For Youth, By Youth convenes youth leaders from around the world to explore how young people can lead change in their communities, shape the future of higher education, and expand how knowledge is co-created and shared.
Participants of the inaugural cohort collaborated through thematic cross-border working groups: Storytelling & Movement-building, Youth-led Participatory Action Research, Responsible AI, and Future of Higher Education.
These groups are exploratory virtual spaces where young people learned from lived experience, examined social challenges, and generated new forms of public scholarship rooted in community realities. Underpinning this work are the core principles of conscious leadership and global solidarity, encouraging participants to lead with self-awareness, empathy, and shared purpose while learning alongside peers facing similar challenges across borders.
The three case studies below highlight work emerging from the working groups. Together, they demonstrate how young leaders are strengthening community–university partnerships, elevating public scholarship in these fields, and helping shape a long-term knowledge base for their global movement. Over the next five years, additional case studies and other forms of public scholarship such as documentary films and youth narratives will serve as a resource for educators, researchers, and learners who are united in their common cause to reform higher education internationally.
Authors: Samantha Katsande, Program Manager, paNhari and Duaa Shah, Next Generation Leader Alumni Consultant
