This Golden Hour

121. Azar Chatur and TKS Calgary

• Timothy Eaton

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In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Azar Chatur from Calgary, Alberta. Azar is the director of TKS, The Knowledge Society, in the Calgary area. He works with youth as a coach to guide them to discover and explore their interests, build projects, and connect with real-world opportunities. Azar invited 15-year old Izabella, one of his students, to join us for a portion of the interview. She described how TKS has helped her to find and develop her interests, specifically in starting a business with other TKS students. Azar and TKS are interested in homeschool students because they have already broken from the traditional, conventional ways of learning and thinking. He opines that this kind of innovative, creative, and forward thinking is essential for the constantly changing world we live in. Tune in and learn about yet another alternative program that is launching capable, smart, and self-driven youth into the world with confidence and skill.

The Knowledge Society (TKS)


This Golden Hour

Azar Chatur:

So if you think of like open ai, SpaceX, Neuralink, like all the cool companies doing cool things today. Totally. These are like a lot of what TKS kids end up going off and doing. And so my job as a director. Is to coach them how to get those opportunities, what, to start looking into how to think teach them essentially what they're not learning about in school.

Timmy Eaton:

Hi. I am Timmy Eaton, homeschool father of six and Doctor of Education. We've been homeschooling for more than 15 years and have watched our children go from birth to university successfully and completely without the school system. Homeschooling has grown tremendously in recent years, and tons of parents are becoming interested in trying it out, but people have questions and concerns and misconceptions and lack the confidence to get started. New and seasoned homeschoolers are looking for more knowledge and peace and assurance to continue. New homeschooling. The guests and discussions on this podcast will empower anyone thinking of homeschooling to bring their kids home and start homeschooling and homeschoolers at all stages of the journey will get what they need and want from these conversations. Thank you for joining us today and enjoy this episode of This Golden Hour podcast. As you exercise, drive clean or just chill. You are listening to this Golden Hour podcast. In today's episode, we get to spend time with Azar Ture from Calgary, Alberta. Azar is the director of TKS, the Knowledge Society in the Calgary area. He works with youth as a coach to guide them to discover and explore their interests, build projects, and connect with real world opportunities. Azar invited 15-year-old Isabella, one of his students to join us for a portion of the interview. She described how TKS has helped her to find and develop her interests, specifically in starting a business with other TKS students. Azar and TKS are interested in homeschool students because they have already broken from the traditional conventional ways of learning and thinking. He opines that this kind of innovative, creative, and forward thinking is essential for the constantly changing world we live in. Tune in and learn about, yet another alternative program that is launching capable, smart, and self-driven youth into the world with confidence and skill. Welcome back to this Golden Hour podcast. Today we're excited to have with us Azar. Ture from Calgary. And Isabella from Calgary. Welcome you guys.

Azar Chatur:

Thanks for

Timmy Eaton:

having us.

Izabella:

Yeah, excited to be here.

Timmy Eaton:

Awesome that you guys are here. So Azar is the director of TKS, the Knowledge Society in Calgary, and he's a coach and basically it's for 13 to 17 year olds. Is that accurate? Azar well,

Azar Chatur:

I would say it's flexible but yeah, typically it's between 13 to 18 years old type of students. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

And Isabella, you're 15 and so you're in your second year,

Izabella:

yeah, I did my first year called the Innovate Program with Azar last year and this year I'm in their second year program called Activate. Also under TKS. Yeah

Timmy Eaton:

Basically from what I understand, and you can add to this, Azar, is like TKS is all about running programs with youth, at least in Calgary, I loved what the founders, said that it's like we train up Olympic athletes from the time they're young. Why don't we do that with things like tech and innovation and and so I thought that was a good comparison. Describes like what you guys are after and the mission. Of TKS and just like getting them into cohorts and and receiving coaching and guiding to really help people get into that, like in a more advanced way than we typically do. And Azar the way that we connected was a mutual friend put us together and Azar is looking into the homeschool community to see is this something that would match some homeschool values and priorities to see if it works there? So with that background Isabella, describe your experience, like how did you get into it and then what have you been doing

Izabella:

I found out about TKS through like a school news thing, that news broadcast that we have. So I found out about it through there. And I guess it just really piqued my interest'cause I'm always just looking for something more to do beyond school. And this just seemed like something where I got to like. Be more personalized with what exactly I want to focus on. And I could also just have the opportunity to build something that I could actually use in my future. So just seeing what some of the alumni that are featured on their website we're doing. Yeah. Just okay, this looks legit, this looks cool. Talk to my parents. They're like, yeah let's do it. So

Timmy Eaton:

you initiated it, so you were only in like grade nine or something?

