Creating the foundations for a new field in an Age of AI, Polarization, and a Crisis of Meaning

Inaugural Field Building Convening • June 16–18, 2026

As many of you know, for the last 15 years, Open Future Institute has been developing The QUESTion Project, touching the lives of more than 15,000 high school students in New York City and Los Angeles.

Our work was always guided by a vision larger than a single program.

Building on this foundation, we recently took a major step toward bringing that broader vision into education. After a year spent shaping the goals and direction, gathering the right voices, and clarifying the purpose of the effort, we hosted a three-day convening in June at the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan. There, we began laying the groundwork for a new field of study and practice in education: Prioritizing What Makes Us Human.

The convening brought together leading academics, researchers, educators, government officials, and foundation, program, and school leaders. Everyone came with a deep recognition of the importance of supporting students’ humanity. Many had been carrying that conviction in their own contexts; the gathering gave us the space to recognize that we were not carrying it alone and to begin turning that shared commitment into something that can meaningfully shape the education system.

What made the gathering powerful was the work that followed. Together, we began tackling the foundations of practice and pedagogy that can make this vision real, as well as the long-term strategy needed to influence the education system.

If we think about what matters for students’ humanity, we can name many important outcomes: empathy, belonging, care for one another, character, cross-cultural understanding, purpose, and many more. But the deeper question is: What foundation of practice makes it possible for these capacities to develop?

What we have seen in students with the QUESTion Class, and what was affirmed among participants at the convening, is that human connection is foundational. To make that foundation concrete in practice, we are focusing on three essential dimensions of connection: connection with self, with others, and with life — including the world, our communities, our futures, and what gives us a sense of meaning and purpose.

At the convening, we wrestled with whether this work is best understood as a new field or a movement and we recognized that each path asks something different of us. By the end, we collectively landed that it needs to be both: a field that can build shared language, research, practice, and legitimacy, and a movement that can invite broader participation and shift what education values.

This is the paradigm shift we are working toward: an education system where outcomes are built on a deeper foundation of being human.

In a time of disconnection, polarization, mental health challenges, and rapid technological change, this work feels increasingly urgent. Young people need more than preparation for college, career, and success. They need spaces, language, practices, and relationships that help them become more fully connected to themselves, to one another, and to the world they are inheriting.

Our next steps will be shaped through collective stewardship. This summer, we will work with 25 New York City public high school students through a two-week internship, inviting them to reflect on what emerged from the convening and to help ensure that this effort is informed by their perspective.

We are deeply grateful to everyone who has supported Open Future Institute and The QUESTion Project over the years. This next chapter grows directly out of that work, and we are excited to keep sharing what unfolds.

Building this field and movement is a collective effort. We welcome any input, reflections, ideas, or connections you may have that could help shape and strengthen this emerging effort.

Together, we can turn inquiry into empowerment—one student, one question, one classroom at a time.