WELCOME TO THE GSL FESTIVAL – 2026
We are thrilled to share the schedule for this year’s live online GSL Festival – a celebration of global youth leadership, packed with collaboration, connection, and inspiration!
Streaming live from London.
Register now on Zoom to join us live online – with one link to access all sessions.
Click here for a preview of the finalist projects.
The seventh annual Global Social Leaders (GSL) Festival will take place on Thursday, 11th June 2026.
Join young people, educators and changemakers from around the world for this year’s live online GSL Festival, a celebration of youth leadership, social action and global connection.
Streaming live from London, the festival will spotlight inspiring student-led projects and campaigns from across the GSL Membership 2025/26 and the SPARK Challenge powered by GSL, bringing together young leaders taking action on the issues that matter most in their communities.
Through interactive panel discussions, shared stories and celebration moments, participants will explore the power of individual leadership, teamwork and collaboration to create meaningful change.
The festival will conclude with a special keynote speaker and the announcement of this year’s Global Goals Competition winners and awards.
We look forward to welcoming our global community for a day of inspiration, learning and connection.
Register now on Zoom to join us live online with one link providing access to all festival sessions.
SESSIONS & TIMINGS (UK BST)
- Session 1 | 9:00 to 10:00 am | Welcome to the Festival & SPARK Challenge: The Power of Individual Action
A student-led discussion exploring how young people are creating change through individual leadership, creativity and action in their schools and communities.
10:00 to 11:00 | Break
- Session 2 | 11:00 am to 12:00 pm | Team Projects, Partnerships & Collective Impact
Hear from GSL teams about the power of teamwork, partnerships and collaboration in strengthening projects and creating sustainable impact.
12:00 to 13:00 | Break
- Session 3 | 13:00 to 14:00 | Keynote and Global Goals Competition Winners Announcement
Further details on each panel will be added on this page in the run up to the festival.
All timings are UK/London (BST).
The seventh annual Global Social Leaders (GSL) Festival took place on Thursday, 11th June 2026.
The GSL Festival is an annual celebration of youth voice and youth-led action, shining a spotlight on young people running projects across the world.
Streaming live from London we hosted two panel sessions and heard inspiring stories from young people across our global community who are taking action on issues they care about and creating positive change in their schools, communities and beyond.
From individual acts of leadership through the Varkey Foundation SPARK Challenge powered by GSL to the GSL Global Goals Competition team projects tackling local and global challenges, the festival showcased the very best of youth leadership in action. We heard how young people have built partnerships, overcome setbacks, raised awareness, influenced others and turned ideas into meaningful action.
What stood out most was not simply the impact of the projects, but the growth of the young people behind them. Through social action, they are developing the confidence, empathy, resilience, creativity and leadership skills needed to become leaders in their lives and contributors to society.
We would like to congratulate every student who took part this year. Whether you presented at the festival, submitted a project portfolio, participated in the SPARK Challenge or simply took your first step as a changemaker, you should be incredibly proud of what you have achieved.
Thank you to our Lead Teachers, whose encouragement, belief and commitment make these opportunities possible. A special thank you to the parents and carers who support and encourage our GSL students throughout their journeys.
We are also hugely grateful to our Global Goals Heroes, judges, volunteers and partners who generously shared their time, expertise and encouragement throughout the year. Thank you to our keynote speaker, Sam Miller, our student panellists, award presenters and the entire GSL team for helping to make the festival such a success.
At Global Social Leaders, we believe leadership is not a title but a responsibility. This year’s festival was a powerful reminder that when young people are trusted, supported and empowered to lead, extraordinary things can happen.
In a world facing significant challenges, the young people in our community continue to give us hope. They remind us that positive change begins when someone chooses not to walk past a problem, but to do something about it.
Thank you for being part of this year’s journey and for helping us build a global movement of socially conscious young leaders. We can’t wait to see what our students go on to achieve next.
Festival Recordings
Session 1: The Power of Individual Action
Jonathan Harper, Co-Founder of GSL, co-hosted Session 1 of the GSL Festival 2026 with Adarsh Kumar, GSL alumnus who went on to win the Global Student Prize. On the panel, students from Pathways School Gurgaon, India, who took on a GSL 30-day Independent Challenge, shared their projects and progress! They were joined by students from GEMS Education schools who took part in the Varkey Foundation SPARK Workshop powered by GSL in Dubai.
Session 2: Team Projects, Partnership Impact
Session 2 of the GSL Festival 2026 focused on Projects, Partnership and Collective Impact.
Students from Isikkent School in Turkey, Potter’s Touch High School in Nigeria and Svitlo School in UK/Ukraine shared their experience about working in teams and the importance of building partnerships to take their projects to the next level.
Session 3: Keynote & Competition Announcements!
Watch the video below to celebrate all the Teams that took part in the GSL Membership this year.
In this session, we celebrate the Teams that took part in the GSL Membership this year. Keynote from Sam Miller, Director, Responsible Development and Innovation (ReDI) Governance, Google DeepMind. In her current role, Sam leads the Emerging Impacts Team, focused on proactive insights on future model capability to guide the ethical and responsible creation of artificial intelligence.
Winners and Awards announced by GSL Judges and Partners.
AI SPOTLIGHT: HARNESSING AI FOR SOCIAL ACTION
Join us for an engaging session where GSL students and educators around the world share their experiences of integrating AI into their social action projects. Learn how AI can amplify impact, explore real-world applications, and get involved in a discussion on the potential challenges and ethical considerations. Through interactive discussions, you will gain insights and strategies to enhance your projects using AI, and maximise social impact.
