At the Washington State Nonprofit Conference last month, I attended a presentation by Akhtar Badshah, Microsoft's Senior Director of Community Affairs. His keynote discussed what nonprofits can do to be successful in the coming decade in light of what has become an ever changing world.

He presented one figure that was particularly interesting to me and our work here at FIUTS. He said, "We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't exist, using technologies that haven't been invented, in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."

We can't predict what jobs students will hold in the coming years. We don't know what technology they will need to learn or what problems they will have to confront. But we do know one thing - they won't be able to do it alone.

FIUTS programs build skills that all of us need - how to come together in friendship, seek common ground, and try to understand each other despite our differences. We might not be able to predict the future, but programs like FIUTS can inspire the leaders of the future to come together in search of solutions to the world's greatest challenges.

Era Schrepfer,
FIUTS Executive Director
era@fiuts.org