Transcript
Find A Way Podcast: This is episode 105, Learning Reimagined. And today our guest is Dharaj Hariharamani. Dharaj is the founder of LearnIt, an Ontario-based organization helping students gain real-world skills often missed in traditional classrooms.
Find A Way Podcast: Born in Kampala, Uganda, Dhras began teaching at orphanages at 14, sparking his passion for education and equity. After moving to Canada to study at UBC, he launched a Learnit to bridge the gap between classrooms, learnings, and practical skills.
Find A Way Podcast: Learnit partners with schools across Ontario, offering workshops on leadership, entrepreneurship, and public speaking, delivered by professionals from top companies from companies like Google, Deloitte, and Accenture.
Find A Way Podcast: He also hosts the Learn It podcast featuring conversations with educators educators learning about innovative teaching. As the name of an immigrant entrepreneur, Dharaj is reimagining education to empower students with the confidence, curiosity and skills they need to thrive.
Find A Way Podcast: Welcome, Dharaj.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here.
Find A Way Podcast: So before we start, I know that I said a little bit about your company, but we'd love to hear from the founder. Can you share more about your business and what you do?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Absolutely. Now be happy to. So Learn It you know started with this this idea of providing experiences for high school students that they'd never got before. ah Experiences that in my, the way that I say it to my team, experiences that they will never forget for the rest of their lives.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And so we partner with school boards and schools primarily in the province of Ontario because all of our experiences are delivered in person. And we deliver different types of workshops and experiences. Some of these workshops are ranging from design thinking and entrepreneurship to more technical skills like app development.
Dhiraj Hariramani: ah We do it in two primary formats. We either deliver at schools all across the province through a group of industry facilitators or we do offsite experiences. And that's where the magic really happens. We have taken kids to Microsoft's office, we've taken kids to different types of corporate spaces, and this year we have lined up some pretty exciting ones like surgical simulation centers and airports, places that you know you wouldn't imagine that a group of high-skill students would get to go to, and we're just trying to create these experiences to help them explore careers more.
Find A Way Podcast: I think I would have loved to have all those experiences because I think that a lot of careers, kids don't even think they can do it because they don't, they don't have access to it. Right. Like they don't understand that that's a possible career.
Find A Way Podcast: I love that. Um, I'm curious to hear a little bit. So you started teaching computers at orphanages in Uganda, just 14. What did the early experience teach you about the role of education in shaping our community?
Dhiraj Hariramani: yeah it was very interesting because i grew up in i grew up in uganda as you mentioned and uh in a place like kampala small city uh teaching was never seen as a for lack of a better word, as a good job.
Dhiraj Hariramani: It was always seen as a low income job in those type of countries. And so it was never something that was promoted to say, oh, you should think about being a teacher. ah So the way that it happened was my mom used to go to these orphanages quite often to volunteer and support.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And on one of the days she says, hey, why don't you come and teach them? Because at that time I built my own PC for the first time. So I was really excited about it. i was a geek. I loved building PCs. And my mom was like, hey, why don't you come? These kids have never seen a computer their whole lives.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Why don't you just come with me and just tell them a little bit about, you know, how it works, what it does. And so I prepared for that. That was the first time actually prepared to teach. And i I thought about how would I want to teach someone that knows nothing about computers, but has only heard of it, heard of it in the media and heard of it from other people.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And these are young kids, you know, they're like 13 to 18 years old. um And so I took my physical PC to the orphanage and I took it there and I started to walk them through and I said, here's the motherboard. This is what it does. This is what it looks like. Here's,
Dhiraj Hariramani: Here's the graphic card and here's what it does and all the games you play. here is Here's how it works. But one of the things that I realized just in that moment was how fulfilling of of ah of a thing it is to teach.
