From Basement to Breakthrough

A chance encounter on a train to Delhi changed everything for Manpreet Kaur. When a fellow passenger asked why she wasn't pursuing her dream of creating an educational platform for children, she made the bold decision to quit her job and return to her small hometown in Punjab, India. That decisive moment in 2017 sparked the creation of The Learner's Pathway, a comprehensive literacy program that's now thriving in Edmonton with over 30 students.

Website: spotlight4success.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book
Company.
I'm Devin Pintosi, your host.
We are here in sunny SanAntonio, texas.
I'm here at ISTE and ASCD.
We have a wonderful guest herein our place.
Here we are here with ManpreetKaur.
She is the founder and educatorof the Learner's Pathway.

(00:28):
Welcome, thank you.
So nice to meet you, manpreet.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Nice to meet you too.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Now can you tell me a bit about what brings you here
to ISTE?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Perfect.
So what brings me here is theexposure.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
The exposure to the digital solutions and just being
here with educators, the felloweducators and amazing people to
connect with so I could learnand take back amazing solutions
or experience and memories andconnections that can really help
and foster our work that we'redoing back in Edmonton to make a

(01:08):
difference in children's livesto literacy, enrichment,
learning.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
And so you're the founder of the Learning Pathway.
That's right.
Can you tell me about how allthat started and where you are
today?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Well, long story short.
Once I was on a train to Delhi,which is the capital of India,
and this amazing gentlemansitting beside me said Manpreet,
what do you do?
He's like I work in aneducational consultancy.
He's like, oh, is theresomething that you really want
to do?
I'm like, yeah, I want to builda platform for kids, a space

(01:42):
for kids where they could learnand prosper and have an
education that they deserve.
It's like then why don't you dothat?
And that moved me from inside.
So I really went up to my bossand I said I quit.
So that day I quit and called myparents I'm going to come back.
I come from a very small town,namashar Punjab in India, so I

(02:06):
went back and I watched thisamazing movie by Mr Vaughan
Clark and, interestingly, he'sactually presenting today.
So, that man inspired me toreally start something that is
today the learner's pathway, andI designed this amazing program
.
It's called the FoundationProgram, which is building
foundation of kids in literacydevelopment when it comes to

(02:30):
grammar, foundation, readingtechniques, writing essentially
giving them a 360-degreeexposure to what is really
language and literacy and why isit needed?
What are books?
How are books or reading booksis leisure and fun and not a
chore or school, so justbringing their engagement and

(02:52):
interest towards reading andwriting and communication in
general.
So that's what the LearnersPathway is all about and that's
the day when it started in 2017.
And now we're in Edmonton.
We started all the way fromscratch, from the basement to
now commercial space and we'rethriving with more than 30

(03:13):
students.
Wonderful, thank you.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success.
I am Devin Pintosi, chiefOperating Officer of American
Book Company.
We are located here in ourheadquarters in Woodstock,
georgia.
All of our materials areprinted in USA.
We have course books, e-booksand online testing in grades K

(03:38):
through 12 in mathematics, ela,science and social studies.
In mathematics, ela, scienceand social studies.
These materials are alldesigned to help students
achieve higher scores on theirstate-specific high-stakes
assessments.
We guarantee score improvement.
You can get free samples of ourmaterials either in print or in

(04:00):
electronic formats atabck12.com.
We look forward to hearing fromyou.
Wow, that is great.
Mentree.
I understand you also write.
Is that correct?
Do you have books?

Speaker 2 (04:15):
I am.
I'm a published author, I'm apoet, I'm a poet, poetry writing
, and we also recently startedpublishing books for elementary
kids Wonderful.
We came up with books forhandwriting, pencil control oh
nice.
And I think something that wereally love about creating these

(04:35):
books is we come up with theseinteractive characters Like
Doodle the Dino in ourhandwriting book is so much fun
and it's so famous with all ofour kids.
I had this parent coming to me.
She said my child has 10different tracing books but he
doesn't touch any of those, butyour book because it's so
interactive.

(04:55):
He loves gettingacknowledgement from doodle the
dino, the character which wehave inside, and another series
that we came up with is blendand read series for kids who
struggle with blending soundsokay and then we have a
character for that as well.
It's blendy.
So so I teach them that youknow the magic fingers that this
is blendy if I can it.
Or it's blendy, so I teach themthat you know the magic fingers
that this is blendy if they'reright-handed or this is blendy
and they really want to blendthe sounds with it.

(05:17):
So it's a little fox with ablendy hat on it.
So essentially creating anenvironment for kids where they
have that workbook in theirhands but they really want to
enjoy the process of reading andlearning.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
That's so much fun.
Integrating characters into thebook to make it engaging for
the students.
That's so cool.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Thank you for the acknowledgement.
Something that we also do bythe end of the book is give that
little space for parents toreflect and then just write down
their thoughts.
How did the child do throughthe book?
And also a little certificationof acknowledgement that kids
can cut it and really paste itsomewhere so that they feel good

(05:56):
about it.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
That they completed a workbook.
That's so neat, it's anachievement and you get the
certificate too.
That is so awesome.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
I love what you're doing.
That is such great work.
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Wow.
Do you have anything you'd liketo share with the ISTE ASCD
community?
Wow, do you?

Speaker 2 (06:14):
have anything you'd like to share with the ISTE ASCD
community?
Well, all I would love to sayis our kids, our youth, the
coming generation, really wantthem to be independent learners,
critical thinkers and creativethinkers.
With the advent of AI anddigital tools and everything

(06:34):
coming up which is great, by theway, in every sense but we
still want them to learn andunderstand one thing that it's
all about communication andexpressing yourself.
So I think, all of oureducators, if we can blend the
technology and still keep thathuman essence and element in

(06:58):
place, that would be great,because there is something about
being human that isirreplaceable, right.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Right, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
So just blending those two techniques together is
what's going to take us far,far away and achieve what we
want.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
That is awesome, manpreet, thank you.
Thank you so much for speakingwith us today.
This is Manpreet Kaur with theLearning Pathway.
Thank you so much for joiningus.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Thank you for having us.
Thank you.