College Students of the Future: A Human Forecast
A 90-minute community foresight experience to help higher education leaders
Join Us Virtually
College Students of the Future: A Human Forecast:
Overview
What if we stopped planning for students as they are today—and started designing for who they are becoming?
As higher education leaders, we feel the pressure to be more student-centered than ever. But student-centered design requires more than improving today’s services—it requires anticipating tomorrow’s learners.
Join AFIT and the Institute for the Future (IFTF) for a 90-minute interactive foresight experience designed to help our community explore a critical question:
Who are the students of future—and what will they need from us?
Together, we’ll surface emerging signals of change, explore how today’s fringe trends could become tomorrow’s norms, and imagine provocative future scenarios that stretch how we think about learning, support, and institutional design.
This session is not about predictions. It’s about building shared foresight—so we can make better, more human-centered decisions today.
What You’ll Experience
In this highly interactive virtual session, you will:
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Learn how to identify and interpret signals of change shaping the students of the future
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Explore what today’s early signals might mean if they became the norm by 2035
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Participate in small-group breakout exercises to surface and discuss emerging shifts in student behavior, expectations, and needs
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Engage in Flip the Future, an IFTF foresight game that challenges assumptions and expands what’s possible
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Contribute to a collective picture of future learners that can inform strategy, design, and decision-making across the AFIT network
This experience is designed to spark curiosity, deepen insight, and leave you thinking differently about the students you serve—now and in the years ahead.
Why This Matters Now
Student-centered design is no longer optional—but designing for the future student requires new muscles.
This session will help you:
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Move beyond incremental change toward future-ready thinking
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Build confidence in navigating uncertainty
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Strengthen your ability to make strategic decisions grounded in human needs
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Begin the year with a shared “stake in the ground” you can revisit and refine over time
Who Should Attend
This session is ideal for:
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Presidents and CEOs
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Senior leaders responsible for strategy, innovation, and student success
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AFIT members who want to strengthen foresight capabilities and future-focused leadership
No prior experience with foresight is required—just curiosity and a willingness to explore.
Space is limited, so reserve your seat today!
Lyn Jeffery
Distinguished Fellow & Director, IFTF Foresight Essentials
Lyn Jeffery leads IFTF’s Foresight Essentials program, supporting people, organizations, and communities to develop their own foresight capacities. A cultural anthropologist and an IFTF Distinguished Fellow, Lyn explores how people make sense of the rapidly changing world around them, whether a “left-behind” child in a Sichuan village, a leader in a multinational organization developing their own futures thinking skills, or an amateur musician experimenting with new VR instruments.
Before joining IFTF, Lyn worked in China as a tour guide, nonprofit researcher, Fulbright scholar and television producer. Lyn has enduring interests in learning experience design, mobility, social media, collaborative technologies. She holds a BA in Chinese Studies and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Registration Options
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Registration Options
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Price |
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AFIT Community Members
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$199.00 |
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Guests
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$299.00 |
For More Information:
Date & Time:
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Starts: 1/27/26 at 2:00 PM/ET
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Ends: 1/27/26 at 3:30 PM/ET
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Event time zone: Eastern Time
Event Location: Virtual - details provided upon registration