Jeremey wakes up and looks at his alarm clock. Half past seven. Oh no! He cannot be late for today’s first class at the Equinor and Kongsberg International University—one of the most prestigious universities in Norway. Jeremey has already been late two times this semester. Next time, he will get a notice on his records. That cannot happen! It could mean that he will not be able to work for his dream division at Equinor after graduation. Jeremey leaves in a rush and runs the 200 m from his student apartment building to the seminar room.

On the other side of town, Ella eats breakfast and reads the latest news in one of the few remaining independent newspapers available in Norway. The situation at the southern borders of the EU is devastating, as more and more people seek refuge from floods, droughts, landslides, armed revolts, and civil wars. Ella feels a whiff of hopelessness; why had nobody stopped the relentless exploitation of humans and the planet decades ago? This exploitation has led to all of this. But there is no time to grieve, not now, Ella needs to leave and join the others at the ERCP—Education for Radical Change and Peace.

When Ella told her parents 2 years ago that she wanted to join ERCP rather than going to the Equinor and Kongsberg International University, her parents were in shock. They could not understand why Ella, who had all opportunities to succeed at one of the corporate universities, would choose ERCP instead of a profitable and safe pathway into the future. What had they done wrong? Why would their middle-class daughter choose to join ERCP? Was it because Ella stumbled upon this old book by Hannah Arendt on the attic when she was 13 years old?

Despite the relentless attempts from her parents to change her mind, Ella knew that ERCP was the right place for her, already the first time she read about it on a flyer (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

The Education for Radical Change and Peace (ERCP) flyer

Full size image

Ella immediately realized that she wanted to be at ERCP instead of one of the big corporate universities. A place where she could discover what really was important and meaningful to her. She did not want to be part of the exploitive culture that has led to the world as it had unfolded. Yes, joining ERCP meant an uncertainty and living a simple life without any of the luxury items that advertisement constantly wanted her to believe she needed. However, for Ella, this was a life worth living. A life filled with meaning, grounded in the desire to learn and change.

Back at the Equinor and Kongsberg International University, Jeremey arrives in the classroom. He is on time. After a quick briefing, he puts on his virtual reality glasses. Today, Jeremey and his class are working on designing a deep-sea mining installation for the arctic sea. The training program flickering directly in front of their eyes is based on a real-world example from Equinor. Jeremey is amazed but highly concentrated. He knows that all his actions are monitored. After the 1-h session, he logs into the assessment centre and gets a detailed report of his performance and what he needs to improve on. Jeremey is happy; he was in the top three today. All the extra hours that he had spent the day before to be prepared for the session and memorizing the key points had paid off.

In the evening, Jeremey is exhausted but decides to take the bus and grab some food with friends outside campus, where he normally spends most of his time. Jeremey and his friends talk about the deep-sea mining training and how they solved all those difficult engineering problems. Ella is sitting in front of them on the same bus on her way to an evening seminar at ERCP. She listens. After 10 min, she cannot stand it any longer. She turns around and asks Jeremey:

‘Do you have any idea of the problems deep-sea mining is creating? Have you thought about what Equinor is doing? Have you ever asked any critical questions to what you work with? What kind of world do you want to live with?’

Jeremey is stunned. Who is this girl? What were all those questions about? Jeremey had never asked himself those questions; why would he? Equinor will help him to have a good life, as long as he does what he is told to do. After a few seconds, he regains control, starts to laugh at Ella, and turns to his friend: ‘These ERCP students thinking they can change the world…’

The bus stops and Ella gets out. She is angry! and sad. How was there supposed to be any change as long as there were young people like Jeremey? She looks at her left forearm. Her sweater has come up a bit revealing some of the small letters of her tattoo: ‘Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it and by the same token save it.’ These words had stuck with her since she read them for the first time 8 years ago in a book that she found on the attic at her grandparents’ place. She knew she was doing what she believed in and was ready to fight for it.