congrats on the recent graduation, and shoutout to mentors and fellow fellows. It sounds like you’ve been surrounded by some great people along the way.

I said this a little bit before we started recording, but I’ve recently been really obsessed with student-led movements. You have the Sunrise Movement, which is about climate and a bunch of young people organizing against the climate challenge or catastrophe. You have Students Demand Action, which is against gun violence in the United States.

But we really don’t have one for education redesign—whether that be students demanding relevance, like more relevant learning experiences, or students demanding more high-quality learning experiences. I think, in some ways, they’re voting with their feet. You have an absentee crisis across the country, and maybe it’s just that they don’t think it’s worth their time.

I don’t want to put all of the students’ voices on your shoulders, Izumi, but do you have any theory as to why that is? Why does it take until after college, maybe, to gain the confidence to say, “I understand the education system enough now to make a meaningful comment on it”?

Izumi Vasquez: I think part of the issue is perhaps not having a clear avenue for how you might go about making your voice heard. I learned in college that different states actually have student representatives on their boards of education.

Mason Pashia: That’s amazing.

Izumi Vasquez: To my knowledge—I’m from Texas, born and raised—I think Texas only this year had a student try to, and successfully, start a youth position on the Texas Board of Education. But that came with a lot of emailing different people, being bounced around, and the whole email chain fiasco.

Even now, if you were to ask me, “Who would you contact to give feedback on your high school experience and what you would change about it in retrospect now that you’ve finished college?” I would genuinely have no idea who to contact.

Maybe I would start by looking up my school district and seeing if there are any emails publicly listed on the website. But even then, there’s no guarantee that my email would be read or that it wouldn’t be bounced to someone else.

To answer your question more specifically, I think part of the issue is just not knowing who to contact and having no guarantee that it’ll even end up anywhere.

What could help, though, is creating dedicated positions on boards of education—whether at a state level, district level, or even at a school level. That would be quite helpful in visually seeing that representation.

It means so much as a student to see a dedicated student position. To see someone like me have a voice at that level of the education system means a lot, even in terms of representation.

Mason Pashia: I think that’s super interesting and a great thing to flag. It’s very funny from our seat because we’re often hearing the exact same experience from school leadership. They don’t know how to actually get feedback from students, especially once they’ve left.

It’s super interesting that neither of you can figure out how to contact each other, even though you spend four years together in close proximity. You seem to be missing each other—not asking the right questions or engaging in the right design. Thank you so much for illuminating that.

Caitlyn, I’d love to know how you think we can more intentionally make these meaningful decision-making spaces for young people. What does it mean to cultivate a space where there’s belonging, where they feel like their voices can be heard, and where they know what levers they can pull in the great machine of whatever system we’re in?

Caitlyn McCurn: I think it starts with a mindset shift—from thinking about young people just as beneficiaries of programs and services to really envisioning them as true partners.

For UNICEF, participation isn’t just a “nice to have.” It’s a right, enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It’s central to our work.

But it’s also good policy. When we have opportunities for young people to meaningfully participate in decisions that shape their lives—whether we’re talking about education reform or climate action—we know those solutions are more relevant, accessible, and sustainable.

There’s a lot that adults can do to create the structures that allow for authentic participation. That involves moving away from consultations that might end after a single meeting to much more ongoing, continuous mechanisms.

So, we’re seeing a lot of different mechanisms globally that are being used to create these spaces. For example, the U-Report program allows youth to send feedback. Over 37 million young people are using this platform to share their perspectives on issues they care about, and the results are then fed back to decision-makers.

These types of mechanisms are effective, and there are also youth parliaments and youth advisory boards that provide opportunities for young people to engage directly with government representatives. Ideally, they can share their perspectives and see their participation reflected in real decisions.

Adults also need to build their capacity to learn how to share power and trust in the experience of young people. This involves rethinking the way meetings are formatted to make them more accessible and valuing the commitment and time that young people put into this work.

I’m so impressed with Izumi and the opportunities I’ve had to speak with young people who are in college, getting degrees, and spending their nights advocating for issues they care about. When adults create these spaces, we’re building a generation of engaged citizens who feel ownership over the issues in their communities and the broader global landscape.

Shorts Content

Global Skills for an Uncertain Future

Mason Pashia: Thank you for sharing that. I also want to highlight something on the Youth Report front. American Student Assistance, a partner organization of ours, has a really cool tool called Teen Voice. It’s essentially a youth focus group platform where organizations can pay a fee to participate, and youth are paid for their time and feedback.

