The World Cup Through the Lens of International Education

By: Carmen Hernandez
Every four years, the World Cup reminds us of something extraordinary: people from different countries, cultures, religions, languages, and identities can come together around a shared experience. For a few weeks, millions of people gather in stadiums, homes, restaurants, and public spaces to celebrate their teams. Fans proudly share their traditions, songs, dances, and languages, creating moments of curiosity, respect, camaraderie, and connection across differences.

I grew up watching the World Cup, and as a kid I was always amazed that a single event could unite so many people from around the world. This year, however, I found myself watching it through a different lens. As I watched various moments of the World Cup unfold, I couldn't help but think about the work we do as international educators.

At its core, international education cultivates the ability to engage thoughtfully with perspectives different from our own. It challenges assumptions, broadens our understanding of the world, and helps students develop the intercultural competencies needed to navigate diverse communities.

In many ways, the World Cup makes these same values visible. The tournament invites us to cheer passionately for our own teams while also appreciating the talent, resilience, and stories of others. Study abroad asks students to do something similar. Students arrive in another country carrying their own identities, assumptions, and expectations. They return having built relationships that transcend nationality, language, and culture. They discover that meaningful connection does not require sameness, it requires curiosity, humility, reciprocity, and a willingness to learn.

One of the reasons I've so thoroughly enjoyed this World Cup is that it has produced remarkable stories of hospitality, friendship, and solidarity at a time when much of the world feels increasingly polarized. I naturally paid close attention to stories involving my own heritage, and I was especially moved by the warmth and generosity shown by Mexican fans. Whether it was the friendship celebrated between Mexican and Korean supporters, the hospitality extended to the Iranian national team while traveling through Tijuana, or the countless World Cup watch parties held across the United States that brought together people from every background. These moments demonstrated that human connection often transcends politics, language, and borders.

Those same values inspire the work we do every day at Northwestern's Global Learning Office.

Each fall, my colleague Kevin Tribe and I facilitate a virtual student co-curricular program that connects Northwestern students studying abroad across the globe. Although these students are living in different countries and represent a wide range of majors, identities, and lived experiences, they collaborate on a shared photography project that encourages them to reflect on their experiences abroad. Through photo essays, students explore themes such as living like a local, decolonizing travel and tourism, environmental justice and sustainability, and community engagement.

What makes this program especially meaningful is that it encourages students not simply to observe another culture but to engage with it thoughtfully and critically. They reflect on reciprocal learning, mutual respect, and the relationships they build with local communities and with one another. Despite being separated by thousands of miles, they develop a shared sense of purpose rooted in global engagement and intercultural understanding.

The World Cup demonstrates that connection across difference is possible on a global stage. International education demonstrates that these connections can become deeply personal and transformational. Every study abroad experience, intercultural partnership, and global learning opportunity invites students to move beyond stereotypes, embrace complexity, and build relationships grounded in empathy, respect, and shared humanity.

As the World Cup draws to a close, it offers a timely reminder of what global connection can look like in practice. For international educators, however, this work continues, it happens in advising offices, during pre-departure orientations, on virtual calls, during site visits with international partners, in host families' homes, through community engagement, and in the countless conversations that help students navigate cultures different from their own. Both the World Cup and international education remind us that our greatest opportunities lie not in what separates us, but in what connects us.