Archives: Events

Ulster BOCES, Vassar College, and World Savvy will host the “Designing Sustainable Futures: Climate Summit” on April 25, from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm at Vassar College.

This conference will bring together Mid-Hudson Valley public and private school high school students and their teachers, Vassar professors and school leaders to think about ways to take meaningful action on climate change and understand their role as global citizens.

Dana Mortenson, World Savvy CEO and Co-Founder, will moderate a panel of Vassar College Professors to discuss the current climate landscape.

Students will wrestle with what informed action looks like, explore current solutions to the climate crisis and design solutions of their own that will be presented at the end of the day.

Vassar College Panelists

• Mary Ann Cunningham, Earth Science and Geography Director, Environmental Studies Program
• Kirsten Menking, Professor of Earth Science on the Althea Ward Clark Chair
• Laura Haynes, Assistant Professor of Earth Science
• Deon Hanley Knights, Assistant Professor of Earth Science and Environmental Studies

Join World Savvy’s own KK Neimann as she kicks off the Magnet Schools of America (MSA) National Conference on Magnet Schools with a Pre-Conference Session, Teaching for Global Competence: What we need TODAY to prepare students for TOMORROW, on April 18th at 2:45 pm. During this engaging session, KK will explain what global competence is, why it matters, and how you can embed it into your school or district. 

In addition to leading this important conversation, World Savvy will be exhibiting at the conference, attending sessions, and meeting with key partners. We would love to connect with you, learn more about your school or district, and hear how your school year is going.

About MSA: MSA is a national nonprofit professional education association whose members are schools and school districts.  The association represents and is a resource to magnet schools, parents, teachers, school boards, administrators, business leaders, community organizations and institutions of higher education. 

Magnet Schools are founded on five key pillars: diversity, innovative curriculum and professional development, academic excellence, leadership and family and community partnerships.

The educational themes that some magnet schools focus on include;

• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
• Fine and Performing Arts
• International Baccalaureate, International Studies
• Career and Technical Education (CTE) and
• World Languages (immersion and non-immersion)

Use the link below to learn more about the conference schedule and accommodations, and register to attend!

As a result of climate change, 2.5 billion people will be on the move in the latter half of this century.

What will this look like? As educators, how can we navigate this challenge in classrooms and learning environments? How can we create learning experiences that prepare young people to meet this challenge?

Climate and Migration: Lessons for the Classroom will unpack climate change’s effects on migration while providing topical classroom resources.  Learn how to implement an inquiry-based approach to teaching these subjects to 8th-12th grade students.

Join Adam Koehler, Professional Learning Facilitator of World Savvy, and Adam Strom, Executive Director of Reimaging Migration, in this free, virtual webinar on Tuesday, April 19th, from 6:00-7:00 pm CST.

Thomas Friedman, columnist and author, and Hamse Warfa, Senior Advisor, Biden Administration and Former Deputy Commissioner of Workforce for Minnesota, will join Dana Mortenson, CEO and Co-founder of World Savvy, as our guests for an engaging panel discussion about what we can expect in the future of work, and how K-12 education holds a unique opportunity to prepare our youth.

Megatrends are transforming the nature of work, including globalization and rapid technological progress. How jobs will be carried out and who carries them out are shifting, creating an increase in demand for competencies like critical thinking and problem-solving. What will be the future of work? What can K-12 education do to best prepare youth for this future?

About the panelists:

Thomas L. Friedman is an internationally renowned author, reporter, and columnist for the New York Times. Thomas is a three-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for his work on international reporting and commentary along with seven bestselling books including, The World is Flat. Friedman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up in St. Louis Park.

Hamse Warfa serves as a Presidential appointee, Senior Advisor at the U.S. State Department on civilian security, democracy, and human rights. Hamse formerly served as Minnesota DEED Deputy Commissioner for Workforce Development where he successfully advocated for the largest job bill in state history that helps supply workforce training to youth and adults. Hamse came to the U.S. as a refugee teenager and today serves as the most senior Somali American official in the Federal government.

Dana Mortenson is the CEO and Co-founder of World Savvy, a national education nonprofit. World Savvy supports change agents in K-12 education to create more inclusive, adaptive schools that ensure all young people can develop the skills and dispositions needed to thrive in a more diverse, interconnected world. Dana is an Ashoka Fellow and was named one of The New Leaders Council’s 40 under 40 Progressive American Leaders, and Women We Admire’s Top 50 Women Leaders of Minnesota for 2022.

About the moderator:

William Gaudelli is the Dean of the College of Education and Vice Provost for Innovation in Education at Lehigh University. With a career spanning 35 years as a classroom teacher, researcher, professor, and administrator, he is a prominent international scholar with research areas focusing on global citizenship education and teacher education. He has published over 85 scholarly pieces and four books, the most recent entitled, Pedagogy of the Global Event (Routledge, 2023).

World Savvy is hosting a reception to kick off the MASA Spring conference on Wednesday, March 8th from 5:30 – 7:00 pm. The event will be located at LookOut, 8672 Pineview Ln N, Maple Grove, MN 55369. Drinks and appetizers will be provided. Please RSVP here or with the link below if you plan to attend. We hope to see you there!

