International Students' Conference
What is the ISC?
The International Students’ Conference is a space for young people aged 16 to 20, in their final years of high school, to meet, connect, and explore questions that matter to them. At the heart of each conference is a theme that grows out of the lives and questions of young people, becoming a thread that runs through the days they spend together.
The conference is organized by the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, together with young people from around the world and the WaldorfSV, the board of student representatives from Waldorf schools across Germany. Since 2015, the conference has taken place every two years at the Goetheanum in Dornach, bringing together more than 900 students from around the world.
ISC26 | DISCONNECT TO CONNECT: THE THREADS THAT HOLD US TOGETHER
ISC26 invited young people to explore what it means to connect in a world shaped by technology. After a year of organizing across screens, borders, and time zones, the organizers experienced the question themselves: what becomes possible when we meet face to face? The five days at the Goetheanum became an invitation to try something different: to disconnect from our devices and discover what can emerge when we are fully present with one another.
ISC24 | TAKING HEART: FINDING OUR WAY TOGETHER
ISC24 explored how courage can grow when we face the future as a diverse and collaborative group. By learning from one another and bringing our different strengths together, the conference sought to discover new ways of responding to the challenges of our time — ways that might not be possible alone.
ISC21 | TRUST
Trust explored the foundations that connect us to ourselves, to one another, and to society. The conference invited participants to look at the relationship between self-confidence, responsibility, loyalty, and our contribution to the communities we are part of, and to ask how trust can help us step into the future with confidence.
ISC19 | COURAGE
ISC19 explored courage as a force for meeting both ourselves and the world around us. Over five days, young people from more than 30 countries came together for conversations, lectures, workshops, and encounters around questions of fear, freedom, responsibility, and the courage to stand for what matters. The conference ended with a Creative Intervention in Basel, carrying the impulses of the week beyond the Goetheanum and into the wider world.
ISC17 | CHALLENGES OF OUR TIME - SEEKING FOR A GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS BY FACING MYSELF?
ISC17 brought together more than 400 students from over 20 countries for five days of encounters, conversations, and reflection around the challenges of our time. The conference came to a close with the planting of the International Students’ Conference tree in the backyard of the Goetheanum — a living reminder of the connections made during those days. As everyone began their journey home, the hope was that the inspiration of the week, and the desire to bring change to the world, would continue to grow beyond the conference.