CAIA School Ambassadors
One seat per school. Might as well be you.
Every high school in the Caribbean gets one AI ambassador. You run things at your school, sit on a committee with ambassadors from every other school in your country, and vote for who speaks for all of you. It costs nothing. You can also put somebody else's name forward.
Why we are doing this
Adults are writing the AI rules for your classroom right now
Your ministry is drafting AI rules for schools. Your exam council is deciding what still counts as your own work. Your school has probably banned something you and half your year already use at home. Nobody asked any of you.
That is the whole reason this exists. One student from every school gets into that conversation properly: on a committee, with a vote, with a report that gets published, and your name on the submissions that go to the people deciding.
The other half is what you get out of it, and we would rather say it than pretend this is pure charity. You get taught by people who build these systems for a living. Free courses. A mentor. A reference signed by the President of the association. And a group of people across the region who are into the same things you are.
Nobody pays anything. Not you, not your school.
The role
What you would actually be doing
Four things, all year. Everything else the programme gives you sits on top of these.
Run the AI club at your school
Start one, or take over the one that is barely running. Four sessions a term, and we hand you the material so you are not building slides at 1am. The people around you get to learn how this stuff works instead of only hearing it is coming for their jobs.
Show up for your country call
One call a month with every other ambassador in your country. You bring what is really going on at your school: what gets taught, what got banned, what everybody is already using anyway, and what the staff have not noticed yet.
Answer the big consultations
When CARICOM, a ministry, an exam council or CAIA asks the region what it thinks about some AI question, ambassadors get asked first. Your committee's answer goes in with your names on it.
Write one report a term
Short. A page or two on AI at your school. Put together, those reports become the first real picture of what Caribbean students are doing with AI, and we publish it every year.
What is in it for you
Six reasons this is worth your time
This should end up being the most useful line on your CV by the time you leave school. The full list, so you can judge for yourself.
Rooms you would not normally get into
You get put in front of the people writing Caribbean AI policy: ministry advisers, regulators, examiners, researchers, and the founders building AI companies here. Not sitting at the back of one. Being asked what you think.
Taught by people who do this for a living
A masterclass every month from someone who does the work: machine learning engineers, AI risk officers, data scientists, lawyers writing the rules. All recorded, so bad internet never costs you the session.
The CAIA Academy, free
Full access to our certificate courses in generative AI and AI risk management, certificates included, at no cost to you or your school.
A mentor who is yours
You get paired with a Caribbean professional working in AI or something next to it, for your whole term. Someone who answers your questions and reads your work properly.
A reference that means something
Finish a term and you get a letter signed by the President of the Caribbean AI Association, plus a verified record of what you did. It travels well: scholarships, universities, first jobs.
You hear about things first
Internships, scholarships, competitions, research placements and the AI Futures Fellowship reach ambassadors before they reach anyone else.
How it is set up
From your classroom to a regional council
Every level above your school is filled by ambassadors voting. CAIA chairs the meetings and pays for the work. We do not pick who speaks for you.
- 01
One ambassador per school
Every secondary school in the Caribbean gets one, picked from whoever that school puts forward. If your school sends several strong people, the others get offered deputy roles.
- 02
Your country's ambassadors form a committee
Everyone in your country sits on one committee, chaired by a CAIA member from there. The committee decides for itself what it wants to take on.
- 03
The committee elects who speaks for it
Your country committee votes for the representatives who carry its positions regionally. Ambassadors elect them. We do not appoint them.
- 04
Representatives sit on a regional council
National representatives sit together as the Caribbean Schools AI Council, next to delegates from the seven CAIA Think Tanks, and take student positions into the association's regional work.
What is coming
Then 2027 happens
The CAIA Ambassador Awards
Ambassador of the Year, School of the Year, Country Committee of the Year, and a prize for the best student AI project in the region. Judged on your term reports and your committee work, not on one polished pitch. Winning work gets published under your own name.
