GAILA was founded in February 2023 by two Grade 10 students at the International School of Tianjin (IST), with generous backing from family members and other supporters who shared and encouraged their desire to celebrate and promote the use of immersive technologies in teaching, learning, and general wellbeing. Inspired by their classroom experiences learning how to generate and then present new content through the use of cutting-edge software and Extended Reality devices, these highly motivated students were excited at the further possibility of being able to engage in 3D experiential learning with students in other schools and countries.

Unfortunately, no dedicated inter-school network existed to support such sharing and collaboration, but rather than let this inhibit their ambitions, GAILA’s founding students instead determined to create their own opportunity. Buoyed by generous encouragement and assistance from supporters in both China and Japan, Brandon Zhou and Aya Higawara set about registering a new international association dedicated to this end. And thus, GAILA was born!