The Wayfinder

Feb 06 2025 12 ep. 17 mins 1
The Wayfinder Podcast artwork

Each month, host and NESA school graduate Abril Soewarso-Rivera explores themes of learning, leadership and community with thought leaders and partners in international education. This podcast is for everyone – administrators, teachers, parents, students – and will help our community connect the dots, bring issues of real relevance forward, and elevate student voice.

  Education
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Stretching Our Learning Edges with Jennifer Abrams

Feb 06 2025 19 mins  
What does it mean to be your best adult self at work? Abril connects with Jennifer Abrams, a communications consultant who supports educators, health care personnel, and others on new employee support, being generationally savvy, effective collaboration skills, having hard conversations, and creating identity-safe workplaces. Their conversation centers the concept of lifelong growt

Digital Storytelling with LeeAnne Lavender

Dec 04 2024 17 mins  
How can we enable students to take their learning outside the four walls of the classroom? On our tenth episode, we sit down with LeeAnne Lavender, a storytelling, service learning and global citizenship educator, to discuss purpose-driven pedagogy, multimedia storytelling projects, and what it means to be a learner alongside your students.

Experience Strategy with David Willows and Suzette Parlevliet

Oct 03 2024 13 mins  
How do we measure the school experience from every vantage point? On our first episode of season 2, Abril sits down with David Willows and Suzette Parlevliet of [Yellow Car] to chat about experience strategy, how we can best communicate a school's mission to prospective students/teachers, and felt experience measurements. Willows and Parlevliet close the episode with advice for edu

Regeneration and Hope with Maddy Hewitt

May 09 2024 16 mins  
How do we re-center hope? On our final episode of the season, NESA Executive Director Maddy Hewitt joins Abril in conversation and they discuss regenerative models of education, next year's NESA program, and the case for evidence-based hope.

Equity by Re-Design with Jacinta Williams

Apr 12 2024 20 mins  
What does it mean to decolonize the classroom? Join host Abril, reporting from the field, in conversation with Jacinta Williams, a social justice practitioner, as they dive into why we should strive to approach the classroom through a decolonial lens, what we can do to celebrate students’ racial and ethnic identities, and how we can foster meaningful dialogue across difference.

Deep Ecology with Ivy Yan

Mar 07 2024 17 mins  
How can we help our learners connect to nature with their heads, hearts, and hands? Abril sits down with Ivy Yan, a sought-after holistic education practitioner, and they dive into a discussion of Deep Ecology and how it can be woven into modern-day learning.

Futures of Learning with Raya Bidshahri

Feb 07 2024 14 mins  
In this episode, Abril sits down with Raya Bidshahri, the Founder and CEO of the School of Humanity, a breakthrough online high school reinventing what education looks like. Raya works with education providers, governments, investors, and EdTech companies to pave exciting, forward-thinking pathways for our next generation of learners. Abril and Raya discuss the concept of moonshot

Inclusion and Universal Design with Lee Ann Jung

Jan 10 2024 12 mins  
Join Abril in conversation with Lee Ann Jung, the founder of Lead Inclusion and a clinical professor at San Diego State University. She has consulted with schools in more than 30 countries in the areas of universal design for learning, inclusion, intervention, and mastery assessment and grading. Lee Ann keeps kids at the center of her work, always leading with care, sincerity, and

Social-Emotional Learning with Ellen Mahoney

Dec 06 2023 20 mins  
In this episode, we connect with Ellen Mahoney, the CEO and Founder of Sea Change Mentoring, an organization that builds mentoring programs for international schools. Ellen’s work thrives in its emphasis on cultivating student wellbeing and providing care and support during important life transitions. Abril and Ellen speak about culturally-sensitive social emotional learning, sta

AI and Disruptive Technologies with Michael Nachbar

Nov 09 2023 26 mins  
Join Abril in conversation with Michael Nachbar, the Executive Director of Global Online Academy, a pioneering network of schools and educators who are reimagining learning to thrive in a globally networked society. Michael is a frequent speaker and workshop facilitator at national and international conferences, and presents on such topics as educational trends impacting schools an