Celebrating visionary Bay Area leaders
When Salman Khan began posting videos on YouTube more than a decade ago, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur had no idea of the celebrity he would gain, nor the impact he would have.
His online tutorials in math, with their encouraging counsel informed by degrees from Harvard and MIT, were made for friends and family struggling in school. But his audience quickly grew. Before long, Khan had quit his day job in finance to carry out a goal of delivering free Internet instruction to the world. His educational website was called Khan Academy.
On March 27, Khan, 41, was presented the fourth annual Visionary of the Year Award, an honor announced by The San Francisco Chronicle at a gala at the War Memorial Veterans Building.
The award recognizes individuals who use their business savvy and entrepreneurship for social benefit. It carries a $25,000 grant from The Chronicle that can be applied to the cause of Khan’s choice.
Khan Academy today has more than 62 million registered users in nearly 200 countries. His voice, which still narrates many of the tutorials, is widely recognized, and students and parents often stop him on the street to thank him for providing an assist at school or work.
“As I tell everyone, this is just something I fell into,” he said as he accepted the award and recounted helping his cousin Nadia with her school work years ago.
Since its launch in 2008, Khan
Academy has broadened its online course load to include nearly every school subject from science to art and from the kindergarten to college levels. It also veers into SAT instruction and personal finance.
Khan’s Mountain View nonprofit has grown from just him to more than 150 employees.
Perhaps most impressive is that the schooling has remained entirely free.
With the admirable mission of providing a “world-class” education to anyone anywhere, Khan has attracted financial support from well-heeled donors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google and Bank of America.
The reach of the academy has been buoyed by Khan’s many media appearances on such
shows as “60 Minutes” and the “Colbert Report,” and with publication of his book “The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined.”
While some educators have remained leery about online learning, many have come to embrace Khan’s platform as a vital classroom aid.
“I thought it was a dumb idea at first,” he said during an interview after the award ceremony. “YouTube videos were cats playing piano.”
He added: “It’s a real honor to be here tonight.”
About 150 people attended the March 27 gala, including Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, former Secretary of State George Shultz, and his wife, Charlotte Shultz — all of whom were members of the nominating committee for the award.
Khan was among six finalists for the 2018 Visionary award. They include Sarahi Espinoza founder and CEO of DREAMers Road Map; Bishop William Swing, president and founder of United Religions Initiative; Dr. Laurie Green, founder of The MAVEN project; Naomi Fuchs, CEO of Santa Rosa Community Health Centers; and Premal Shah, president and co-founder of Kiva.
Previous winners were Evan Marwell, founder and chief execSalamanca, utive of Education Superhighway, a nonprofit that upgrades Internet infrastructure in schools; Chase Adam, creator of Watsi, a crowd-funded platform that provides medical care to people who can’t afford it; and Priscilla Chan, pediatrician and advocate for children’s health and education.