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A Talk with Anita Gademann | Founder of Edu Smart Technologies and Member of the Board & Head of Innovation, Institut auf dem Rosenberg

By Interviewer Team Femest January 12, 2026

This interview explores a visionary in education who is changing how schools work today. She shares her journey, the challenges of shaping learning environments, and how she gives students a real voice and responsibility. See how students learn through innovation, technology, and student-led projects to grow and prepare for the future.

 

Could you briefly tell us about yourself and what led you into the field of education?

I am passionate about education and learning, whether learning for myself, learning and developing new technologies, creating an educational environment for our students or mentoring our team of leaders. I am a contrarian and very academic, so while being a good student, I have been unhappy with the provision of education in my youth.

This is why I chose to create an environment that resembled what I dreamt of as a young girl. One of my favorite quotes often ascribed to Einstein is: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I am trying to do things differently for a transformative result.

You have worked in media, business, and innovation. What pushed you to move from writing about the world to shaping it through education?

As it often is in business and entrepreneurship, my transition to education happened out of necessity. I am a mom of two wonderful children, which is what brought me to the field of education: I needed to create a school environment in which my children would thrive because I have not found a school that I thought would enable and inspire.

 

What inspired you to create Edu Smart Technologies, and what gap did you see in schools at the time?

Edu Smart Technologies arose out of a deep necessity for technology that was lacking in the market to help us deliver on our promise to our clients, families and students. Accountability, which we believe in very deeply, can only be demanded if there is a provision of transparency towards all stakeholders, students, teachers and parents, which is what most school systems lack.

Our vision for the school of our dreams required a live system with powerful generators to create individual timetables, update information to students and teachers multiple times per day, and connect accurate information in real time to deliver the diverse and abundant offering we create.

Institut auf dem Rosenberg

In simple words, how would you describe your role as Head of Innovation at Institut auf dem Rosenberg?

I am very lucky to work at a school where innovation actually takes place every day, bridging academic knowledge and the real world and giving young people what they deserve: agency and a voice.

I listen to my clients, who are all highly successful entrepreneurs.

I try to understand what they want for their children, what they struggle with, what they hope for and break it down to the smallest units of learning to find what we can offer our students. On a very local level, for instance, if parents talk about the lack of collaboration and teamwork in the workplace, we will ensure that all courses provide possibilities of teamwork, be it debates, band concerts or problem solving in a team.

I am also highly aware of my privilege to work at a school such as Rosenberg and applaud everyone else trying to innovate in a rigid and archaic world of education. In the simplest words possible, the singular role or a Head of Innovation in the context of institutional education i.e. schools is to question everything. If a dean or headteacher or teacher says this is how it’s done, a Head of Innovation must ask why and analyse the answer in detail.

The likelihood that the answer is ‘because it’s always been done this way’ or ‘the best schools in the world do this’ or ‘in my previous school we did this’ is very high. I wish the Head of Innovation position at schools would be sexier, like in the tech industry, but unfortunately, Heads of Innovation innovate paradigms and ecosystems that are two hundred years old without access to technology. Can you imagine innovating a newly built factory during the Industrial Revolution without new technology? That’s what schools struggle with today, their own resistance to innovation.

 

Rosenberg is known for doing things differently. What makes its education model stand out today?

We have created our own educational ecosystem, an environment in which all stakeholders partake with agency, accountability and success. I did not run through a typical training for leadership in education, which is why my working philosophy is entrepreneurial and service driven: the pivotal moment for me daily is to deliver on my promise.

The moment the student is at the forefront of an operation, we cannot talk about a system of education or educational model because they all fail students. We offer the exact opposite: we hope to inspire students, discover their passions but also hold them accountable to what they are good at: if aviation is a student’s passion, we expect them to thrive in physics and mathematics, if aviation design is what they are after, that’s fine, they can pursue visual arts.

At the same time, if a student spends hours every day on mathematics problems or practicing the piano and yet they are not progressing successfully, we let them know very openly and honestly that this is not their field of excellence. We treat our students with great respect and believe they can handle this feedback and use it constructively.

At Rosenberg, we choose not to follow any educational model because we found educational models, whether national school models or international external exam models, so outdated we would have failed our clients by offering one or two models. The educational systems or models have been in existence for two hundred years and created a society that struggles with mental health, dislikes their jobs and looks for inspiration outside of their workplace and yet spends the most time working. The educational systems have not served our society successfully.

We run our proprietary Rosenberg International Curriculum, which offers external examination systems of value to universities such as the IB, the American Advanced Placements or the International A levels alongside language examinations following the CEFR model, performing arts and public speaking exams from the London Academy of Dramatic Arts, Trinity music exams among others.

 

 

Being the first school to host at the World Economic Forum is a big step. What does this moment mean for students?

I am so excited about this wonderful opportunity and everyone who is joining our students at the Rosenberg House Davos because I believe it will be the first time in which a large group of young people will be given the voice they deserve. You will be able to see students as young as twelve years old interview leading voices and I am sure our students will surprise and inspire the ruling generation of old people.

President Obama recently said “It’s fair to say that 80 percent of the world’s problems involve old men hanging on who are afraid of death and insignificance, and they won’t let go” and I so subscribe to this statement.

