Raj Kanani

Raj Kanani completed his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UCLA. In 2005, he took a journey to India to understand his deeper purpose and his origins. His understanding of schooling as a tool of colonization began during this time. He started a Roots Journey program for diaspora Indians called InSPIRE (2007-2011). Inspired to be an education changemaker, he taught 4th-5th grade in East Oakland, but after 12 years, he was tired of seeing brilliant, talented Brown and Black children that weren't good at the game of school (or didn't want to be good at it) have no other options. He remembered his days of traveling in India when he had discovered unschooling and the co-learning village. He set out to find like-minded families to co-create that village, and they're now in Year 4 of Liberated Kids, a self-directed education community centering BIPOC voices and experiences in unceded Ohlone territory (Oakland).