Izabella:

I was actually in grade seven when I found out about TKS and then I applied when I was in grade eight to get in my grade nine year. And

Timmy Eaton:

how'd you come across it in grade seven?

Izabella:

Yeah, through school, through some like news broadcast we had

Timmy Eaton:

No way. And then that just piqued your interest. You looked into it and then brought it to your parents?

Izabella:

Yeah, exactly.

Timmy Eaton:

And then what happened?

Izabella:

They were also impressed with some of the alumni that were working on stuff, and they were like, this looks great for you, especially like since I was always looking for another challenge, something extra to do outside of school. So they send me through the application process or I guess I self initiated that and then I got accepted and now. I'm doing it. Yeah.

Azar Chatur:

So just for context, for whoever Yes. Just on what the draw is, I guess for TKS Yeah. For students and so she mentioned alumni, so a lot of our alumni go off and work at really cool companies or starting their own companies. I don't know if anyone's heard of Bordy ai, it's one of the companies that was co-founded by two TKS students recently. And they just raised like$20 million or something earlier this year. Just last year. Utopia Labs by another TKS graduate. He ended up getting, his company was acquired by Coinbase. Ben Nashman, who's another student, started a company called Synex Medical. They just raised$20 million, I think it was last year or the year before. So we have all these literally like teenagers and just like maybe in their early twenties, the ones who just graduated from TKS and they're going off and just starting these cool companies or like working for really innovative companies. So if you think of like open ai, SpaceX, Neuralink, like all the cool companies doing cool things today. Totally. These are like a lot of what TKS kids end up going off and doing. And so my job as a director. Is to coach them how to get those opportunities, what, to start looking into how to think teach them essentially what they're not learning about in school. So for students like Isabella who you know, is ambitious and who wants to like, explore alternative like avenues as opposed to the traditional path of just finishing school and going to university and I'm just gonna do this, which is what everyone else does. What other opportunities exist? How can I be prepared for this world that's constantly changing. And so that's ultimately what TKS is here to do. And that's why students like Isabella are such a good fit in the program.

Timmy Eaton:

So that was really helpful. Both of those put together. So when I was preparing for this, I did notice on the website, like all those impressive, companies that are assisted with TKS so I have a bunch of questions that I think will be of interest to my audience. And so is the typical situation, like a really gifted kid academically that looks into something like this? No.

Izabella:

No. I happen to be gifted though.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah.

Izabella:

But I have to And that's

Timmy Eaton:

not the typical situation. No, it's not. It sounds like it would be like somebody who has, taken, I dunno what they're called in Canada, like I, is it IB or in the states we used to call I'm from the states originally, but just like advanced classes or like the AP classes, what they used to call'em. Is it kids that are like they're not challenged at school academically. And so they're like, no, I wanna do something. I guess that's the case of Isabella, but that's not the typical story.

Azar Chatur:

I mean there's definitely a few doing IB programs at school and like very focused on their grades and more like maybe the gifted type of student. But I would definitely say there's more of the other types and ultimately what we're looking for is just like. Curiosity. If a student comes in and they're just like, curious about something and want to dive deeper into certain field or topic area or technology or whatever it is, like that's ultimately what we're looking for because that's something like we can hone that and we can build your craft, whatever it is. Yeah. Whether you're interested in some scientific thing or some technology thing, or even if you're interested in something business related or we had one student last year who's like a lot of people have this misconception that TKS is solely just about tech and science. Which is I guess a large part of what we do. But at the same time, like Ben for example, it was really in a marketing and like content generation. And so we can adapt the program as well, depending on what a student is interested in. Actually, there's another student who I believe is actually homeschooled this year. Her name's Sophia. She's really interested in cars and like just mechanics and like that kind of stuff. Yeah. And so she's been doing this program and just trying to understand and dive deeper more into that space so we can really customize it. And I don't, I wouldn't classify it to be just for a certain type of student as long as they're curious.

Timmy Eaton:

So you're saying that the subject matter isn't that relevant? It's more about like curiosity and being coachable and being geared towards whatever somebody wants to pursue.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah. And that's why my job is I'm called a coach and actually none of the instructors at TKs are typical like teacher type of people. Yeah. You're not

Timmy Eaton:

in a classroom per se and doing it like that. You're coaching, you're guiding.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah. And we've all, we all come with from industry background, so like my background was venture capital and startups. I had my own company before I worked in the tech industry. I'm actually, I'm starting a company right now as well. In skincare space, like randomly. Yeah. East is also starting a company, by the way, which we can talk about later. Cool. But a lot of like the work that we do is really just to guide the students and help them also try to figure out what they wanna do in their life. So when they come into TKS, like maybe there's like a few students who are like, I know I want to do this or that. But I'd say yeah, like 90% of them are just like in this, like unsure.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. They're exploration. It's explorative.

