ELTS students pen ‘Letters to the Future’ to commemorate International Education Week
iStock.com/CoreDesignKEY
Students imagined what advice they would give to UCLA scholars of the future.
| November 19, 2025
Five students from the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies contributed their foresight, cultural insights and language skills to International Education Week at UCLA.
Each student composed a short letter addressed to the students who years from now will study languages, literature and culture at UCLA. Each submission included a written or typed composition, along with a short audio or video recording of the student reading it aloud.
“The project was conceived as a multilingual ‘time capsule’ capturing what it means to live, study and think between languages today,” said Nina Bjekovic, director of language programs for ELTS, who organized the project.
Students were asked to consider questions like how the role of language, translation and interpretation would evolve; and what hopes, cautions or insights from 2025 they would share with the students who follow in their footsteps.
One contributor was Isabella Dante, a doctoral student in Italian studies, who wrote: “What will it mean for you to take what you learn from language and culture in your world, and in my future? I could only hope it takes you far away from home and acquires you with the courage to build comfort away from what you know.”
Visit the ‘Letters to the Future’ webpage to read (and hear) the rest of Dante’s missive, along with the other students’ contributions. International Education Week, which runs through Nov. 21, is a nationwide initiative that highlights international education, exchange and research — and at UCLA offers opportunities to spotlight the campus’s global reach.