At Athenia School, I gave a technical introduction to AI. Thank you so much, Jawahar, Leena, and Amit, for letting me work at all your different schools and sharing your knowledge and values. I also want to thank aiEDU.org; I used some of their lessons to demonstrate AI's social impact.
These kids have a deep passion for helping their community. On the first day, they showed me their sustainable energy projects around the school. And I think this strong sense of community comes from Athenia School’s origins. When starting the school, Jawahar, Leena, and Amit wanted to provide girls from the slums with a free, quality education.
There were funny pictures of Jawahar chasing kids who were initially scared of him haha, but his dedication paid off. Now, over 20 years later, they have more schools serving all kinds of students, including a free school for girls. When I spoke with Jawahar, he expressed pride in shifting these kids' mindsets to see possibilities beyond their traditional roles and abusive environments.
This is why I’m excited to teach AI—to show the possibilities. While we often teach AI for career survival and other adult stuff, inspiring curiosity and exploring what it means to be human is equally important. One thing AI can’t take away from us is our empathy and emotional drive to solve the problems in our community.