Azar Chatur:

Exactly. So it's about helping them explore and helping them find something that they're interested in, and then taking it a step further and building projects in whatever space that they're interested in. So I specifically brought Issa because she was one of those students that came in who didn't really know what you wanted to do, and that she learned about, you can tell your story. But I thought she, it would be great to have the student perspective on it as well. So that's

Timmy Eaton:

and one thing that and then I wanna ask Isabella what that story is like. But the thing that I think is very consistent with typical homeschool philosophy that you're illustrating is that you're not preparing a lesson plan, giving a lesson, the bell rings, kids leave. Azar, you're actually going, I'm gonna coach them for their future. And there's a goal in mind here. It's not just did you pass your class to get a diploma? And I wanna ask a bunch of questions about that and what you guys grant as far as credibility and all that kind of stuff. But, um. issa, if I can say that. Tell us your story. So you came in curious, but like what, where have you like evolved to?

Izabella:

Yeah. Coming into TKSI actually didn't think I would ever do anything or be interested in anything sciencey or anything tech-based, but basically, and didn't have

Timmy Eaton:

to Right. You didn't have to be that way. It's just that

Izabella:

I was just looking to do something more and just, I, like Azar said, I was just curious to learn more about something and build something real. So yeah, came into it. Wasn't really sure about anything that I was learning, but there's like a phase at the beginning of TKS called like the explore phase. So this is where you get to be exposed to a bunch of different, like emerging tech and like science topics and dive deep on your own into anything that interests you. And then after that you get into the focus phase where you choose one thing you're really interested in and zero in on that and build real projects around that. Cool. And then get. Real world validation. So I ended up choosing something I had never heard of it before. It's called phage therapy. And what it is short, it's viruses that affect bacteria and basically it's being researched as an alternative to antibiotics. So I had never heard of it before coming into TKS, but then it was just something that piqued my interest. And fast forward I built a lot of projects where I got to connect with some top experts in the space. Like I have one mentor who's working on the public health agency of Canada, and he's like coaching me on my projects and like coming this next month, I get to run my own like research experiment. Real quick,

Timmy Eaton:

sorry, I don't mean to interrupt, but I like, I think it'll be helpful to make it meaningful to people. So how as an example, how do you connect with that public health guy? Obviously Azar has a role in that'cause that's what people are gonna be like, like seriously, you connected with somebody at that high level? How?

Izabella:

Yeah, like basically it's through projects. So Azar would coach me. Me on the kind of projects that I was building. I'd tell him what I'm interested in, what I'm looking to do, and he'd say, okay, this is how we can make something meaningful. So he'd give me direction on the projects that I was building, and then I would use the projects and show them to the mentors and be like, Hey, I built this. I'm interested in this field. Mind if we can connect so I could get some feedback or I can learn more about what you're doing. But so cool. The projects act as like a credibility. It shows that I'm actually interested and I'm actively building. So

Timmy Eaton:

you literally just look up their, like contact information, email'em and say, this is what I'm doing, and then they respond when you say that, it's funny, like as I've been doing this podcast last couple years, it turns out that you can just like message people and they get back to you.

Izabella:

Yeah, I know that sounds

Timmy Eaton:

ridiculous, but that's something that homeschoolers are so good at. Because people will be like, oh, can you get into this college with a portfolio or transcript? Do you have to have a diploma? Turns out you can just call the university or the program and say, what does it take to get into your program? And then they just tell you. But how did you have access to this public health kind of leader?

Izabella:

Honestly, I was just like looking through LinkedIn to see like what contacts are or what people are relevant to the stuff I'm building. And then I found this guy on LinkedIn. I did a cold outreach. So like I just messaged him randomly, sent over what I was working on, and then he was interested enough to respond.

Timmy Eaton:

Wow. That's impressive. Anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt. That's just impressive to me. And who helped, to go to LinkedIn and that kind of stuff? Is that the mentoring you're getting here?

Izabella:

Yep. That's bizarre.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah, TKS is like really I don't know if this is the right word, like holistic it's a holistic program, so it's not like just focused on building a project and that's it. Yeah. It's like over the 10 months, it's like, how do we help them to build the skills, build the network learn the mindsets that you need and so we'll have all these different types of sessions. We have this thing called the Velocity program, which is something that kids, if they're really into this experience, they can come in half an hour early and get extra coaching with me and we'll talk about just like life and philosophy and we'll get them to go like run outside and like exercise. So it's like we try to incorporate like all these different kind of components into the program and, yeah. Networking and reaching out on LinkedIn is like one of those aspects.

