- Growing up, there were only three career options
available to me: doctor, lawyer, failure.
And, of course, I didn't want
to be perceived as a failure.
I mean, who would?
But the pressure, the competition was so intense,
they consumed me.
Now, by the time I was a high school student, I developed
a very bad eating disorder for almost three years.
And this entire journey
completely killed my interest in learning.
I was only learning for the sake of earning good grades.
I was only learning for the sake of pleasing my teachers,
my parents, my community.
And I think, in retrospect, this entire experience
really planted a seed in me to make a change in education
so that no student will have to go
through what I went through to get to where I am.
- Tell us about Classroom Without Walls.
- It was really my way to disrupt education,
to prepare students to become career-ready
and life-ready by teaching them what they are not learning
from traditional schools.
And that's why I developed my own iceberg model.
The tip of the iceberg is knowledge
and that is what traditional schooling focuses on.
I also included two other components:
life literacy and the mindset.
Life literacy includes digital media literacy
and five essential life skills which are
communication, collaboration,
critical thinking, creativity,
and creative problem-solving.
I truly believe those are the skills
that will help students become future leaders.
Classroom Without Walls follows a hybrid model.
We have the online component.
We also have an in-person component.
The online program covers the curriculum I mentioned earlier
and the in-person component is in different countries.
And we also started our own scholarship foundation.
- You're teaching your kids to use social media
to their advantage.
How so?
- I truly believe we're entering today's show-me economy.
It is so important that young people know how
to use the tools they have for free
to showcase their skills and talents.
So at Classroom Without Walls, we teach our students how
to use social media to create.
So in that case, they are using social media
to serve their own career and professional needs,
as opposed to becoming a victim of social media.
- You also are teaching them
to use critical thinking skills
when they're consuming social media
to question the sources.
- And that is actually part of life literacy
which includes critical thinking.
Because we have student from different countries
joining Classroom Without Walls,
it is very beneficial to adding additional perspectives.
It is always a very interesting discussion.
Sometimes you can clearly see
the political agenda behind news.
- How do you help students figure
out what they're really good at
and where they can truly make their mark?
- Many student join my program.
They are feeling so lost in life.
They don't even know who they are.
For any student, they spend their entire life listening
to a school curriculum, listening to their teachers.
Their entire life is dictated by teachers,
by standardized curriculum and schedule.
Many students, even after their undergraduate degree,
they feel like, "Oh my god, I still don't know
"what I want to do in life.
"Maybe I should get a master."
And even after a master, they go,
"Oh, I still don't know what how to do in life.
"Oh, I need to get another degree."
And I actually developed a three-phase process
and that involves unlearning old practices and beliefs
that are no longer serving our students.
It's almost like giving our students a new identity
from being a follower who are just like listening
to the teachers all the time,
but actually become a disrupter.
So the second phase of our curriculum is called Creation.
I truly believe creation is the highest level of learning.
Not memorization, not regurgitating information,
but the ability to create.
And our students are not doing enough creation.
So at Classroom Without Walls, we have a number
of creation-based project.
And every single project is designed
to help our students discover who they are
and figure out their career path
before they invest in very expensive degrees
and educational programs.
- Seems to me that so many students are so obsessed
with academic performance, they play it safe,
and aren't willing to take the risks they need to take
to really discover who they are.
- I will always ask them on the first day,
are you guys afraid of failures,
are you guys afraid of mistakes.
Every single time, every single student will say,
"Yes, I am afraid of failures and mistakes."
And that's why the third phase
of my curriculum is called Acceleration,
where we really work with our students on their mindset.
And mindset is really the engine
driving the entire iceberg forward.
Like the iceberg I mentioned earlier,
we teach our students how to rewire their brain.
- Tell me about some of the success stories
you've witnessed.
- We have students who found their dream jobs
even before they graduated from college
using the skills that they have learned from my program.
And we also have students who are
using the skills they learned from our program
to launch their podcast, smashing interviews
and internships.
And we also have students
who have launched their own businesses.
- What are your hopes and dreams for the future
of Classroom Without Walls?
- We started our own scholarship foundation
and I hope in a few years, we can continue
to grow our scholarship foundation
so that I can sponsor more students
to be a part of Classroom Without Walls.
[upbeat music]