I have been working with SeeBeyondBorders for many years both as a research collaborator and more recently as their volunteer academic advisor. SeeBeyondBorders is firmly focused on addressing the education crisis in Cambodia by enhancing teacher capability through in-service professional development. Cambodian education has been in crisis since the awful killing regime of Khmer Rouge (1975-1979) and subsequent civil wars up to the turn of the millennium.

In this opening letter, Leo invites readers to think about learning as something much bigger than school or college. Learning, he argues, is one of the most important human qualities. It is how we adapt, grow, and make the most of our lives. Looking back over just a single year, we can see how experiences, challenges, and relationships have changed us. This process of change is learning, and it happens all the time, often without us even noticing — in conversations, reading, technology use, or daily living. To capture the full scope of learning, Leo uses the phrase lifelong, worldwide, and values-deep. Lifelong reminds us that learning continues from childhood to old age, shifting focus as our lives change and allowing us to move beyond doubts formed in school. Worldwide reminds us that learning takes different forms across cultures and communities, broadening our own perspective when we appreciate this diversity. Values-deep points to profound moments of change when our assumptions and convictions are challenged, sometimes uncomfortably, in ways that transform our outlook and identity. The letter ends by encouraging us to see learning not simply as the acquisition of knowledge, but as a thread connecting personal growth, community life, and our wider sense of meaning. To help readers apply these ideas, Leo offers reflection questions that prompt us to think about our own recent growth, how past experiences still shape us, what we might learn from other cultures, moments when our values have been tested, and which of the three dimensions — lifelong, worldwide, or values-deep — matters most to us now.