The Caribbean AI Youth Forum
Everybody in one room. You present your report, sit on panels with ministers, regulators and founders, and hand the next cohort their agenda. Travel and accommodation are paid for elected national representatives, and we are working with sponsors to get as many of the rest of you there as we can.
Who can apply
The bar is lower than you think
- You are at a secondary school somewhere in the Caribbean, or you are a Caribbean student at school abroad.
- Any form from First to Upper Sixth. Most ambassadors will be 13 to 19.
- Any subjects. No coding required, no entry test, nothing to revise for.
- Four to six hours a month. Exam terms are protected, and CSEC or CAPE candidates can hand things to a deputy.
- If you are under 18, a parent or guardian has to be fine with it.
- You are alright with your name being public as your school's ambassador.
How we pick
What the panel is reading for
Whether people at your school listen to you
Can you get other students into a room and keep them there? Clubs you run, teams you captain, events you pull off, subjects you tutor. The title matters less than whether anyone follows.
Whether you have gone looking
Not how much you already know. Whether you have been curious on your own time. A model you tried to build, a paper you read twice, a question you still cannot answer.
Whether you can see the downside
The strongest applications name something AI is making worse as clearly as something it is making better. A job, a subject, a friend, a piece of work.
Whether you finish things
A term is three reports, three months of calls and twelve club sessions. Show us you do not start things and drop them.
Your purpose statement
One document, your own words, on what you would do with this. It counts for more than any other part of the application.
What happens next
How this runs
Applications and nominations are open
Apply for yourself, or put forward whoever you think should have it. Same form either way.
Shortlist and a short call
We read everything against the five things below. If you are shortlisted you have a quick online chat with the panel, and we check the appointment with your school.
Induction and committees
You get inducted, paired with a mentor, handed the club material and seated on your country committee. First committee meeting happens inside a month.
Elections and the first awards
Committees elect their national representatives. The first CAIA Ambassador Awards go to the ambassadors, schools and countries who did the most with the year.
The Youth Forum
Everyone in one room, in person. You present your report, sit on panels with people who decide things, and hand the next cohort their agenda.
Applications are open
Take the seat
Apply for yourself, or put somebody else's name forward. Same form either way, and both need a purpose statement in the student's own words. Give yourself about twenty minutes and do not rush the writing bits.
Before you ask
Questions we already get
Does it cost anything?
No. No application fee, no membership fee, nothing for your school. Travel to the 2027 forum is covered for elected national representatives, and we are working with sponsors to bring as many of the rest of you as the money allows.
Do I need to be good at maths or coding?
No. Some of the best ambassadors are going to come out of literature, art, business and agriculture. AI is going to land on every subject, so the committees need people who understand the subjects it lands on. Bring the curiosity and we will handle the technical part.
Someone at my school is already applying.
Apply anyway. Where a school produces several strong candidates, one becomes the ambassador and the others get offered deputy roles on the same committee with the same access.
Can a teacher or my mum nominate me?
Yes, and please do. Choose the nomination option on the form and fill it in for them. We then contact the student directly to check they want the seat and to collect their purpose statement.
How much time is this really?
Four to six hours a month. One committee call, club sessions whenever suits you, and one short report a term. Exam terms are protected, and anyone sitting CSEC or CAPE can hand the load to their deputy.
I am under 18. What does my parent have to agree to?
That you can take part, that CAIA can contact you about programme business, and that your name and school can appear in CAIA publications and at CAIA events. We ask on the form and confirm it in writing before you start.
What happens when I leave school?
You move into the CAIA alumni network, keep your Academy access, and go to the front of the queue for the AI Futures Fellowship and CAIA internship placements.
My country is not in the dropdown.
Pick the closest one, or Other, and tell us in the form. Every Caribbean country and territory counts, and so do Caribbean students at schools abroad.
Somebody from your school is going to sit on that committee
There is one seat, it is free, and it is open right now. Take it, or send us the name of whoever should.