Izabella:

Yeah. I learned all that from my director.

Timmy Eaton:

So does TKS replace school?

Izabella:

I'm still in school. So my

Timmy Eaton:

question is

Izabella:

why like, do TKS

Timmy Eaton:

why do school if you have TKs?

Izabella:

Like, I guess it just depends as well what the what your end goal is. For example, I was doing phage therapy. It's more sciencey. Maybe eventually, instead of starting my own company, I want to get into a university but have a quicker route into a lab like working on a real thing with a professor. So Gotcha. Can help me if I, I'm interested still in the university route Yes. Of like ex exploring how Well, and I guess how prominent my university career is.

Timmy Eaton:

The reason I ask is because the one thing I've been discovering, like we have six kids, they range from 12 to 21. We've had three now go through the whole thing without a diploma doing well in university. Eth daughter who's in grade 11 she's taking dual credit classes. So I'm just wondering like somebody like you who's actually not so locked inside the box and obviously this is a more unconventional method, which is awesome for, especially for homeschool philosophy and it's almost like school gets in the way. You gotta put in your time at school when you can do all this stuff. And I'm not saying everybody's in a rush. I'm not saying it's a rush or fast tracking, but it's like why are you having to study that other stuff to check a box where this stuff will lead to like a very prominent future. You're 15 years old and I can see that you're like self-actualized. You're heading towards that direction. Your success seems pretty inevitable. Why tie yourself up with stuff that isn't totally of your interest? And it's cool to learn of a wide variety of stuff, in homeschooling we call it deschooling. It's like you just kinda have to get yourself out of the conventional institutional, and i'm not anti school, I'm just saying, it just seems like the route that you're on, you could like just target it way more without the interruption of six hours, seven hours a day. Doing stuff that totally isn't relevant to your future. But anyway, I don't know what you think of that, but No, like

Izabella:

I see the point as you were saying, if there's something that I wanna do, as NTKS especially, I haven't really let school stop me. Like I found a good balance between keeping up with my school responsibilities, but like also skipping school whenever I had to, that's true. Yeah. Like

Azar Chatur:

every, and there's like a conference or event or like tickets that I can She's there. Yeah, she's always

Timmy Eaton:

That's cool. I like that. It's liberating.

Izabella:

Yeah. Like my teachers also know what I'm working on too. So if I go out of school and they also know that like I'm able to balance school is fine. That's what I'm saying, like I'm able to skip school and do what I'm doing because I'm also able to manage what's going on in school too.

Azar Chatur:

I was saying she skipped school today.'Cause like today we were running like a kind of ideation workshop with a bunch of executives here at Platform Calgary. And so this has been like a two day experience trying to figure out how to make Calgary more of an innovative city. And so we brought a couple TKS students in and like to work with these executives at interact and the Hunter Hub at the university and Google and there's a few different industry experts.

Izabella:

Yeah.

Azar Chatur:

And then so they got to participate in that, but they had to like skip two days of school for it

Timmy Eaton:

and I imagine I'm assuming that your parents have been very supportive and obviously with what you're doing, do you have siblings?

Izabella:

Yeah, I have a younger sister.

Timmy Eaton:

Okay, cool. So describe like in a practical way, and I know our DA will probably be different depending on what you're working on and it's very project based, but you get there at three 30, you ha what do you do? Describe like a typical experience and a timeframe and like what you'd actually be doing in that time.

Izabella:

I guess if you're doing that velocity program too, you'll show up about like half hour earlier and that's what I did. At least that's what I was doing. And usually there's like some requirements that you had to do during the week, so we're gonna go over like what the requirements were, some of the readings that we did or like stuff that we had to listen to and just have like discussions around it. And then like also set the action items for the next velocity session. Cool. Because what is our set? It's like a holistic program, right? So we don't wanna produce nerds. We wanna have fully functioning people who happen to be like really smart as well. So I guess that's what you would do in those, like that velocity part. But then once the actual session starts, we'll all gather, maybe do like an energizer to get like the, like how many

Timmy Eaton:

people are we talking? Like a cohort will be up to 40 people it said

Izabella:

up to 40. Yeah. 30 to 40,

Timmy Eaton:

right? Yeah.

