Between navigating current events, world inflation, and our daily lives, it’s sometimes hard to focus on anything but the present. However, in my role as the CEO of the Interledger Foundation, I feel a part of my mandate is to traverse through the noise and distractions of today in order to forge a path for the next generation to build a better world than what currently exists. Our entire mission focuses on making financial systems more open and equitable for all, so what better way than to bring in those who are responsible for building our tomorrow?

When I initially thought of launching our education initiative, it was to enable students the opportunity to learn about the Interledger Protocol and open source technology, build a project, and unlock access to potential funders to further develop their idea. We started off the pilot program with one very surprised (and I’d like to think, delighted) class at Bowie State, and set off on realizing an idea that only lived as musings in my mind.

Since then the program has grown and evolved in ways I could not have imagined. We have brought two cohorts of students to our annual Summit, inspired previously untapped career paths, and expanded our reach to other universities, including an entire innovation hub at the University of Cape Town.

Our world is rapidly changing, which is not a surprising statement to anyone - we can see it happening all around us. And while there’s no way to know exactly how it will look in the future, we know for certain that technology will continue to play an increasing role. Therefore, in addition to traditional class-time, we aim to provide access to real world opportunities and use cases that expose students to the most innovative solutions being developed in the Open Payments realm.

By putting Interledger on Campus, we are aiming to build different kinds of career pathways for students, and an entryway to the networks needed to succeed in this space. We also intentionally create a cross-disciplinary environment where students from a range of fields – economics, finance, business, and technology – come together to collaborate and innovate. Since we are building more open and interoperable digital financial solutions, it only makes sense that we expand this effort in our educational programming. Everything we do is built on our values of openness, inclusion and innovation. If you are interested in working with us to shape the next generation of leaders - we’d love to hear from you! Please visit https://interledger.org/education to find out more!