Kathleen Naglee

Belong Hub is more than a framework—it’s a movement toward truly inclusive and student-driven school cultures. At the International School of Helsinki, I was proud to support a growing shift toward deeper student leadership, ensuring that student voice was not just encouraged but embedded in school life.

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At the center of this transformation was my work with Rachael Thrash, who developed and refined student leadership structures that moved beyond traditional models, ensuring that students had both a voice and a process to turn their ideas into action. As the work deepened, Rachael and Mustafa Alshihani developed Belong Hub to streamline student-led initiatives and provided a clear, replicable framework for meaningful engagement. 

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Throughout this process, we drew inspiration from and collaborated with leading educators such as Angeline Aow, Emily Meadows, and Ellen Mahoney, whose work informed the broader conversation on student leadership and inclusive school cultures. With institutional support and this collective wisdom, students at ISH were able to step into authentic leadership roles, co-designing initiatives, serving on interview committees, forming affinity groups, and leading meaningful advocacy efforts both within the school and beyond.

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Belong Hub provides schools with a model that is both deeply intentional and entirely replicable. It shows us that authentic student leadership isn’t about a select few—it’s about building structures where every student has the opportunity to shape their community. If we are serious about making schools places where students feel purpose, autonomy, and belonging, then Belong Hub is the blueprint to get us there. Because, in the end, we only thrive when we belong.