Russell Cailey, CM2 Principal
Contact innovator
THINK Global School

Innovation Overview
Why did you create this innovation?
THINK Global School (TGS) was launched as a way for students to learn in the world, rather than just about it. Students travel to four countries per year, where they learn about relevant issues from local experts in the community.
Through their TGS education, students develop empathy for the communities they visit and the soft and hard skills necessary to enact meaningful change in the world.
How does your innovation work in practice?
Through travel, students at TGS experience real-world issues firsthand and interact closely with the communities they immerse themselves within.
Each eight-week term is held in a different country, so students regularly learn in the world rather than about it. Students meet with local experts, guest speakers, and community members as they engage in projects centered around their surroundings.
These firsthand experiences are integral to the TGS experience, as they breed empathy and cultivate a deep understanding of peoples, cultures, and surroundings. Better yet, they help develop the skills necessary to create change in the future.
The Hope Survey is administered bi-annually to measure student satisfaction and success. The results have been astounding, with students reporting high satisfaction regarding engagement, belongingness, autonomy, goal orientation, hope, and academic press. Parents are also surveyed each year to measure their satisfaction with their child's education.
How has it been spreading?
For 2020-21, TGS transitioned to a fully remote model with great success. Students continued working on project modules with the service element shifting to their home communities. We returned to our traveling model for 2021-22 with a 94% re-enrollment rate. Both cohorts visited the UAE for a term, with projects based around the 2020 World Expo.
For the last six years, TGS has maintained a 100% graduation rate and a matriculation rate in the nineties. Our graduates now work in all manner of fields, companies, and organizations.
Moving forward, we are excited about the launch of the THINK Global School Professional Development Center. This will increase our impact exponentially by providing a way for educators worldwide to learn our innovative practices both in-person and remotely.
If I want to try it, what should I do?
Prospective students can apply to THINK Global School by filling out the inquiry form on the school website. Applications are currently open for the 2023-24 school year and beyond. The deadline for all 2023-24 applications to be turned in is January 1st, 2023.
Educators can learn more about job openings on our employment page.
All other inquiries: community@thinkglobalschool.org
HundrED Academy Review
There is only so much that can be learned within the four walls of a classroom, where teachers are largely reliant on lectures, textbooks, and internet materials. THINK Global School believes that engaging in place-based learning and allowing students to engage directly with a wide range of cultures, peoples, and
artefacts is the key to a global education.
Place-based learning allows students to use all five senses in their learning and visits to sombre sites like Srebrenica in Bosnia allows them to converse directly with those affected by tragedy, and as THINK Global Schools has found, these encounters can shape our students lives in a significant way, often motivating them to create meaningful change in the affected places.
ScalabilityWhile the travel aspect may be problematic for many schools and especially the younger grades, the innovation technique can be used at all levels, scale and scope are age dependant. The approach is being used, to various degrees, by a range of schools worldwide.