Changemakers
for Education

For the “Changemakers for the Education” programme, we are looking for young changemakers with a diverse range of bottom up approaches to tackling education inequality. You must come from or currently living / having impact in a country in South Asia (which includes  Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) and/or South-East Asia (which includes Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore). The programme has a particular focus on (but not limited to) individuals and projects from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

We welcome applications from changemakers from a variety of backgrounds working to address the education inequality, including social entrepreneurs and innovators, social change agents and activists, and civil society leaders. We intentionally recruit a diverse variety of changemakers because the education crisis requires an intersectional and coordinated approach between numerous stakeholders that are both tackling the root causes, and those who are responding to immediate pressing issues that result from these, which affect society in a variety of negative ways.

Changemakers for Education is an initiative by ChangemakerXchange, an international non-profit organisation with a mission to provide inclusive, supportive and collaborative spaces for changemakers, social innovators and activists from across the world.

The initiative is supported by Julius Bär Foundation.

To learn more about our partnerships, including how to join the effort, please reach out to Nick McGirl at

Country: You must come from or currently living / having impact in a country in South Asia (which includes  Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) and/or South-East Asia (which includes Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore). The programme has a particular focus on (but not limited to) individuals and projects from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

Age: For this programme you must be aged 18–35. Due to permission reasons, we focus on over 18s. (Please note that changemakers of all ages are welcome to join other activities like Train the Trainer programmes, the Changemaker for Democracy programme or activities of the Possibilists.)

Role: You are the founder/co-founder, leader/co-leader, manager/co-manager (or hold an influential position with decision-making power, e.g. intrapreneur) of a social/environmental venture/organisation which is up and running and addresses education inequality. We acknowledge though that positive social change is not a ‘hero fight’, hence we’re also explicitly open to people who have been nominated or ‘put forward’ by their collective or team in order to represent them and their initiative/s. 

Complete application: The application form must be fully completed. Only applications submitted before the deadline can be accepted.

Language: Whilst the selection of ideas will be based on the validity of great ideas rather than high proficiency of English, the programme will be hosted in English, meaning a good level of understanding and ability to express oneself in English is required to participate in the programme. We openly acknowledge that being unable to facilitate multi-language participation is an unfortunate shortcoming and hope for everyone’s understanding.

Please refer to the key criteria one question above.

When assessing the work of changemakers who apply to become a part of ChangemakerXchange we usually take the following aspects into account:

• Clear Assessment of the Need and Opportunity: The idea or initiative needs to be rooted in a clear understanding of what the specific need, challenge or opportunity is that the idea is trying to address or solve.
• Established Ideas / Initiatives: Ideally the ideas or initiatives candidates apply with to the programme need to be well thought through, tested, and have some initial traction already. We are also open to very early-stage initiatives or initiatives in the idea-stage, this will however require a clear analysis of the potential of the idea and ideally references from other existing projects or a track record in the field of education / education inequality.
• Impact: The initiative should either have some proven impact already or show clear potential for future impact. An assessment of the idea’s impact can include the relevance of the problem the idea is trying to solve or the number of people who would potentially benefit from it.
• Scale: The idea or initiative should be ambitious and have the potential to scale or to be replicated or have impact on a  systemic level. Please note that we consider scale in the broadest sense. Whilst the idea or initiative should be ambitious, and could have the potential to be replicated or grow, we are mostly interested in the impact on a system – for example, your work may be only relevant to a specific community, but could be really significant in terms of inspiration to others, and thus ‘scale’ is reached this way.
• Innovation: The initiative should show ideally some elements of innovation for the specific context (meaning the ideas should be ‘new’ or applying new ways of thinking or new elements to existing approaches).

Principles and “Theme-Fit”: Please also see the three key principles we’d love to see represented in the initiatives that are part of this programme – Systemic and holistic, multiple stakeholders and foundational skills – outlined on the top of this website.

