Raya Bidshahri

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Raya Bidshahri
Raya Bidshahri speaking at the EduTech Asia conference in 2022
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forFounder and CEO of School of Humanity
Websiterayabidshahri.com

Raya Bidshahri (Persian: ريا بيدشهری) is an Iranian educator and serial entrepreneur. She is the Founder and CEO of School of Humanity, an online high school. She was named one of the BBC's 100 Women, a list of "100 inspiring and influential women from around the world", for 2019.[1] Bidshahri has been described as a futurist.[2][3]

Career[edit]

Bidshahri was born in Iran, but grew up in Dubai.[4][5] There, she was a co-founder of Cafe Scientifique Dubai and a founding member of SciFest Dubai.[3] Bidshahri was also the recipient of the Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Award for Excellence in 2012.[6]

At age 19, she moved alone to the United States to study neuroscience at Boston University, where she also worked with startups like SheWorks! and co-founded a social media platform called Intelligent Optimism.[7][3] While studying neuroscience, she also worked at Howard Eichenbaum's memory research lab and published bioethics research.[8] When US President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13780 on March 6, 2017, limiting visas for immigrants from Iran, Bidshahri decided it was too risky to begin a startup in Silicon Valley as she had planned.[4][7][9][10] Instead, after she completed her B.S., she moved to Toronto, Canada in June 2017, and began Awecademy as a Canadian business.[4][11][12]

Bidshahri was a regular contributing journalist for the online publication Singularity Hub.[3] She has been a keynote speaker since age 16,[6] and has spoken at various international conferences.[13]

School of Humanity[edit]

In 2021, Bidshahri founded School of Humanity, an online high school with interdisciplinary curriculum, which integrates pedagogies such as challenge-based and mastery-based learning. Its model is based on research from the World Economic Forum and OECD. In June 2022, School of Humanity closed its seed round of funding from Singapore-based Education in Motion.[14]

Awards and recognition[edit]

  • In 2019, Bidshahri was named one of the BBC's 100 Women, a list of "100 inspiring and influential women from around the world".[1]
  • She was a finalist in three categories of the 2019 Bett MEA Awards.[15]
  • In 2020, she won the Joseph Jaworski Main Award at the Next Generation Foresight Practitioners (NGFP) awards.[16]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "BBC 100 Women 2019: Who is on the list this year?". BBC News. 16 October 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  2. ^ McCullough, Doug; Medina, Brooke (12 February 2019). "Are you ready for the future of work?". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d Roberts, Rohan (2018). Cosmic Citizens and Moonshot Thinking: Education in an Age of Exponential Technologies. AuthorHouse. ISBN 1546250395.
  4. ^ a b c "I was planning to start a business in Silicon Valley after graduation. Then Donald Trump happened". Toronto Life. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  5. ^ "Gifted with 'Existential Intelligence' Dubai teen wins 10 medals". Gulf News. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  6. ^ a b "Teenager set to redefine brilliance". Gulf News. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  7. ^ a b Mascarenhas, Natasha (22 February 2017). "Why This Student Entrepreneur Is Uprooting Her American Dream". BostInno. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  8. ^ "Raya Bidshahri". SSRN. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  9. ^ Thadani, Trisha; Fracassa, Dominic (2 February 2017). "Trump order dashes hopes of would-be entrepreneurs". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  10. ^ Lapowsky, Issie (19 June 2017). "Trump's Policies Are Sending Precious Startup Jobs to Canada". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  11. ^ "Riverside City College Received $1.67M Grant For STEM and Nursing Pathways". Inland Empire. 25 September 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  12. ^ "PATA and Awecademy sign organisational partnership". Pacific Asia Travel Association. 5 June 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  13. ^ "Raya Bidshahri". Bett Global 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  14. ^ "School of Humanity raises Seed round". Wamda. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  15. ^ AlSadr, Ahmed (24 April 2019). "Bett MEA 2019 announces shortlist for award finalists الإعلان عن قائمة المرشحين النهائية لجوائز مؤتمر ومعرض "بِت الشرق الأوسط وأفريقيا" للتكنولوجيا التعليم". Dubai Global News (in Arabic). Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  16. ^ "Next Generation Foresight Practitioners 2022 Awards". nextgenforesight.org. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
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