Izabella:

Yeah. So we'll do like an energizer or something, and then we'll get into like the mindset of the week. So that's like basically a mindset that we can apply to whatever the session is today, but also something that we want to try and like work on throughout the week. So an example is like we learn bias towards action. So instead of overthinking something, just go ahead and do it.'cause the worst case is it doesn't work out for you or something. Yeah. Yeah. So that's we'll learn about the mindsets and then we're gonna get into the bulk of the session. So that's where it's like a little different. Sometimes we'll do a session where we're learning about a specific kind of emerging tech. So for example, like an AI session and we'll get to learn about what AI is, the different applications of it, and then actually work with it to build something in session that And are you in

Timmy Eaton:

A classroom setting or what's the setting?

Izabella:

It depends like where you are. For us in Calgary, we're just in one of the what? Yeah, it's called the,

Azar Chatur:

it's where we are right now, so it's called Platform Calgary. It's right across the central library. Downtown. Yeah. It's just this facility that you come to and you have, it's like an open space. Yeah.

Izabella:

Yes. Yeah.

Azar Chatur:

Cool.

Timmy Eaton:

And everyone's got like a computer or what's it like? Everyone's.

Izabella:

Everybody brings whatever they need for session, I guess you need a computer those times. Yeah. They'll bring their own tech and some sessions, like if we're in the middle of something called like a challenge or if we are just doing like a project work session, everybody will just be collaborating and working on their own thing and using that time for like deep work.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah. So that challenge she's talking about, we actually partner with companies. Last year for example, we partnered with ikea, Microsoft who was the other ones?

Izabella:

Samsung.

Azar Chatur:

Samsung. This Maverick Bio Metals. So they actually come to us with problems that they're experiencing in their current day problems. Yeah. And they're like TKs students. Can you help us like solve some of the problems that we have? So like Microsoft for example, is with all this growth in data centers and things like that, how do we sustainably manage and, grow with this AI growth that's happening in the world? And so they'd be looking into like micro fluidity chips and like we had one group that was looking into ionic wind for cooling the chips. And so they come up with these like actual recommendations that they can actually then go and pitch to the executives at these companies. So crazy man came up with a really good solution for ikea. Presented it to their executive team. And then they like won that like challenge for like global TKS.

Timmy Eaton:

Like you guys said, it's real world. It's not like this like hypothetical thing that kids do for a day. It's like a, some like nice project. It's like real,

Izabella:

yeah.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah. Actually, I know Lisa has to go in a few minutes, but I want her to talk a little bit about her company. So she actually just Yes. An exciting thing for her. So I want you to take some time to

Izabella:

explain

Azar Chatur:

it too.

Timmy Eaton:

Yes, please. Please. Thank you.

Izabella:

Okay. This company came out of another challenge that was happening in TKS called Moonshots. But anyway, me and Sophie and Risi, we came up with this project called Clog Guard, and basically what it is. An autonomous way to prevent hemorrhage deaths on the battlefield. I'm one of the co-founders with my other co-founder, and basically what it is think of a patch, for example, like a diabetes patch or like a nicotine patch. Yeah. And have that on your your shoulder or wherever. And what happens is if you're on the battlefield and you get an injury, the patch is able to detect if you're experiencing heavy bleeding or severe hemorrhage. And then what happens is it transports these freeze dried platelets directly to the site of bleeding with nanobots to basically stimulate clot formation and. Further bleeding. And the goal of what we're doing with this autonomous solution is a, to extend the amount of time these hemorrhage victims have until paramedics can arrive. Because what we found was that it takes two to five minutes for a hemorrhage to become deadly, but it takes seven to 10 minutes for paramedics to arrive and provide treatment. So we're actually getting a lot of these preventable deaths occurring not because the treatment is bad, but because we don't have enough time to get it there. So clock guard acts as like the solution to extend the amount of time these people have to receive treatment. And then also compared to like other stuff that's currently being used, like different gazes or gels, they're not as effective for irregular wound types. They're not fast acting enough and they're also manual. So that can also waste time if you're trying to bandage yourself up or if you're trying to use this gel, it's just not as realistic.

Timmy Eaton:

Okay. I'm sold on it already but like seriously, how did you get to that point? I know that you gotta go soon, but how in the world did you get from A to Z on that one?

Izabella:

So basically on that kickoff session for the Moonshot Challenge, we were just given rapid fire, a bunch of different emerging tech and like just to inspire us and see, okay, what have we not considered working on before? Because that entire time I've been working on phage therapy, so I hadn't even known about like nanotech or researched anything in it. Yeah. Then also,'cause the point of moonshot was to develop this I guess moonshot idea that could solve a big a problem that like impacts a lot of people, like a billion people or something. So we were also just getting to look at doing research on okay, what are those big problems? And then I guess we came across like in general just like battlefield dangers and like that kind of inspired us to look deeper into Okay. What that'll feel dangerous, like what's the problem? And then once we saw that hemorrhage is a preventable death, that occurs a lot. We saw preventable deaths as like just a very unfortunate thing, right? Because if the death is preventable, why is it still happening? So that was like, why we want to go down that route. But then we were seeing nanotech and then like hemorrhage, and then I guess it just all came together. So

Timmy Eaton:

nanotech is like when you,'cause you said it takes, the paramedic to get there, seven minutes or whatever. But the patch sends. What it

Izabella:

sends freeze dry platelets that are carried by small nano box in the

Timmy Eaton:

bloodstream.

