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The 11th Felipe Segovia Symposium hosted the “Voces SEK” panel, a roundtable designed to showcase, on a single stage, the diverse perspectives that coexist within the Institución Educativa SEK. Moderated by Alejandro Díaz Garreta, Director of SEK Foundations, the panel featured Álvaro Moraleda, Dean of the UCJC Faculty of Education; Sandra Ospina, Principal of SEK International School Riyadh; Ruth Castillo-Gualda, Director of Academic Design at UCJC; Alan Orden Hallissey, teacher at SEK-Santa Isabel; Rosa María Nieto, student at SEK-Ciudalcampo; and Rebeca Fung, alumna of Camilo José Cela University. Using keywords drawn “at random”—pedagogical innovation, sustainability, artificial intelligence, wellbeing, collaboration, inquiry…—the panel wove a collective conversation about the major issues in contemporary education.
Pedagogical innovation opened the discussion with Álvaro Moraleda, who reminded attendees that we are living “an exciting educational moment” in which the pace of innovation moves almost as quickly as the transformation of learners themselves. Beyond specific methodologies or the rise of artificial intelligence in the classroom, he stressed that true innovation “is not a one-off event but a lens”: a way of understanding education grounded in truth (evidence, data, certainty), aspiring to the beauty of the learning act and always oriented toward goodness, understood as service to the common good.
From the Primary Education classroom, Alan Orden Hallissey addressed the challenge of sustainability, a word that, he noted, is often mistaken for something purely environmental. He explained that sustainability rests on three pillars—environmental, economic and social—and argued that education holds the key. In this regard, he highlighted the work being carried out in SEK Schools, both through the group’s membership in the B Corp community and through involvement in networks such as Eco-Schools. “We are shaping students who are deeply committed to sustainability,” he said, emphasising the wide range of long-standing projects that promote responsible habits and global awareness among learners.
The student voice came from Rosa María Nieto, a SEK-Ciudalcampo student, who approached the concept of artificial intelligence from the perspective of its good and bad uses. She noted that AI “is nothing more than a tool,” but warned of the risk of dependence, both for students and teachers. She described how some teachers even feel “unable to tackle a task without relying on AI,” and stressed the importance of young people understanding what lies behind tools such as ChatGPT or Copilot. At her school, she explained, AI is explored in subjects such as technology and digitalisation, analysing it as a neural network, reflecting on its impact and examining its ethical regulation: “AI can free teachers’ time for what really matters: human connection, motivation and a passion for learning.”
On wellbeing, Ruth Castillo-Gualda pointed out that, in the past five years, this area has shifted from being a “complement” to becoming a strategic pillar in teaching and learning. She mentioned the impact of the pandemic, social media, digital hyperconnection and AI itself on mental health, and argued that “to attend to emotions is to truly attend to learning.” At UCJC and SEK Schools, she explained, work is carried out with multidisciplinary teams, sports programmes such as Sports Academy, purpose-driven technology initiatives and a strong presence of the arts—music, theatre, creative expression—as pathways to strengthen identity, imagination and emotional balance. At the university, she added, the development of the UCJC competencies profile explicitly integrates wellbeing and mental health as part of student support.
Collaboration was the concept explored by Rebeca Fung, a UCJC alumna, who recalled how, during her university years, she had numerous opportunities to work with students from other degrees and to participate in interdisciplinary projects. She described the university as “a shared space” where students, teachers and staff build an authentic SEK community, and highlighted that these collaborative experiences help not only with growth in one’s own field of study, but also with “discovering new perspectives, new professional languages and new ways of adding value.”
From an international angle, Sandra Ospina, Principal of SEK International School Riyadh, chose the word inquiry to explain how curiosity is fostered across the different International Baccalaureate programmes taught at SEK. She noted that the student is at the centre of everything and that the school creates experiences and learning environments that invite questioning, investigation and the construction of personal knowledge: from PYP exhibitions in Primary to Personal Projects in MYP and the Extended Essay and CAS in the Diploma Programme. All of this, she said, aligns with the values of truth, goodness and beauty, and with the idea of “systems that enable human flourishing” highlighted by organisations such as the OECD.
The “Voces SEK” panel closed with a reflection from Alejandro Díaz Garreta: in a world shaped by AI, sustainability, hyperconnection and complexity, the strength of the Institución Educativa SEK lies precisely in the diversity of its voices—teachers, leaders, students, families, alumni—and in their ability to build, together, a shared vision of education. An education that, as was clear at the 11th Felipe Segovia Symposium, looks to the compass of truth, beauty and goodness to face the challenges of the present and future.