Dhiraj Hariramani: um You know, this idea of being able to share knowledge. I think people often underestimate how much power there is in being able to share some knowledge and and most importantly, inspire, like just seeing the kids and seeing how happy they were and Imagine the first time you saw computer and, and you know, something you've heard of. It's something pretty cool. And so just seeing that level of excitement that they had, seeing how much love they had for for learning and how much curiosity that I think that really built a strong foundation for me to fall in love with the idea of sharing knowledge and teaching.
Find A Way Podcast: That's so cool. um Yeah, that's an incredible, that's an incredible experience.
Dhiraj Hariramani: you.
Find A Way Podcast: And it definitely sounds like it shaped the work that you you decided to do today. um When you arrived in Canada for university, what gaps did you notice in the education system that led you to start learning? And I know that like you, you know, you, you're teaching mostly high school kids now.
Find A Way Podcast: But i' just curious is like, what were some of the gaps that you noticed here once you started university?
Dhiraj Hariramani: yeah i mean it was very interesting right i landed into this country i took a one-way ticket i didn't have i didn't know anybody here um so one of my friends told me the day before i left gandhi he's like you know you're going to canada you have to tip we never used to tip in africa right so i was like okay i have to tip people um and so i land and this is really funny so i take the cabs i don't have uber at that time right so i just I don't have the app. So I take the cabs that are at the airport.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And at the end of the trip, he drops me off at UBC. It was like $50. I'm like, holy shit, that's expensive. ah But I don't have a choice, right? So I pay 50. And then I ask the cab driver, I'm like, I'm sorry, this is my first time. And the first time I've taken a cab, how much do I tip you?
Dhiraj Hariramani: And he looks at me like I'm ridiculous. He's like, who asks how much they want to be tipped? And I'm like, I'm sorry. Like, I don't know what the norm is. And he's like, just do what feels right to you. And I remember gave him probably like five or six bucks at the time.
Dhiraj Hariramani: I didn't know. I didn't know much about the tipping culture. But, you know, I came into this in in this beautiful country not knowing anything. Really, from this tipping culture to I didn't even know how use a washing machine because we didn't have any there. So, you know, there's a lot of random things I had to figure out. But when it comes to education, you know, for me, when I came here, it was always...
Dhiraj Hariramani: 10 steps ahead because I came from a system that I thought was behind. But one thing that was always the same across any country you go to is this genuine love for students that you go in any school and any teacher has this genuine affection and and love to to support and help students grow.
Dhiraj Hariramani: For me, ah in my it was in my fourth year at UBC ah when I started my first company. And that that was our also called Learn It because I love the name so much. I never changed it, but it was a tutoring company.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And what i noticed was that there was, ah you know, not enough really high quality individuals that could make really difficult things feel easy. um And that just, you know, sparked this idea of me. It's like I had this I believe I was gifted with this ability to help people really take something difficult, but make it a little bit easier for them.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And that's when I started the first business of tutoring and I scale that to 600 students. But that just came from this pure love to say that at the end of the day, there are students that require support and they aren't getting the support that they need.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And it's it's possible for a variety of different reasons. But how can I just be how can I add a little bit more to that that resource, a little bit more to to helping and supporting them through my model of of building education and tutoring, primarily through building relationships?
Dhiraj Hariramani: and through helping you know foster a bit more of a deeper connection than just something transactional that I'm here, i teach you and I leave a bit more of a mentorship model around tutoring. So that was the way that I looked at it. But you know coming from Uganda, Canada was miles ahead in in education and and it was always cool to see that.
Find A Way Podcast: That's super interesting. I love to hear the tidbits of what people experience because um it's always different, right? And it's like, you don't think about the the things, the differences that you encounter sometimes until you encounter it's like, oh, what do what do i do about this, right?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Yeah.
Find A Way Podcast: um So talking a little bit more about Learn It, um it focuses on real world skills, like public speaking leadership and focuses on like them learning different career paths and all that.
Find A Way Podcast: But especially especially really for like public speaking leadership and entrepreneurship, why do you think these are often missing from traditional classrooms?