Izabella:

So the nanobots are able to travel in the bloodstream directly to the site of bleeding.

Timmy Eaton:

And then what happens then?

Izabella:

And then they release the platelets and then it acts as like clots another force of Yeah. Clotting and preventing further bleeding.

Azar Chatur:

That's crazy. Told them like technical challenges and stuff that for needs to be like sort of No, for

Timmy Eaton:

sure. No, for sure. But I'm more interested in just the thought process more than anything. Whether that materializes or not is less important to me than something's gonna materialize.

Izabella:

Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

That's.

Izabella:

That's cool. Yeah, this was a lot of research and then also once we were getting more invested in it, that's when we started talking to experts in the nano space or in like platelet biology or we talked to someone in the FDA recently, that deal deals with certifying medical devices or we talked to some people in like military innovation just to get an idea of here's our idea. What's the feedback? What's the realism of it? So that's how we're able to like iterate and go back and see what the problem areas are, but also where the potential is.

Timmy Eaton:

Oh, that was really cool. Maybe we get to do this again sometime. Thank you so much for hanging out with us, za.

Izabella:

Yeah, thanks for having me and

Timmy Eaton:

good luck.

Izabella:

Thanks. Good luck.

Timmy Eaton:

I'll probably read about you in the future.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah. Now you're stuck with me.

Timmy Eaton:

No, man. That is fascinating. Is there anything that you wanted to like, add or say anything before we just jump into other stuff or,

Azar Chatur:

Yeah, so issa's just one of the students that is like doing like the work she's doing at TKS and you wouldn't

Timmy Eaton:

say she's exceptional.

Azar Chatur:

Course she's exceptional.

Timmy Eaton:

I'm saying is she a typical student or is she like No, this is like one of our brightest,

Azar Chatur:

She is definitely one of the most ambitious ones. Casey Issa. What I like about Issa especially is just. She puts in that extra effort. And so like anything in life if you wanna be successful at it, it's not I tell you to do something and you do it. There has to be some like internal intrinsic motivation as well. And so for her, like she's one of those students that like, there is that intrinsic motivation and she is very curious and she latches onto the things that she's curious about. And when she latches onto those things, then that's when you get that obsession around a topic and go deeper into it. And now I don't really have to tell her things anymore. Like now she'll go off and automatically be like, okay, we need to go talk to an expert about this and validate this. And this is the next step. And so then she'll come to me looking for more technical advice or hey, or can you help me with this specific thing? As opposed to like just, me feeling like I have to, like spoonfeed students. It like turns into them doing all the hard stuff and then coming to me for just a little guidance and helping. Totally.

Timmy Eaton:

No, it's an employer's dream. Like you have an employee that they'll just like, do what, you know, check check, check. Or the person who takes initiative and thinks on their own, thinks outside the box. Yeah. Understands the principle, applies the principle, and then develops, from that it's such a huge difference.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah. I can't take credit for like, all of what ISSA has done or anything like that. Or TKs can't again, and it, it like, but we help her through that process. We help all the students that do. TKs is like helping them through that process of okay, how do we take this thing that's just this like idea or like even, not even an idea, but like how do we get from zero to one? Like how do we take this thing and try to build something real out of it? And then the rest is like on you and on her to be like, okay, I'm gonna now take this and do something with it and like I'm actually gonna take the next step of booking that meeting with the mentor. Like I'm not going to book the meeting with the mentor for her. Yes. So there's an element of that she needs to come with and like to get the most of the experience. Like she needs to do that. And that's what really separates the top TKs students from like the ones who just take the program just because their parents told them to do it.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. Yeah.

Azar Chatur:

It obviously

Timmy Eaton:

And how many kids are enrolled? Ish.

Azar Chatur:

So in Calgary specifically, like this year we have around close to 50 that are in TKS. We're trying to grow and we're trying to expand. Yeah. We actually received funding from os I to help with financial aid and scholarships for students. Yeah. To be able to support them in doing the program. But yeah, we have 50 right now, and then we are as, I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but we're a global company, so Yes. Locations like literally all over the world. Yeah,

Timmy Eaton:

I saw on your website you're everywhere.

