This presentation will integrate cultural awareness with academic research. Finland has long been recognized for its exemplary educational system; however, social and emotional aspects of childhood and adolescence are often less emphasized. I spent two years living and working in Helsinki, Finland, immersing myself in local culture and communities to gain a deeper understanding of the educational discourse within the country. This experience allowed me to develop not only an academic perspective on how teacher education and educational studies address social justice issues in their programs, but also to explore how these discussions are embedded within the broader cultural and societal context of Finland. My focus included the experiences of queer and trans youth, educators, and education students. In this session, I will share both my academic findings and insights into Finnish culture, highlighting how these elements intersect with the research conducted during my time in Finland.

What could a fun-oriented and lively online student festival look like? To answer this question, we simply organized one ourselves. This marked the birth of the CyberFestival, a hybrid event for intercultural exchange on media and AI between students from the University of Rhode Island and the Technische Universität Braunschweig. This first event allowed us to gain a lot of important experience right away. In addition, the real-life example was also extremely helpful in further discussions within the two universities. The result was a more comprehensive idea for a “Joint Virtual Campus,” which we presented at the University:Future Festival this year and are now implementing step by step. Building on the CyberFestival, numerous different events are to take place there in the future. In our contribution, we share our practical experiences to date and present our current concept for the near future. We welcome critical questions about the plan so far as well as inquiries about using the virtual campus as an early adopter.