Dhiraj Hariramani: I mean, part of it is that, you know, I think there's there's some ways and shapes and forms where it's integrated into the classroom more naturally, right? Like you go to a business class in grade 10 or grade 11, you're going to have a business presentation, right? So you're going to build on maybe your public speaking skills, whether you'd like to or not, right? That's just a ah foundational skills that you that you build on.
Dhiraj Hariramani: I think what what makes it different is doing it intentionally and saying that, look, we're going to focus primarily on this one foundational skill that that doesn't it doesn't fall under math or science or business. It it falls under foundation, right? it falls under human skills that you need to build.
Dhiraj Hariramani: in order to have a likely probability of being more successful in whatever path that you choose to pursue. um So for me, it was it was less of, you know, I think there are teachers that try and do these things because they know that they're super important. I think anyone you talk to and you say, hey, do you think it's important that we teach kids networking and public speaking as early as possible?
Dhiraj Hariramani: I could guarantee 99 out of 100 people would say absolutely yes. Right. Right. So one is that it's not naturally built in like a separate program into a curriculum, but teachers will try and integrate it more naturally into their teaching habits.
Dhiraj Hariramani: But if we can shape experiences that are focused on building that foundation and those human skills. And also, you know, one of the things is sometimes, you know, I make this joke to my dad. My dad's a successful entrepreneur, but I'll never take his advice because he's my dad.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Right. And I'll be like, oh, dad, you don't know anything. Right. Because at the end of the day, it's like a parent. But he might he might have that same. I might hear that same piece of advice from some other mentor. And I'll be like, yeah, that's absolutely true.
Dhiraj Hariramani: So I think it's the same with teachers and students where it's a little bit more of students might listen to the same thing. But if it's delivered in a different way from a different person, it registers because with their teachers, they've built some level of comfort that it's like a ah parental relationship at that point.
Find A Way Podcast: I love the example that you use. i would say that a lot of wives like me experience this with my husband where I tell him something and then he hears the same thing in a podcast and comes back to it. and Like, what's his novel idea?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Yeah.
Find A Way Podcast: and I was like, yeah, I told you that two months ago. So I know exactly what you're talking about.
Dhiraj Hariramani: ah yeah
Find A Way Podcast: So um as we mentioned before, you've partnered with professionals from really large companies like Google and Deloitte. What impact do you think that industry connections have on the students' learning experience?
Dhiraj Hariramani: It's huge. I mean, you know, I took these students to to the Microsoft Office and not once did I have to tell them to behave. And I think people often under underestimate how smart our kids are today.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Like if you put a group of students in Google's office, a lot of the times you'd be surprised at how well they show up. Right. And it's because there's this they already feel a sense of ownership. They're like, um I'm at I'm at a Google office. I need to show up. So to me, I think it's important that we build that exposure earlier on.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Like, I don't think that exposure needs to wait until third or fourth year of university. I think the earlier we build that that that exposure to industry professional, that relationship, this idea of helping shape our future generation, I think it's it builds a really strong foundation for for students in high school and You know, to me, i I always say like when we bring in industry professionals to run a session, I make this joke that a lot of industry professionals have a lot of knowledge, but they're really boring.
Dhiraj Hariramani: So you're not sitting in a meeting. Right. And and it takes a lot of work for us to work with these industry professionals to say, I want you I want you to challenge yourself. How would you take this and and compete with TikTok? How would you be as, you know, as educational, but also as entertaining and as dynamic?
Dhiraj Hariramani: to help educate a 15-year-old that's so distracted in today's world. right And so it's it's it's about also working with professionals that want to invest in our future and want to see, you know want to have a hand in helping shape whatever future that we create in this country.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And the earlier we build that exposure, it builds inspiration in kids. It builds network for kids. It builds so much that we don't realize for students. And the earlier we can make those relationships happen, the better it is for all of us.