Azar Chatur:

Overall we have like over a thousand kids in TKs. You have to apply to join the program. It's we don't necessarily accept everyone. There is an application process to it. You just go through that and then there's an interview that you'd have to do and even just the application process itself, like we try to stand out we know that a lot of these students haven't necessarily done an interview probably before.'Cause they're like in high school.

Izabella:

Yeah.

Azar Chatur:

But part of that interview process is to like, prepare them for eventually you're gonna have to do it. So why not have your first interview to apply for TKS? And then that also helps us to assess which students are gonna be the ones who are gonna be like the type, like Issa for example, who's gonna put in the work that actually is gonna get the most outta the program.

Timmy Eaton:

And of those 50 do you work with all 50 yourself I'm saying? Or is there several?

Azar Chatur:

I run the Calgary program and I work specifically with the Calgary people. But we have a Vancouver director who works with the Vancouver people. We have a San Francisco director who works with the San Francisco kids. We have a New York director who works with New York yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

But I'm saying, do you have other like facilitators that work with you?

Azar Chatur:

No, it's just me in Calgary. But I do bring in like speakers. Yeah. I bring in guests or like judges for hackathons and things like that. So the help that I get is I recruit them from the city, essentially, like people who are doing cool things, like within Calgary, I'll try to bring them into sessions so that they can like, help facilitate me in a session and like give their own perspective and advice.

Timmy Eaton:

So of the 50 then, and I know it's not gonna be like a perfect percentage, but I'm saying, what would you say is the breakdown of kids that like, really do something after having done TKS? Like you said, because it does require their initiative it's gonna be what they choose to take from it. Just like anything we do. And so what percentage are taking their experience and really seeing a benefit from having done it.

Azar Chatur:

It's hard to say sometimes because like sometimes it'll hit a kid like a couple years later. Instead of it just being like, okay, we just did this 10 month program and now I'm doing this. Yeah. I be like, in two or three years they're like, oh, like something clicks. Or like they're, they're still going through the process.'cause it's like a 13-year-old kid who's still trying to figure things out and he'll eventually get there or she but just from last year, like we had, I think it was 65 students complete the program last year and of those 65 students, there were 11 of them who either went off to start their own like companies or work on their own projects to like a capacity where it could turn into their own company. Or found an internship in the area that they were interested in. Cool. That doesn't even take into account the students that were doing TKS to help them get like university scholarships and things like that. So we did have a subset of students who like. We're really like on the path of wanting to go into med school or something like that. And so it's okay, how can we use the TKS program to help build projects and help you stand out in that application process? And that 11 number starts increasing when you take into consideration all of those other students who are taking TKS for the purpose of that. So yeah yeah. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

And then for you, I was just curious so TKS is gonna want to have its same, influence or brand. So as a director, you receive your training from. Obviously you customize it to your area, Calgary, New York, Vancouver, but like the directors in different areas. You guys are all taking the same training and then teaching the kids. Obviously you've run your own business, venture capital tech, and then you're taking that knowledge and using it. I guess what is it that you directors, what qualifies you guys? Or what do you guys have in common even though you have different expertise maybe to to direct these youth? Towards whatever they're trying to achieve.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah, so that's a good question. I think each of us as directors has like we bring our own unique perspectives into the classroom. I guess you could say. And so like v in Vancouver, Prav, he like, has an engineering background. Alexa in New York also comes from a venture capital background. And so what we do is like whatever your backgrounds are, like the session that I will run in Calgary is probably gonna be slightly different than the session that, Prav might run but not fully. So we actually do have like somewhat of a curriculum. So as Issa mentioned, we'll have an AI session and then like a blockchain session and then a business case study session and then maybe a gene editing session. And so all of us as. A TKS like community, all of the directors will be going with that schedule. And and we'll have like weekly team meetings to see, okay, like what are the latest emerging stuff happening in this area? How can we create interactive experiences for the kids in the session. And we'll still do the same activities. We'll still at a high level talk about whatever the topic area is probably in similar ways. But then where it differs is I have my own personal backstory and experiences with regards to these different technologies. Or maybe I have a friend that's working in this field and like I can bring in some of that experience into the conversations that we have in session. Or Issa also mentioned we do mindsets in session. And so that also is like probably gonna be different from director to director just because we lean on some of our own like experiences. But at its core, we run the same sessions, like across the board but it still has that variability. Cool. And also like in terms of the hiring process at TKs, like for us as directors like I mentioned, none of us are traditional teachers. And so what they look for in a director is someone who comes with different industry experiences and maybe there's like someone who's been working in the AI field for the last like decade and can really come in with this knowledge and expertise about that specific subject, which is like clearly tr, changing the trajectory of the way work is done right now. And so his experience would be probably super valuable to a student who's, just coming in and just not really sure about what's going on in the world. Like that person can probably share some pretty insightful stuff with that student. So we look for those different experiences from directors. Venture capital consulting type of people are also like good fits for the director type of. Yeah, just because a lot of it, the role involves asking the right questions and guiding students and picking apart their ideas a little bit to help them, think through things.