World Savvy will be exhibiting at this year’s annual Minnesota Association of School Administrators’ (MASA) spring conference on Thursday, March 9, 2023 thru Friday, March 10, 2023.

Stop by our booth to hear about our exciting new partnership with Superintendent Dr. Michael Thomas and the leadership team at Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools and our other great partnerships with Minnesota schools!

World Savvy will exhibit at the 2023 CASE Winter Leadership Conference in Loveland, CO!

Join us and public education leaders from across Colorado for two-days of learning, networking, and community. This year’s event will focus on the theme of Excellence By Association, and features Peyton Manning as the keynote speaker. You can learn more by visiting the Colorado Association of School Executive’s website.

If you’re attending, we’d love to learn more about your school and share some of our custom solutions. We hope to see you there!

Join World Savvy at the National Conference on Education, presented by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), in San Antonio, TX!

The National Conference on Education is a premier professional development and networking event for school superintendents and administrators. Attendees will hear from educational thought leaders who are championing national school systems while gaining new approaches to invigorate their own school districts.

Register today to secure your spot, and don’t forget to visit World Savvy at booth #639!

Actionable Innovations Global is hosting the first-ever digital Global Learning for an Open World (GLOW) Conference on November 18th – 19th, 2022. World Savvy is thrilled to be featured as the premier partner and join the tremendous list of keynote and featured speakers.

The GLOW Conference will create a dedicated space for global educators to connect and ideate around global competency. GLOW will offer 30 hours of uninterrupted digital content from education experts around the world. Sessions will range from keynote speeches to interactive workshops and live interviews. All content is free to view worldwide.

Register today to watch World Savvy’s Dana Mortenson, Molly Dengler, and Whitney McKinley present!

Don’t Miss World Savvy’s Featured Speakers:

Friday, November 18^th:

Dana Mortenson
Global Competency for a Changing World  |  9:00 – 9:50 am CT

• Dana Mortenson, co-founder of World Savvy, will explore how the larger ‘global education’ movement needs to evolve to support an inclusive framework all schools can use to create future-ready education. With significant political division and polarization in communities across the U.S. and K–12 schools often the arena where these battles play out, it has never been more urgent to embed global competency into teaching, learning, and culture in systemic ways—for civic engagement, workforce readiness, and global problem-solving. This keynote will explore this new landscape, describe promising innovative approaches that are propelling this movement forward, and outline how we can leverage the current legislative environment as a tipping point for this important work.

Maria Hersey, World Savvy Director of Strategic Partnerships
GLOW MEETUP: Let’s Talk Global Competence |  1:30 – 2:30 pm CT

• This is an informal and conversational meetup hosted by GLOW partners, World Savvy. Come share what it means to be globally competent and ideas for fostering global competence in teachers and students. Check out World Savvy’s matrix to learn more about global competence!

Molly Dengler, World Savvy Professional Learning Facilitator
Deep Inquiry for Global Competence  |  4:00 – 4:50 pm CT

• How does inquiry support global competence development for our students and ourselves? In a world where we are inundated with information and misinformation every minute of every day, it has never been more important for young people to be curious, critical thinkers. This session will explore what actions educators can take to successfully use case studies to cultivate curiosity and build the essential skills students need to thrive in a global community.

Saturday, November 19^th:

Whitney McKinley, World Savvy Lead Professional Learning Facilitator, and KK Neimann, World Savvy Director of Professional Learning
Centering Global Competence in the Classroom: Beyond Theory and into Practice  |  11:00 – 11:50 am CT

• In this session, we will hear from teachers who have shifted their practice to center the development of global competence in their students. In a moderated discussion, these educators will share what works, what hasn’t, and what keeps them committed to this work. This action-oriented session will focus on the fundamental shifts and changes that teacher practitioners have engaged with when ensuring that global competence is at the center of learning and teaching.

Dana Mortenson, Cindy Derrane, and Margo Fraczek
Educator Insight: Building Student-Centered Classrooms that Develop Global Competency  |  12:00 – 12:50 pm CT

• Join veteran World Savvy educators and school leaders as they share perspectives on cultivating student-centered, inclusive, equitable learning environments that develop global competency. Using World Savvy’s frameworks for inquiry and knowledge-to-action, these educators have embedded global competence deeply into their teaching and leadership. They will share how a student-centered approach to global competencies changes outcomes for students and the entire school community.

Come celebrate the art of teaching and explore the ways we can prepare young people for active and engaged global citizenship.

World Savvy’s work is grounded in a set of Evidence-Based Principles that leverage 20 years of experience embedding Global Competence into K-12 teaching, learning, and school culture. Preparing young people to thrive in a diverse, complex, and interconnected world is an awesome task, and to graduate the engaged citizens that this world needs, we must reimagine what we are doing in our classrooms and schools. In this workshop, we will explore what global competence is, why it is important, and how we can get it done. Using World Savvy frameworks, participants will …

• Think about the educator they want to be and the educator their students need them to be;
• Identify concrete actions they can take in their classrooms to develop the skills and dispositions we know young people need to thrive in their ever-changing communities, locally and globally.

The event will be held at Sonoma State University in Ruben Salazar Hall, Room 1047. Admission is $25. Lunch will be provided.