Find A Way Podcast: That's a great point. um So going back to your, I know we're jumping around a little bit here, but going back to your experience and I've, I find it incredible the the work that you're doing, but love to hear from like your personal experience as an immigrant entrepreneur, what challenges have you faced building a venture in a new country and how does have, how have those challenges shaped your, your leadership approach?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Yeah, I mean, a lot, right? and i And I'm grateful for it because I think it... So, I mean, one ah I'll give you two or three things that in terms of challenges I've faced, I think I've faced, especially because of being an immigrant.
Dhiraj Hariramani: um And I've got a lot of benefit out But first of all is... When I first came to Canada and even started working in education, i had zero people that I knew.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Not zero. Right. I wasn't like I could pick up the phone and call someone or I could go somewhere. Nothing. Right. I had to. It took me, I'll say, three, four years of foundational work to actually get to know people and build relationships.
Dhiraj Hariramani: which any immigrant has to do when they and when they're in a new country. That was one of the first foundational challenges. And it becomes especially important because education is an industry that's driven by by relationships and is the same goes. And so it's You know, building those took time and took patience. And I had to i remember I went to Halifax.
Dhiraj Hariramani: My partner was there and we I spent two months just cold calling every single principal in the whole province. I think I've called every school in the province with the intention of learning and the intention of building relationships.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And so a lot of work has gone into that, which which and in hindsight, I think is one of the benefits as well of being an immigrant, because I get to start a fresh page and I get to build these relationships from scratch. I think that was one piece that I i look back on. And in some ways I'm grateful, but I know it was a challenge, but it built a lot of resilience in me to to keep going.
Dhiraj Hariramani: um The second piece would say is, you know, a lot of folks, and I'm very transparent about this, they ask me, oh, your your company is doing a lot of great work. and you're helping kids and you're doing this, why isn't it a charity or why isn't it a nonprofit?
Dhiraj Hariramani: so I'd love for it to be a nonprofit, but if it if it is if it is built in that way, I would have a large dependency on government funding and grants. And a lot of those I don't have access to because I'm an immigrant. And so it becomes a question of, it's a logistical thing. At the end of the day, we're doing something that's hopefully helping change one small piece of the world.
Dhiraj Hariramani: But if you know it's important that people and people also know that there's a reason that, for example, this company, even though it's it's doing something good for the world, it can't be built in a certain way because there are other restrictions that are outside our control. And so we we navigate that and we adapt to that and we build it in a way that's scalable.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And so there's there's a couple of those pockets of things that are very nuanced that that you wouldn't necessarily... you know, default to. But it's important, you know, especially as as immigrant entrepreneurs, you have some of those challenges that you face and then you you navigate them and you sort of fight through them.
Find A Way Podcast: um and And thank you for sharing that. And I think like it shapes, there's a grit factor that was, you said, like you don't have the connections. How can I build the connections? How can I build trust from the ground up? And I had the same, very similar experience when I moved first to Canada.
Find A Way Podcast: I'm curious to hear now looking ahead, how do you hope LearnIt to evolve? And what's your vision vision for like the future of education with LearnIt?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Yeah, and it's ah it's a heavy question. You know, I think the way that I see it is that I would love for us to be at a place where we can deliver extremely unique and memorable experiences to high school students that help them build the foundational skills.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And it doesn't matter if they want to go into the skilled trades or they want to be a doctor or they want to be an engineer, they want to start their own business. I want schools and industry partners to recognize most importantly that this is a shared effort.
Dhiraj Hariramani: This is not the responsibility of a school just to build these skills, or not just the responsibility of parents to build the the the these skills.
Find A Way Podcast: Thank you.
