International ED talks 2025

Prepare to be inspired, informed, and perhaps even challenged! In celebration of CBIE’s International Education Week, we are excited to host the Royal Roads International ED Talks once again.

Seven voices. Seven journeys across continents, identities, industries and inner worlds - all converging in one powerful hour of storytelling.

• Karolyn Chitwood, MBA in Executive Management
  Recognizing Change: Turning Over One Rock at a Time
  She built a life that checked every box — the career the family the stability — until one rock made her question all of it. What happens when you realize you have outgrown the life you worked so hard to build?
• Christian Chiarimanni, Doctor of Business Administration
  Redefining Experience: How Culture Shapes Perception
  The customer is always right, but what right looks like depends entirely on where you are standing. A rethink of business empathy and the idea that culture is the real language of connection.
• Anislene Tavares, Master of Arts in Environment and Management
  The Forest I Didn’t See Coming: My Unexpected Path to Belonging
  She came to Canada ready for culture shock and academic pressure, not for a forest to become her greatest teacher easing anxiety and rebuilding focus. A quiet landscape of winding trails and ancient trees turned disconnection into belonging.
• Oyin Steve Master of Arts in Intercultural and International Communication
  Rewriting the Narrative: Finding Strength in Cultural Contrast
  She struggled to maintain her authenticity for many years. Sometimes changing her accent, her tone, even her silence to blend in, until a classroom in Indonesia showed her that difference is power not a flaw. A story of identity rebuilt across three countries and the moment she stopped shrinking to fit.
• Amana Lee, Bachelor of Arts in Professional Communication
  A Lost Voice – A Roma Voice
  At 53 she returned to university and opened the syllabus only to find her people were not there at all. A call to visibility from someone who refuses to let an entire culture remain academically invisible.
• Cindy Alonso, Master of Arts in Environment and Management 
  Weaving Paths of Resilience: Lessons from Nature Research and Life Abroad
  She thought resilience meant strength, until studying sustainability taught her it is really about adaptation. Cities ecosystems and people survive the same way not by resisting change but by learning to bend with it.
• Fahim Andalib Master of Global Management
  From the Tea Stall to the Boardroom: Learning to Belong Anywhere
  He grew up learning to treat the rickshaw driver and the CEO with the same respect and it became his leadership philosophy. A lesson in dignity belonging and seeing people before status.

We’d love for you to join us in person to support our speakers.

Can’t make it to campus? Join us live online and be part of the experience — Watch the livestream here!

Learn more about International ED Talks and watch past speakers here. International ED talks | Royal Roads University

Questions? Please email studentservices@royalroads.ca