As an immigrant, former English learner, and current university president in the United States, Dr. Reetika Dhawan understands the role English can play in helping learners access new opportunities, develop agency, and build confidence. In this Q&A, she reflects on the transformative power of English language education and shares her perspective on what it means to prepare learners for the future.
Q: What does being “future-ready” mean to you?
Reetika Dhawan: Being future-ready means being prepared not only for the job that exists today, but for change itself. It is the confidence and ability to keep learning, unlearning, and relearning as technology, industries, and opportunities evolve.
Q: What knowledge, skills, or mindsets do today’s learners need most, and why?
RD: Learners need durable human skills: communication, adaptability, collaboration, critical thinking, and digital and AI literacy. Technical skills will continue to change, but these capabilities travel with the learner into every role and industry.
Q: What role does English play in preparing learners for future opportunities?
RD: English provides access to education, careers, technology, and global networks, but its deeper value is agency. It allows learners not only to enter a conversation, but to contribute to it, persuade, advocate, and lead.
Q: How has English or education shaped your own journey?
RD: Education transformed my life. English was not my first language, and I came to the United States from India with a background in mathematics and science. English gave me access, communication gave me agency, and together they carried me from the classroom to leading Arizona Western College today.
Q: What is one practical tip you would like to offer educators who want to prepare their learners for the future?
RD: Design learning as a mirror, a window, and a door: help students see themselves, see the world, and see how they can participate in it. Students engage when they understand not only what they are learning, but what that learning will allow them to do.
Q: What excites you about the future of English education?
RD: I am excited that we cannot predict where our learners’ journeys will take them. As AI changes the tools around us, education has a renewed opportunity to strengthen the capabilities that make us human and to expand what learners believe is possible for their lives.
Continue the conversation with Reetika
Join Reetika Dhawan and other leading voices in education for our Future-Ready Perspectives webinar series. Explore how changing expectations in education and the workplace are reshaping the skills learners need—and what this means for English language teaching today.