• Values: Applicants for a ChangemakerXchange summit should demonstrate an alignment with the CXC values.
• Character: Applicants should show an entrepreneurial and creative mindset.
• Motivation: Applicants should show motivation to co-create and collaborate.

Diversity: Diversity is also a critical criteria for us. Education inequality disproportionately affects society’s most at-risk individuals and regions. As such, we are putting a strong emphasis on curating cohorts that are diverse in terms of demographics and types of initiatives. Applicants from marginalised contexts and those with intersectional initiatives are a great fit for this programme and encouraged to apply!

Participants are asked to cover their own transportation costs from where they live to the country / location of the summit. However, ChangemakerXchange will cover ALL OTHER COSTS associated with the summit and programme, such as: accommodation, catering, local transportation, room hire, equipment & material, COVID-19 rapid tests, FFP2 masks, facilitation & hosting compensation, programme manager compensation, carbon emissions offsetting derived from the local hosting, post-summit capacity-building programme and post-summit community engagement activities.

We always strive to make our summits accessible and inclusive. If you are accepted to the summit, but your circumstances do not allow you to afford the trip to the summit you will have the chance to state so in the confirmation form (So please do not let that prevent you from applying for the programme). We will evaluate the possibility of offering you a partial or full stipend to ensure you can join the summit.

Our selection process involves the following steps:

• Interested candidates are asked to submit their application before the deadline.
• Initial applicants are all read by at least two project team members and compared against the key criteria stated in the FAQs and on this website
• We then meet in the project team to create an initial shortlist of around 40-45 of the most promising candidates, with notes on areas we’d love to explore further in the interview phase.
• There is then a dedicated interview team, featuring local and content experts, who conduct online interviews with the candidates (we have a streamlined scheduling process to make this smooth).
• Interviews take place over a two-week period with all shortlisted candidates.
• There is then a final selection call between all interviewers and the project team to make the final selection of the 25 participants.

Please note: Given the high number of applications we receive and the limited staff capacity, only candidates who are being considered for the final shortlist will be invited to a short informal interview to ensure their suitability in the programme and their fit with the community. This informal interview will take place online and will be conducted by a member of the CXC core team or community. Please also note that given the high number of applications we expect we won’t be able to provide individual feedback to candidates who are not shortlisted or interviewed. We thank you in advance for your understanding.

Given the high number of applications we receive and the limited staff capacity, only candidates who are being considered for the final shortlist will be invited to a short 30-45 minute informal interview to ensure their suitability in the programme and their fit with the community. This informal interview will take place online and will be conducted by a member of the ChangemakerXchange core team or community member.

Please note the following timeline:

• Application phase: February 19th to March 17th 
• Deadline for applications: March 17th ‘24 (11:59 PM GMT)
• Review of applications: March 18th to March 27nd
• Next Steps: March 28th – All candidates will be informed, and shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 1 hour online interview.
• Online in-person Interviews: March 28th to April 26th
• Notification of final outcome: May 3rd – shortlisted candidates will be informed if they’re selected for the programme.

Also, please note that you should have received a thank-you message when submitting your applications successfully and a short notification email from with a summary of your responses (please check your junk folder). If you did not see either, please contact us at .

Unfortunately, we cannot provide individual feedback on each application. But we do send a thorough email to all applicants outlining the full application and selection process, as well as sharing useful resources for changemakers, which has always been appreciated by applicants in the past.

ChangemakerXchange invests first and foremost in the person, aka you. In the event that you cannot attend the summit anymore, we unfortunately cannot accept your co-founder or other colleagues of yours, as there are other candidates who went through the whole application process and have been waitlisted.

Unfortunately, no. The ChangemakerXchange summit is an intense and intentionally designed journey that makes sense if undertaken from start to end. This means we can only accept applicants who can commit to the full duration of the summit. Also, we will only allow participants who have joined all sessions on all days into the ChangemakerXchange community.