It’s a super easy way to submit a questionnaire or survey and get buy-in from young people on a topic or product. I love how it exchanges power and centers youth voices. It’s a great example of how we can hear from young people in a centralized and frictionless way. I encourage everyone to try tools like this rather than just talk about engaging youth.

Thinking about the report and the findings, I’d love to dive into what this future forecast uncovered. I don’t know where the best place to start is—whether it’s trends, skills, or competencies. Shai, Caitlyn, or Izumi, whoever feels moved to speak, take us to where you think we should go next.

Shai Naides: Maybe I can jump in here. This theme of working with children and young people not just as beneficiaries but as equal partners cuts across so many of the issues we’re seeing today.

For example, over half of the world’s population is under 35, yet only 2.8% of parliamentarians are under 30 years old. Young people are largely missing from spaces of policy and decision-making.

At the same time, trust in institutions is declining. The Edelman Trust Barometer shows that year after year, trust in institutions is eroding. This widening trust gap between generations is especially concerning in a world that feels increasingly challenging for young people.

We’re not even touching on the major disruptions of today, like the potential impacts of AI on the future of employment. It’s critical to elevate youth voices in these spaces and listen to them more.

Mason, you asked earlier about youth movements in education. I’d point out that they do exist, but often at the intersection of other movements. For example, there are youth-led movements pushing for AI governance that prioritizes accessibility and equity.

One concept that emerged in our work is AI-powered learning hubs that serve the interests of children first—not just the interests of those building the technology. This is a great example of how young people are imagining futures that center their needs and priorities.

Mason Pashia: That’s a helpful pushback and a smart observation. I do think agency is emerging across the movement spectrum, especially for young people. In its own right, that’s a rejection of how they’ve been treated in the past or how school systems have viewed them.

Shai Naides: Exactly. In fact, the Youth Foresight Fellowship was built as a response to these trends and the need to model new mechanisms for youth participation.

Last year, we published research on meaningful youth engagement in the multilateral system. We worked with over 80 young people from around the world who had been UN delegates, EU delegates, and G7 or G20 delegates.

The findings showed how much progress has been made in including youth in these spaces, but also how challenging it still is for them to see their inputs translate into actual impact and change at a systems level.

This brings us back to the intergenerational trust gap. It’s not just about creating mechanisms and programs for youth inclusion. It’s about shifting power from those who hold decision-making authority to children and young people so they’re truly included as equal partners.

Mason Pashia: Totally. Izumi, I’m curious—what did you find in the Foresight Fellowship? What does the future of education look like in 2040? Did the fellows’ visions vary depending on their cultural contexts, or did they converge over time?

Izumi Vasquez: I wouldn’t say the different futures of education based on the regions are diverging or fragmenting. If anything, they’re distinct in their own right because they’re shaped by the unique cultures and contexts in which they originate.

I don’t think there’s one cohesive vision of the future of education that we’ve come to as fellows. Instead, there are multiple futures. Emphasizing the plurality of futures is important because it allows us to embrace all the different learnings we’ve uncovered as fellows.

It also leaves room for youth inspired by this work—or those doing this work alongside us in different parts of the world—to contribute to this futures thinking and the creation of new futures.

When you look at the report, you’ll see that it highlights a variety of preferred futures, each shaped by the unique cultural and contextual factors of the fellows’ regions. For example, one of the fellows from the Philippines, Rens, focused on climate education and how young people imagine a future where climate education is deeply integrated into the curriculum.

Another recurring theme across the report is agency—a future where education systems empower students and teachers to shape not only the curriculum but also how it’s delivered. This idea of co-creation is central to many of the preferred futures we explored.

There’s also a shared vision of a future where every child has access to high-quality education. This ties back to Caitlyn’s earlier point about addressing the global education access challenge.

What’s particularly interesting is how the fellows also identified potential risks and disruptions. For example, Mamou, a fellow from Mali, explored a scenario where rising temperatures due to climate change force schools to operate in “night mode.” This idea came from a present-day signal in Mali, where some schools are already closing during the hottest parts of the day.

By imagining these possible futures, we’re not only identifying challenges but also thinking through their first- and second-order impacts. In the case of “night mode” schools, what would that mean for children’s ability to spend time with their families or engage in play?