I am sure that everyone is trying to do their best but we must reflect and understand that the world of today is not as great as we would have hoped for it to be, so it’s time to change something, it’s time to give the power and voice to younger generations to look for solutions to the world’s problems instead of talking and holding on to power.

 

Rosenberg House is fully student led. What have you learned from watching teenagers lead global conversations?

Teenage conversations are almost always solution led, which is so refreshing and inspiring! Teenagers have a heightened reward responsiveness as a result of their maturing prefrontal cortex, which makes them more prone to take risks. They are much more willing to put their head on the line and say something that may seem risky.

Young people and our students in particular have a profound advantage in that they are not spoiled by the problems of yesterday, by failed relationships, by previously promised deals. The result is an actual conversation, sharing of ideas, without jargon, without attempting to promote something other than your own voice. I believe the world of politics should absolutely include young voices.

 

Many projects focus on climate, ethics, and future skills. Why do you believe these topics cannot wait?

It’s not my belief or my plan but that of our students. We do not impose projects on our students, they select their own topics of interest and the organisations they want to promote. We merely try to create possibilities for them to show their knowledge, solutions, and endeavours. (FYI: We could send some real life examples of projects initiated by our students with quotes)

 

The Humanix Qualification connects human values with technology. What do students gain from learning this way?

HumaniX puts people at the centre of learning about complex systems, often in coexistence with intelligent machines. That’s why it naturally aligns with the literacies I see most valuable in this learning module: human literacy (ethics, wellbeing, empathy, communication, collaboration), data literacy (collecting, cleaning, interpreting, and questioning data), and technological literacy (using sensors, apps, modelling, and AI tools, and critically reflecting on them).

The heart of HumaniX is showing students that there’s no future without technology, and therefore no true separation between the human and the tech. We will either learn to embed our values and beliefs into the systems we build, or technology will shape us into passive, thoughtless consumers. |X| helps students make that choice consciously and gives them the skills to become responsible shapers of technology rather than just users.

 

EduSmart SchoolHub supports the full school system. How has this technology changed daily school life?

SchoolHub has fundamentally changed daily school life by allowing us to operate the school as a live system, reflecting how we actually work in the real world, with full accountability for all stakeholders and clear goal tracking for each student.

It digitalises all workflows at Rosenberg, from timetabling and teaching to boarding and medical management, enabling staff to plan, act, and respond in real time. Teachers work through Cockpit, a core feature that gives them genuine freedom in planning while ensuring transparency and accountability, and parents have continuous insight into relevant aspects of school life.

 

For students, behaviour and engagement are governed and rewarded through our digitalised Rosenberg Code, including real-life awards they can claim via their app. Ultimately, SchoolHub is the platform that enables true innovation in how our school operates and evolves.

 

On a personal note, what part of your work brings you the most joy?

Any interactions with our students are a highlight of my day. I like to talk about the subjects they want to study, their career passions, and actions to improve their academics or co-curricular.

My favourite is talking about books or sharing my reading with them, I love to hear their music choices in return. Teenagers have much better taste and access to amazing sound than we older people do.

When you think about the next generation, what kind of leaders do you hope education will help create?

I can promise you that the leadership of tomorrow will beat the leadership of today by a mile. While Rosenberg students are very privileged and I have no doubt that they will be thoughtful, empathetic, result-driven and hard working, I am also really inspired by the teenagers I meet outside of Rosenberg, by their voices, actions and willingness to be the change makers. I only wish those in charge would give them active voices already today.

 

Student Voices

Sofia M. | Grade 10

“At Rosenberg House in Davos, I’m excited to connect engineering and technology with the real-world decisions shaping our future. Building on my work with MIT and ClimateFlux – presented with our partner Swissnex during Climate Week New York, I’m passionate about smarter urban development and practical climate solutions. Davos is a unique place to collaborate with partners, global policy makers, and change-makers to keep building blueprints for success for the next generation on a world stage.”

 

Furui Y.|Grade 8

“As a proud third-generation Rosenberg student, Rosenberg House in Davos feels especially meaningful to me, a place where ideas meet responsibility. I’m excited to interview Yuval Noah Harari for the Sapienship Lab and explore questions we’ve worked with in class, from CRISPR to its ethical implications. I’m also looking forward to sharing ideas on how we can successfully coexist with intelligent machines and shape a future that stays human-centered.”

Editor’s Note:

Reading this interview, I was struck by how one person’s vision can reshape the way we think about education. From her early experiences as a student to creating Edu Smart Technologies and leading innovation at Institut auf dem Rosenberg, she has constantly challenged the status quo.

She says, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” and that drive to do things differently is evident in every project she touches.

What stands out most is her belief in the power of young voices. Watching students lead projects on climate, ethics, and future skills, she notes, “Teenage conversations are almost always solution-led, which is so refreshing and inspiring.” These moments show the impact of giving students agency, responsibility, and trust.

This story matters because it reminds us that education is not just about exams and grades, it’s about preparing thoughtful, empathetic, and capable leaders for tomorrow. It’s a call to rethink what’s possible and give young people the space to thrive.

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