Dhiraj Hariramani: I think it's important for us to acknowledge that it's a shared effort. It's a shared and collaborative way that we shape our future. whether that's people in the community, whether that's people in the industry, whether that's schools, teachers, parents, it doesn't matter, but it's something that's a shared effort.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And so my vision and my hope for LearnIt and what we do is that we're able to get more and more industry partners that recognize this in order to help us shape these experiences.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And we're so grateful because we have, you know, we have crippled the amount of experiences we did in just one semester, but I think there's a long way to go. is a long way because there's hundreds of thousands of kids that we haven't even reached yet.
Dhiraj Hariramani: We have just sort of touched the iceberg of it, right? And even though we have these partnerships, I think we double down on it and we grow because we help students build these really important skills for their future. So my hope is that we can continue to to build on that, build on these skills,
Dhiraj Hariramani: And I think the schools are sold because the schools know that these experiential learning moments, these moments where kids get to meet professionals and learn in a very unique manner is extremely valuable.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And so if we can marry that with the scale of industry partners, I think we can definitely get to a place where where we're giving experiences that kids will never forget.
Find A Way Podcast: I love it. So our previous guests always leave a question for the next guests.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Okay.
Find A Way Podcast: And the question that was left for you today is how important is self-development for you and what spiritual practice or self-development practice do you do to grow yourself?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Wow. Maybe I'm guilty. I don't do enough of self-development, meditation spiritual. I try and meditate in one sense. But I will answer this question in a bit of a unique way, which is that I think one of the most important things as an entrepreneur is...
Dhiraj Hariramani: One is self-development and this curiosity to always want to ask more than say. So instead of being the individual that's always speaking or always being the loud person, how can you just honestly shut up and listen, right?
Dhiraj Hariramani: And learn as much as you can and consume as much information as you can.
Find A Way Podcast: you
Dhiraj Hariramani: I learned more from students in high schools than they probably learned from me and they don't even know that. But I think it's that that that but genuine curiosity to want to learn more.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And I think the other important thing that I that i always reflect on is is self-awareness. Do you have a high degree of self-awareness about what what you're delivering and what you're doing in this world?
Dhiraj Hariramani: And what do what the individuals and your partners think? And what are your areas of improvement? And where do you need your caps to be filled? And I think being honest with yourself, because often in entrepreneurship, we we jump because we we want to do everything. We have to do everything. We have to do sales. we have to do marketing. But I think as you grow and as you scale, the self-awareness to say, I'm not the best at this.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And I think there's someone out there who could who could do better than me. And having that ability to bring on those people and grow it, I think... that would that would definitely help. But from a more you know relaxing perspective, or if you may say, but I play a lot of sports, which is my escape mentally.
Dhiraj Hariramani: I play a lot of tennis, I play a lot of soccer. i try and I try and use those means as as my mental way of escaping a little bit, you know all the pressure and all the things around me, but you know just having a good time and ah doing it in a way where you know physical exercise helps me a lot. So that's that will be my answer.
Find A Way Podcast: I love that. Um, and what is success to you?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Success to me, it's a good question. um
Dhiraj Hariramani: I think it's doing everything in your power to leave the world better than you found it. I think that's real success. I think it's when when you're not in the room, what do people say about you?
Dhiraj Hariramani: And how can you do one thing or two things that hopefully you you leave this place better than you found it?
Find A Way Podcast: I find that really impactful. That's awesome.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Thank you.
Find A Way Podcast: I was having a ah conversation today with a founder that she was, she's like became an entrepreneur three, three months ago, and she wanted some advice. And was talking to her because she asked me, it's like, Oh, what's what's one thing that you think you've done? Right.
Find A Way Podcast: Right. Like one thing that you think that worked really like, and there were many things, but the thing that I say the most is Whenever I do any networking, any relationship building, I always think, how can I add value to this person? Not what, what can I get from them?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Mm-hmm.
Find A Way Podcast: And shown up in terms of like people who know me as someone that supports them and try, like tries my best to connect them with other people.
