Dear Readers,

Welcome to the inaugural edition of CLASSROAM, EdTerra’s annual education magazine—created to bring together the ideas, people, and practices shaping experiential learning in schools today.

As EdTerra completes 16 years of partnering with schools, we find ourselves reflecting not just on journeys undertaken, but on how learning has evolved through them. With student media projects, what began as simple travel reflections gradually grew into blogs, podcasts, travel books, and films—giving students a voice. As these projects expanded, so did our responsibility to build stronger systems around them. This is how Classroam evolved into an ecosystem—bringing together purposeful learning design, trained on-ground teams, robust safety processes, and technology that helps schools plan journeys, document learning, and carry it meaningfully back into the classroom, even to the parents, and to the students’ CVs and portfolios.

To celebrate this work—and to set a higher benchmark—we launched the Classroam Media Awards in 2023, recognising student creators and the educators who mentor them. More recently, in 2025, we introduced Classroam Circles of Excellence, with a deeper intention: to invest in the educators who make experiential learning sustainable. By extending scholarship opportunities for professional development programmes with institutions such as IIM Indore and IIM Kozhikode, our motive is to further strengthen the education ecosystem.

Thus, in the spirit of knowledge building and knowledge sharing, CLASSROAM magazine felt like the next organic step. As you read this commemorative inaugural issue, I hope it feels like a conversation worth having—between school leaders, educators, and all those who believe learning should remain real, rigorous, and joyful. I extend my heartfelt thanks to Shri Vikas Swarup for anchoring this edition with our cover story, and to our contributing voices—Minakshi Kushwaha, Uttara Singh, Ashley Eates, Miti Dhingra, Anupma Singh, Shalini John, Mary Mahendri, Mala Gupta, and Sudha Sadangi—for their generosity of thought and time. I am especially grateful to Dr Ameeta Mulla Wattal for her precise responses in a thought provoking interview. And it was a pleasure to compose a photo-essay for one of the greatest institution builders India has seen, Mrs Usha Chopra.

Thank you for being part of CLASSROAM. May these pages inform, inspire, and strengthen the vision we are all building towards.