The Harvard Club of Singapore hosted a dinner seminar at 33Club with Fernando M. Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of International Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Forty attendees came from the Graduate School of Education, College, Business School, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Kennedy School, and Law School—many are leaders in education policy, others work in business thinking about how AI changes workforce development.
The evening operated under Chatham House Rule, allowing participants to speak freely over dinner in the private setting of 33Club, situated in Singapore’s central business district. Rather than a lecture, attendees gathered in small groups around questions that matter: What is education actually for now? How do we teach discernment when AI can generate convincing content? What are educators experiencing on the ground? How do we ensure equitable access?
What emerged was concrete. People spoke about real struggles in public education—teaching children whose home environments create barriers to learning. Others discussed education’s role in fostering self-governance, a capacity increasingly critical as technology reshapes how we organize ourselves.
Reimers made a simple observation: the room was full of brilliant ideas, but they risk staying siloed. Real work happens when educators, policymakers, and practitioners gather regularly and exchange what they know across those boundaries. Great things, he said, are born out of regular convening among Harvard alumni. This is what the Harvard Club of Singapore believes in and what shapes its programming.