Mason Pashia: That’s fascinating. Caitlyn, I want to turn to you for a moment. You sit at this unique intersection of global education impact. For our audience, which is primarily American educators and education leaders, how can they stay involved with this work? How can they take learnings from other parts of the world and share their own insights in a way that feels both generous and non-extractive?

Caitlyn McCurn: That’s a great question. Sometimes, when I speak about the education challenges facing children in the places where UNICEF works, it can feel very removed from what’s happening here in the U.S. For example, the work we’re doing in Gaza right now is addressing challenges that are vastly different from those faced by students in the U.S.

But at the same time, there are rapid changes happening globally—whether it’s AI, climate change, or shifts in society and industries—that are impacting all of us. These shared challenges create opportunities for collaboration and mutual learning.

One way to stay involved is by focusing on the transferable skills that children will need no matter where they live or what the future holds. These include resilience, adaptability, entrepreneurial skills, and social-emotional skills. These are durable skills that don’t go out of date, even as technology and industries evolve.

UNICEF is working with governments around the world to integrate these skills into formal education curricula. This work is not just about preparing children for the future; it’s also about helping them recover from trauma and build resilience today.

For American educators, there’s a lot of value in looking at how these skills are being prioritized globally and thinking about how to incorporate them into their own classrooms. At the same time, sharing insights and best practices from the U.S. can help inform global efforts.

Mason Pashia: I really like the list of skills you just mentioned—resilience, adaptability, entrepreneurial skills, and ethical reasoning. They feel more specific and distinct than the typical “four Cs” and seem more aligned with the challenges and opportunities of our future.

I think that’s a great place to end. Thank you so much to all of you for spending time with me today and sharing this incredible work. We’ll include links to the report in the show notes, as well as resources to stay connected with the Youth Fellows program and everything UNICEF is doing.

Thank you again for being here.

Izumi Vasquez, Caitlyn McCurn, and Shai Naides: Thank you!

Guest Bio

Izumi Vasquez

Izumi Vazquez recently graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College, earning Highest Honors in History and Science with a secondary focus in Global Health and Health Policy. Additionally, she achieved a citation in Spanish and completed a certificate in Civic Engagement while pursuing a pre-med track. Her academic and extracurricular achievements showcase a commitment to excellence and a dedication to impactful leadership in the healthcare sector.

Passionate about fostering equity and accessibility, Izumi focuses on bridging public and private sectors through community investment and civic leadership. With a goal of building more inclusive healthcare systems, she strives to address disparities and drive sustainable solutions that promote equitable health outcomes for all.

Caitlin McCurn

Caitlin McCurn grew up in Massachusetts and moved to Woodstock with her family in 2021 from Brooklyn, New York. She currently serves as Senior Director of Global Programs at UNICEF USA where she supports efforts to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children and protect the rights of every child. Her portfolio areas include education, early childhood development and gender equality. Her previous experience includes work on transitional justice, international development, and humanitarian programming in Europe and Africa. She is passionate about equitable housing and enjoys working with others to build a more just and vibrant community.

Shai Naides

Shai Naides is a seasoned development and social impact strategist with over 15 years of experience in diverse leadership roles, including senior management. He has driven initiatives across the United Nations and civil society, delivering results aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. Shai’s expertise spans global campaigns, organizational design, and capacity building—such as creating UNICEF’s first global youth volunteer platform and integrating youth-centered design into research, foresight, and policy strategies. He has successfully led funds and strategies focused on innovation, political activism, public engagement, policy advocacy, and social and behavioral change. Currently, as Chief of Youth Engagement and Strategy at UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, Shai leads efforts to embed meaningful youth participation into global governance processes and national strategies. His work emphasizes collaboration, innovation, and systems thinking to create impactful and inclusive policies.

With a background in Environmental Sciences and Political Ecology (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and a master’s in Conflict Analysis and Resolution (Carter School, George Mason University), Shai is a mediator and expert facilitator specializing in systems thinking, human-centered design, and futures thinking. His career spans diverse global contexts, including long-term assignments in countries like the U.K., U.S., Spain, and Thailand, and short-term workshops and strategy facilitation in over 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Shai’s work demonstrates a commitment to empowering youth, fostering innovation, and advancing policies that drive equitable social and environmental change worldwide.

Links

• Watch the full video here
• LinkedIn | Izumi Vázquez
• LinkedIn | Shai Naides
• UNICEF USA
• Innocenti
• Child Rights Youth Foresight Report on Education 2025 
• Last Years State of the Children Report
• Shai Naides