KEYNOTE
JOSHUA AMPONSEM
Joshua Amponsem is a Co-Executive Director of the Youth Climate Justice Fund. He is the former Climate Lead at the Office of the UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth and the Founder of Green Africa Youth Organization. For the past 13 years, he has been working with climate movements across the globe to drive intersectional climate action. Named one of the 100 Most Influential Young Africans, he serves as an advisor to several prominent international climate organisations such as Quadrature Climate Foundation, TED Countdown, UMI Fund, and Climate Resilience for All. He led the design of the Africa Climate Innovation Challenge, and contributed to the design and delivery of the Afri-Plastics Challenge, as well as, the first-ever UN youth climate summit, and the International Renewable Energy Agency’s Youth Forum.
KEYNOTE
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE (JC) CARTERON
JC Carteron is the President of Sulitest, a global movement boosting sustainability literacy since 2013. Previously, he led CSR strategy at a French Business School for 14 years. As board member of various NGOs and co-chair of the UN-backed Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI), he is a key figure in social responsibility and sustainability assessment for higher education. In 2023, Sulitest launched The Assessment of Sustainability Knowledge (TASK™), a tool helping institutions better pilot, deploy and report on their actions to improve their learners' sustainability literacy. Now used by over 90 institutions and taken by 60,000+ individuals, TASK is increasingly recognized by major rankings and accreditations, solidifying its role in advancing global sustainability literacy.
KEYNOTE
OSHIN GHIOTTO
Oshin Ghiotto holds an MA in Literature & Linguistics English - Dutch and is currently studying a combination between the BA3 in Literature & Linguistics Italian + the MA in Historical Literature & Linguistics. At Green Office Ghent, she is responsible for Volunteering, Network, and Alumni. In this role, she organises events to attract new volunteers, supports them in finding suitable projects and organisations, and ensures ongoing engagement through thank-you events, team-building activities, and skill-sharing sessions. Oshin coordinates key initiatives such as the Sustainability Award Show "Groene Ruijter", the networking event "Making Tomorrow", and Study@GreenHub, among others. As part of the networking aspect of her position, she participates in monthly Green Office Movement calls and in events of the Green Community (all organisations related to Green Office Ghent). She actively shares good practices with other Green Offices and promotes exchange between new Green Officers and alumni.
KEYNOTE
MICHIEL VAN HARSKAMP
Michiel van Harskamp is a postdoctoral researcher in science education with a focus on sustainability education at the Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He has a background in Biology, and a PhD in fostering Environmental Citizenship through science education (2023). In his PhD, Van Harskamp focused on Socio-Scientific Issues related to sustainability and Inquiry-Based Science Education, and their potential to promote Environmental Citizenship through Socio-Scientific Inquiry-Based Learning. For this, he collaborated with a team of six science teachers in a lesson study team. Through several lesson study cycles, the team researched both teacher and student EC competence development. After a postdoc at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) on assessment of sustainability education, he returned to Utrecht University. He now works for the Horizon-Europe IMP>ACT project, where he researches assessment of action competence as a learning outcome of sustainability and climate change education. Furthermore, he researchers climate change emotions and coping strategies of young people in collaboration with colleagues from Utrecht University’s Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.
KEYNOTE
ISABEL MENEZES
Isabel Menezes holds a degree and a PhD in Psychology and a habilitation in Educational Sciences from the University of Porto, where she is a Professor in the Department of Educational Sciences. She teaches in Educational Research, Educational and Community Intervention, Political Education and Political Psychology. Her research deals with the civic and political participation of children, young people and adults, with a particular interest in groups at risk of exclusion. The main goal is to explore whether and how formal and non-formal education (including artistic) experiences can generate more complex ways of relationship with the political. More recent interests relate to doctoral education and university social responsibility as a way to explore how universities can creatively and proactively respond to societal challenges – including engaging communities in addressing, through collective deliberation, the local consequences of climate change.
ORGANIZERS & CONTACT
The 2025 HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT is organized by the COPERNICUS Alliance, oikos International, Students Organizing for Sustainability International and Students4Sustainability.
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