Find A Way Podcast: And then that like created such trust in me that a lot of people refer me clients. Like they refer me a lot of things because I build that trust. Right. With my, and it's that, it's like, because for me, it's like, how can I support the other person, but like leaving it better and like supporting a new founder, that's just beginning the way that I, I was supported by other people and giving it back to the community. Right.
Find A Way Podcast: I don't do that thinking about what are the things that I can get from them. I just do that out of like really offering support.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Absolutely.
Find A Way Podcast: Um, so we're going to get to some quick rapid fire questions.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Sure.
Find A Way Podcast: Uh, so we can get to know you better. i will ask you, give you two options and you can just tell me which one you prefer.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Sure.
Find A Way Podcast: So books or movies?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Movies.
Find A Way Podcast: Early riser or sleep in?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Sleeping.
Find A Way Podcast: Adventure sports or relaxing spa day?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Adventure sports.
Find A Way Podcast: And sunsets or sunrises?
Dhiraj Hariramani: Sunsets.
Find A Way Podcast: Nice. Love it. um So I know that you said you prefer books, but we usually like to ask for any book recommendation. Do you prefer movies? But we usually ask for book recommendations if you have any.
Find A Way Podcast: If not, that's okay.
Dhiraj Hariramani: I have deep recommendations.
Find A Way Podcast: Awesome.
Dhiraj Hariramani: I read a little bit. i um I would say my one of the books that I've recently read that has had a profound impact on the way that I look at experiences is called The Power of Moments.
Dhiraj Hariramani: ah it's It's a book that talks about how you can create, how you can intentionally create moments of magic. for any human.
Dhiraj Hariramani: How can you be intentional in your experiences? And we have used a lot of the learnings from that in some of our workshops and experiences. So that has been one of the most tactical books that I've read.
Dhiraj Hariramani: um And one of the most, and if I can share another one, more from a, you know, not necessarily tactical, but one that has shaped a lot of my resilience has been The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
Dhiraj Hariramani: I've read that book probably twice now. um I love it because every time I feel like things are going down, you could read that book and feel like it could be a lot worse, ah but you'll get through it.
Dhiraj Hariramani: And I think it it's the definition of showing grit and resilience ah when a lot of people maybe don't even believe in you. So those are two books that I think have shaped a lot of the person but and my company and the way that we operate.
Find A Way Podcast: I love that. The hard thing about the hard things about hard things is one of the like I read about more than 100 books a year. And that's one of my favorite books of all time in entrepreneurship, because it's such a raw, honest book.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Absolutely.
Find A Way Podcast: that I tell everyone it's like you if there's one book recommendation that I like is that one I love I love that you you like it too um so before we close the episode as we said one of our previous guests always leaves a suggestion for like we leave the next guest a ah question what would your question be
Dhiraj Hariramani: My question, that's a great question. um My question to the next guest would be, What is one thing that you need to stop doing in order to be a better leader?
Dhiraj Hariramani: That is a question another educator asked me, which I thought was very profound. So I'd love to to ask that to whoever is up next on your show.
Find A Way Podcast: I really, i really like that because i think that a lot of times we think of all the things we should be doing, but I don't think we give enough attention of what are the things that we should stop doing.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Mm-hmm.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Yeah, it's a great moment to reflect, right?
Find A Way Podcast: So yeah, love it. Thank you so much for your time and for telling your story and sharing it here, Dharaj.
Dhiraj Hariramani: Yeah, it's been an absolute pleasure. I love reflecting and appreciate you spending some time with me as well.
Find A Way Podcast: Yeah. um Is there anything else you want to say before we close?
Dhiraj Hariramani: No, no, nothing else. I think this was awesome. and Just remember to leave the world better than you found it.
Find A Way Podcast: Love it. This was our episode 105, Learning Reimagined with Raj Harirarhamani. I'd like to thank all of our listeners and would like to remind you we'll be posting one episode ah bi-weekly, always with a different guest.
Find A Way Podcast: So make sure to subscribe on your favorite streaming platform.