This is our second annual spotlight on this topic, which will reflect on the changes in one year and given the impact AI is having on education and work, we are excited to explore this important topic with you.
The session will be co-facilitated by Darren Coxon, Founder of Coxon AI and Jonathan Harper CEO of Future Foundations and Co-Founder of Global Social Leaders
DARREN COXON
Darren is the Founder of Coxon AI, a consultancy specialising in leveraging AI to make schools places people want to be, not have to be. An educator for 25 years, Darren has most recently managed the operation of school groups, notably Brighton College’s international schools and Britus Education, Bahrain. Darren has been at the forefront of educational technology for many years, including leading the first state 6th Form in the UK to move to an iPad 1:1 model. He is now a major thought leader on AI in education and has delivered training, keynotes and workshops for HMC, COBIS, BSME, GSA, Independent Schools Portal, the National College, Wellington College, and GESS Dubai. Darren advised Global Social Leaders on our AI statement and strategy, and is a Final Round Judge for GSL.
PARTNERSHIP AND COLLABORATION PANEL
Explore the value of partnerships and collaboration with some of Lead Teachers and their students from the GSL Membership this year. They have developed their social action projects and made incredible impact through the use of local partnerships. During this panel we will discern the importance of partnerships and how collaboration has enhanced the students’ projects.
Facilitated by Drishya Rao, the GLS Programme Manager, hear from three schools who have been on the GSL Membership this year.
Chilipo Gunda and Ndirande from Saint Andrews International School Malawi
Ilke Tekeli and The Sustainable Squad from Eyuboglu Educational Institutions
Minal Jain and Sattva from Jayshree Periwal International School
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: ZAINAB SALBI
Zainab Salbi is a humanitarian, a writer and a social entrepreneur who has dedicated her life to women’s rights and freedom. She is the co-founder of Daughters for Earth, a fund and a movement focused on funding, celebrating, and mobilizing women to protect and restore our Earth. She has frequently been named as one of the women changing the world by leading publications ranging from Newsweek to The Guardian. Oprah Winfrey identified her as one of the women changing the world to People Magazine and President Bill Clinton identified her as one of the 21st-century heroes to Harper’s Bazaar. Most recently, Zainab received the Times100 Impact Awards in 2023.
At the age of 23, Zainab founded Women for Women International, a humanitarian organization dedicated to women survivors of wars. Under her leadership (1993–2011), Women for Women International grew from helping 30 women upon its inception to helping more than 420,000 women and distributing more than 146 million dollars in aid.
Zainab is the author of several books, including the best seller Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny; Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam (with Laurie Buckland); The Other Side of War; Women’s Stories of Survival and Hope; If You Knew Me You Would Care,(with photographs by Rennio Maifredi); and her latest Freedom is an Inside Job; Owning our Darkness and Our Light to Change Ourselves and the World.
She is also the Executive Editor and Host of several shows including Through Her Eyes with Yahoo News, #MeToo, Now What? with PBS, The Zainab Salbi Project with Huffington Post, and The Nida’a Show with TLC Arabia.
She is a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum and serves on the Boards of Vital Voices, International Refugee Assistance Program (IRAP), and Synergos International.
Overall Winners!
Substance Abuse – Anti Alcohol Saviours the Junior Winners!
This Team from Pathways School Gurgaon, India, is tackling substance abuse through prevention, awareness and recovery support. Their seven-action campaign, which has impacted over 200 people, included school workshops, interviews with experts, collaboration with substance abuse specialists, awareness raising, a sobriety pledge campaign and visits to rehabilitation centres where students conducted mini counselling sessions. The team also created the Recoverly App, now used by a local NGO. The app tracks sobriety milestones, provides emotional support and features an integrated breathalyser. The app complements the students’ Python program that calculates the financial and physical costs of alcohol consumption. Find out more here.
Mossphere the Mixed Team Winners!
Mossphere by Neerja Modi School, India, is an innovative environmental initiative deploying solar-powered moss biofilter units in Jaipur’s most pollution-exposed public spaces. Designed to reduce PM2.5 and PM10 pollution while lowering local temperatures, the project demonstrates how low-cost, community-maintained, nature-based solutions can improve urban air quality. Unlike mature trees, which can take years to provide shade, MOSSPHERE units can be installed within hours. Through community workshops, they identified optimal installation sites and the project has already impacted over 1,500 people. They aim is to create a scalable model for cleaner cities. Find out more here.
Finvision the Senior Winners!
FinVision by Svitlo School, UK/Ukraine, is an educational initiative dedicated to improving financial literacy among Ukrainian teenagers through engaging and accessible learning experiences. The team delivered an 11-workshop programme at Svitlo School, reaching more than 65 students aged 14–17 and covering topics such as budgeting, saving, taxes and personal finance fundamentals. To reinforce learning, they created an Instagram Highlight featuring summaries of each session and developed a comprehensive financial literacy guide viewed by over 80 students. Building on this impact, FinVision is now developing an AI-powered behavioural finance app that helps young adults build healthy spending habits through personalised nudges and social accountability. Find out more here.
Category Winners!
PREVIOUS FESTIVALS
The GSL Festival has been delivered annually for the last six years, launching in 2020. Take a look at the pages below to explore how the event has developed over the years!