We strive to be as inclusive as possible as an organisation and for all our activities, including the in-person summits. This includes physical disabilities (i.e. needing a wheelchair, being deaf or blind), as well as cognitive disabilities. Whenever possible we try to accommodate all accessibility needs participants have. If you have any specific questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to .

Also, if needed, we will prepare a personalised “onboarding toolkit” ahead of the summit to answer any questions you might have RE disability inclusion.

• We aim for a richly diverse cohort in all meanings of the word: including but not limited to gender, demographic, class, ethnicity. (ChangemakerXchange has a dedicated DEI Team with a strong mandate and tools to ensure a high level of diversity and inclusion of candidates and participants in our programs).
• We also aim for a truly diverse range of approaches and lenses on education inequality. We believe this leads to richer co-learning in the cohort and lays the ground for unexpected and creative collaborations to potentially emerge. (We ensure this through working with diverse organisations from across Asia as multipliers for our outreach).
• We also explicitly invite feedback throughout the process and the programme as to whether we are building a sufficiently inclusive, non-discriminatory and anti-racist approach. We are committed to doing our very best to create and host a safe(r) space. We are only human though and have no moral authority, meaning we might make mistakes. If you feel there’s anything we said or did that we should set right or improve on, please let us know via the anonymous feedback form → https://cxcforms.typeform.com/to/OdACru3V

We take the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath extremely seriously. The health of our team, participants and partners is the highest priority for us! Since we cannot yet predict the exact situation at the time of the in-person summits in August 2024 we won’t be sharing recommendations and notes on restrictions just yet, but in case you are accepted as a participant please expect to receive an extensive COVID-19 briefing several weeks ahead of the summit.

Whilst we do everything we can to support your visa application by providing you with an invitation letter and hotel confirmation, please know that we cannot call the embassies / consulates to push for your visa. You will be responsible for your visa application process.

Attending a ChangemakerXchange summit is the first step into the program, connecting you with our global community of over 1200 changemakers from around the world. After the summit, you will be invited to reflect on whether you would like to join our vibrant global network.Also, as part of the specific programme you join, there is a modest budget to provide funding to go towards collaborative efforts among participants. And last, but not least we’ll make personalised recommendations for support and connections, based on your needs.

We believe the words of our community do the best job of highlighting the value of joining ChangemakerXchange. Here’s just some of the feedback we’ve received from members throughout the years:

“I wanted to change the world for the better since I was 14. But everyone around me would tell me ‘be normal, go to college, get a job, don’t try to do more than you can’. After CXC, I realised that I don’t want to have a ‘normal’ life. I want an extraordinary life. I want to fully realise my mission to paint the world in bright colours of peace, unity, and love. And ChangemakerXchange catalysed the process of realising my mission. Thank you!”

“CXC is an incredible platform to change the mindset and perspective on many things (to the best of course). I can definitely say that I’ve been transformed, and I now have a much better understanding about what it takes to be a social entrepreneur, scaling impact and opening yourself to others.”

“CXC gave me a feeling of belonging. I have been part of many conferences and different communities, but CXC still feels like home because of the genuine values, the genuine goals and long-lasting friendships.”

Attending a ChangemakerXchange summit is the first step to joining a global community of over 1200 changemakers from all over the world. Once you are part of the community, there are several engagement opportunities you can benefit from, including: 

• Joining our private Facebook and Linked groups where you can engage with the rest of our community members from all over the world.
• Joining the Bosch Alumni Network to access various opportunities such as job vacancies, workshops, seminars, travel grants, etc.
• Joining additional community engagement activities to expand your network, connect with other members, and collaborate to amplify your impact.
• Joining our Global Facilitation Pool to facilitate CXC-like experiences for other changemakers around the world.
• Becoming a Community Host to bring the CXC summit experience to your country.
• Getting access to a range of offerings and platforms offered by our partners, including everything from learning exchange grants to pro-bono coaching and law support.

The beauty of ChangemakerXchange is that it is a very dynamic and constantly evolving community, continuously shaped by the needs and feedback of its members.