The Counter Narrative: Changing the Way We Talk (and think) About Education Episode 101: Interview with Anurupa Ganguly
Welcome to the Counter Narrative Podcast, a show designed to change the way we talk, and think, about education. By sharing stories of successes and triumphs, we aim to challenge the dominant narrative that often negatively portrays our disenfranchised populations.
I’m your host, Charles Williams. An urban educator for more than 15 years, a current school principal in Chicago, an educational consultant, an equity advocate, and the co-host of Inside The Principal’s Office.
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In this episode, I chat with Anurupa Ganguly, the Founder & CEO of Prisms, a VR learning platform that teaches foundational secondary math and science concepts spatially and intuitively, before building up to symbolic notation. She began her career as a math & physics teacher and later served in leadership roles across the Boston Public Schools, NYC DOE, and Success Academies. She holds a BS and MEng in EECS from MIT, and an EdM from BU.
During our conversation, Anurupa explained her journey through education and how that inspired her to start a company that allows students to digitally immerse themselves into mathematical concepts through VR. Imagine how impactful and powerful it would be to shift from learning exponential rate of change on worksheets to being involved in a pandemic simulator calculating the spread of an unknown disease. Anurupa also pushed back on the idea that the limited access we often associate with such products is due to budgets and funding (consider the mass amounts of funding schools have received during the past two years) and other excuses that do little more than maintain the gaps that we see in opportunities. This is a powerful conversation that I wish I could have released immediately after recording it so be sure to check out Prisms and see how you can bring this innovative technology to your own space.
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