Salman Khan, the creator of the Khan Academy.
What beats being good at math and science? Helping thousands across the globe discover the joy of learning (via SF Chronicle):
During the years Salman Khan spent scrutinizing financials for hedge funds, he rationalized the profit-obsessed work by telling himself he would one day quit and use his market winnings to open a free school.
Instead, he started one almost by accident.
It began with long-distance tutoring in late 2004. He agreed to help his niece Nadia, then a seventh-grader struggling with unit conversion, by providing math lessons over Yahoo’s interactive notepad, Doodle, and the phone.
Nephews and family friends soon followed. But scheduling conflicts and repeated lectures prompted him to post instructional videos on YouTube that his proliferating pupils could watch when they had the time.
They did – and before long, so did thousands of others. Today, the Mountain View resident’s 800-plus videos are viewed about 35,000 times a day, forming a virtual classroom that dwarfs any brick and mortar school he might have imagined. By using the reach of the Internet, he’s helped bring education to the information-hungry around the world who can’t afford private tutors or Kaplan prep courses.
“With so little effort on my own part, I can empower an unlimited amount of people for all time,” Khan, 33, said. “I can’t imagine a better use of my time.”
Neither can we. Check out the Khan Academy’s amazing array of course offerings here.
Just in case you’re wondering, here are Sal Khan’s “underachieving” credentials:
Salman Khan (Sal) founded the Khan Academy with the goal of using technology to educate the world Sal received his MBA from Harvard Business School. He also holds a Masters in electrical engineering and computer science, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and a BS in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Khan Academy is a work of true genius. Someone must nominate Sal Khan for the MacArthur Fellows Program.
– Gautam Dutta
