Vishal Talreja - Co-Founder & Trustee, Dream A Dream
Vishal co-founded Dream a Dream which has trained 35,000 teachers/educators, impacting over 1 million children through their direct delivery programmes as well as strategic partnerships with state governments in Delhi, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Telangana and Uttarakhand.
Vishal is an Ashoka an Eisenhower Fellow and a Board Member at PYE Global and Goonj. He has previously been a Founder Director of UnLtd India and Board Member of India Cares Foundation. Vishal is also a Steering Committee Member of Karanga – A Global Alliance on Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills and a Founding Member of The Weaving Lab – A Global Learning Ecosystem of weavers who are advancing the practice and profession of weaving thriving learning ecosystems. He is a Founding Member of Catalyst 2030 – A global movement of social change innovators collaborating to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He is also part of the Informal Working Group on the Future of Education & Skills 2030 project by OECD.
He completed his graduation in Commerce and Accounting from Bangalore University and previously worked with Xerox India and a startup investment bank called Technology Holdings India Pvt. Ltd. He has been an active member of AIESEC, an international student-led organization with presence in multiple countries around the world.
In an exclusive interview with TechConnect, Vishal opens up about his career path from the corporate to the non-profit sector and how he discovered that empowering young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and thrive in a fast-changing world was what he truly desired. He also elaborated on the After School Life Skills Programme and Career Connect Programme, which are the two innovation labs of the organization, engaging in new-age pedagogical approach, assessing individual impact and introducing the best technologies and innovations from across the world.
Vishal also elaborates on how his organization transformed into a “COVID Response Organization” in the wake of the recent pandemic by creating a “war room” to address and resolve distress calls from both anxious children and parents. He also delved into the importance of technology in education and the need to integrate Social Emotional Learning in classrooms in a post-pandemic world.
“We redefine the purpose of education, from academic excellence and grades and doing well in exams to the idea of Thriving. That every child has the capacity and ability to thrive and how education system can integrate this idea of thriving.”