Ravi Hutheesing

Born into a lineage of Indian Prime Ministers and raised in a family of Wall Street bankers, Ravi pivoted, became the guitarist of a world-famous band, and pivoted again to help unite cultures and generations.

Background
The first American-born member of the family that created and governed the world’s largest democracy for over 40 years, Ravi Hutheesing is the grand-nephew of Jawaharlal Nehru (India’s first prime minister) and the cousin of prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. His father, having grown up in a complex and unstable family environment during their fight for India’s independence, chose not to pursue politics and instead immigrated to the United States and landed a job on Wall Street. In contrast to his two older brothers who also became bankers, Ravi got lost as a child during his parents’ bitter divorce and like his father, pivoted and forged a path of his own.

Music
He fell in love with music at age 11 and by starting a band, building a recording studio, and teaching a handful of guitar students, Ravi established himself locally as an artist-entrepreneur before graduating high school. His worldwide visibility skyrocketed in 1997 when he became the guitarist for triple Grammy nominee, Hanson, whose massive millennial fan base catapulted them to the White House, Madison Square Garden, Tonight Show, Good Morning America, Saturday Night Live, and more. The following year, Simon & Schuster published his memoir, Dancin’ with Hanson, and he has since authored over a hundred articles for major magazines. As the Internet rose and the recording industry declined, Ravi began to speak on entrepreneurship at music universities and conventions including Berklee College of Music in Boston, the National Association of Music Merchants in Los Angeles, MusikMesse in Moscow, and Music China in Shanghai.

Aviation
Following the economic collapse in 2008, he pivoted again and achieved another dream by becoming an aviator. By tapping into his Hanson experience and observations about Millennials, “The Raviator” (his call sign) began giving keynotes on cross-generational collaboration to help reverse the shrinking pilot population. Discovering the strong connection that both millennials and pilots have with music, he created a niche by performing concerts at air shows, becoming the spokesman for products targeting young pilots, and co-designing a signature model folding guitar that fits in the cockpit of any small plane.

Diplomacy
Following an inner-ear infection that prevented him from flying solo, Ravi had to pivot again and pursued a global opportunity. After delivering a keynote in Moscow on behalf of the music industry in 2014, he was invited to serve as a cultural diplomat for the US Department of State and returned to Russia to give presentations on arts, entrepreneurship, and youth leadership. In 2016, he went to Indonesia—the world’s largest Muslim population—and created songwriting and cultural entrepreneurship programs that bridged the most severe cultural and religious divides. Ravi created similar programs for the State Department the following year in Iraq and Lebanon which included students from Mosul liberated from ISIS just days earlier, and Syrians from the decimated city of Aleppo. Currently, he is organizing one in Chile.

In 2018, Ravi founded Ravi Unites Schools—a growing network of over a hundred K-12 schools worldwide whose students participate in peer-to-peer global real-time audio-video interactions hosted by Ravi. He believes that such exchanges promote world peace by enabling youth to bond organically rather than succumb to implicit biases formed by institutional agendas. The idea was born out of his ten-year partnership with Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project—a highly successful boarding school in India for the poorest of the poor.

PIVOT (to be released in 2020)

When I began thinking about this book, the world was calm with strong economies and no major conflicts. With technology rapidly evolving and impacting the future of jobs, the education industry was deeply engaged in debates about how to best prepare students for an unpredictable future. As a futurist and keynote speaker who has delivered speeches to thousands of education leaders at conferences including International Baccalaureate Global Conference and AASA’s National Conference on Education, answering this question has been a cornerstone of my message. Creating cultural competence and equity in education, and implementing technology and personalized learning are common themes.

Then, the unthinkable happened. The Coronavirus Disease of 2019-2020 (COVID-19) shattered global economies, flipped education upside-down, and caused all of humanity in unison to make the most significant pivot in a lifetime.  The absence of traditional schooling for at least one semester was probably the greatest disruption for most families. 90% of the world’s students found schools closed or were sent home from colleges and universities without their belongings.

Educators went into a panic attempting to bridge a gap that turned into a chasm. School systems everywhere involuntarily accelerated the adaptation to online learning with varying degrees of success. While digital learning has been increasing in classrooms, it quickly became apparent how much disparity it creates without structure and guaranteed access to computers and high-speed Internet.

Just as the world began to find its rhythm, racial tension erupted following the killing of a black man by white police officers in Minneapolis Minnesota USA. Protests over inequality transcended borders like the coronavirus, and much of the world pivoted its focus from a health crisis to social justice.

The time had come for me to complete this book which is for all educators including parents, teachers, school administrators, and students. I believe that education is the solution to all the world’s problems, but to educate the “whole child” and create “lifelong learners,” it must begin as a partnership between parents and teachers and pivot into one between students and mentors. While it need not always be an active collaboration, each must take ownership of his or her role because education is much more than just going to school.

My own pivots from a family of politicians and bankers to the guitarist of a world-famous band to a “flying musician” in the aviation industry to a cultural diplomat for the US Department of State to an arts and education advocate as a keynote speaker has been a journey of lifelong learning.  In dissecting my own self-directed education which was a balance of traditional schooling and real-world experiences, these stories provide examples of how ownership of one’s education creates a lifelong learner, and how lifelong learners create the future we need.

My goal has always been to push the education industry to pivot toward a hybrid of traditional and real-world schooling.  While I believe that change can be daunting and lead to procrastination, if one instead makes a pivot—a shift in direction while maintaining the fundamental principles or purpose on which one operates—the distance between thought and action is reduced considerably.  Whether it is an individual or an entire industry, the ability to pivot is the difference between staying relevant and becoming redundant.