Timmy Eaton:

So do you think it's more valuable, like the knowledge and experience that you have or is it like the ability to facilitate learning or obviously a combination of all of it, but I'm saying is the most important thing that a director offers is like I come with the knowledge and experience to help you or is it like, I not only come with knowledge and experience, but I know how to like effectively facilitate learning so that you can Yeah.

Azar Chatur:

I think it's both. I think it's a bit of both. Definitely like coming in with some level of knowledge and experience. But that being said, we literally teach them about all of the different, there's 50, we have these explore modules. Yeah. There's 50 different topics on there. And I'm not an expert in all of them for sure. Like I, I didn't come with like a scientific gene editing background, but it is important for me as like someone in this role. Be up to speed on what the latest advancements are in this field, what companies are doing really cool things, what are the tools that scientists are using that these students should be aware of and could potentially start using as well. So I like get up to speed on those topics that maybe I don't have prior, background in. And then, yeah, I just try to make the sessions as fun of an experience essentially for the students as possible. Yeah. And try to encourage their learning, try to ask them the right questions. And really just get them to think about things a little bit more probably. Than what they do at school. Because in school you write a paper, you submit it, you get a grade, and then I know. Don't catch that anymore. No, but here it's okay, yeah, how can I the feedback actually matters. How can you take this feedback and now, make changes and try to make it better? And like, how can you maybe you, even pivot away from that and go into something else and what is that path and how do we like navigate that? And so there's lots of questions. Yeah. It

Timmy Eaton:

seems more iterative. Whereas like you said, it's like isolated events in school. It's I took the test, I passed it, whatever. I mean there's some subjects that are naturally like that, like math or something. But really in this you have an interest.'cause one you're pursuing a curiosity based interest and then it's iterative. So you're going, man, if I improve this. This is the result that comes from that. They see that.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah. It's not just I've done it and now it's done and it's out of the way and like I move on. It's no, like the, the goal of TKs is ultimately for these kids to find something that they're passionate about and that they're building projects in, and then hopefully that turns into something that they're excited about. And it's like, well, you know, in life if you like, build a project and two months later you're like, oh, I probably could have done something better with that project. Oh, I just learned this new skill, or I just heard about this new tool that I can use to maybe make that project I was just working on a little bit better. You can just go back and make the changes and that's just how it works. But yeah yeah.

Timmy Eaton:

So I, if somebody was interested in poetry, what do they do?

Azar Chatur:

Yeah, I haven't had anyone interested in poetry join TKS yet. Or

Timmy Eaton:

like theater or like I'm saying more of the liberal arts. Is that not a good fit or is it,

Azar Chatur:

So this is where I said at the start that the program is adaptable. It, so it depends. So at its core, what TKS is doing, but we call it the focus process is have to like, build projects in the area that they're interested in like it's project based learning essentially. Yes. So if they are interested in theater or poetry or arts or whatever it is, then it's okay like what are skills that you need to learn about and improve upon in whatever that field is. If it's art, maybe you learn. I don't know, oil painting and like all of the different stroke types and I don't know yeah. Yeah. I

Timmy Eaton:

see what you're saying. It's more about asking the right questions, going to the right people yeah, finding the right mentors. It's more a accessing the right things in order to enhance your interest and improve

Azar Chatur:

well okay. So like for these students, it's what I tell them is okay, if you're interested in I don't know, quantum computing or some sort of technology or whatever it is. Yeah. It's okay, let's look at some of the companies that are working in this field that you're interested in and then how can you like mimic some of the work that they're doing because if you start building projects in the space that these companies are building projects in the space, then that, that's probably gonna be pretty impressive to them. Yeah. And then you're also learning about the skills that you need to be an expert in whatever that field is. And then that is what's gonna propel you, moving forwards. And so the same thing applies to whatever it is, even if it's art or whatever, it's okay let's look at some of what the top artists are doing. Or let's look at what some of the top like, creative writers or in your example poetry, like what are they doing to like hone in and build their skills in that field and how can we replicate whatever that is And maybe use some of the tools that, they're using to make their advancements in whatever the thing is, and replicate that and build projects in it. And then, maybe you can then reach out to them and get mentored by them as well.

Timmy Eaton:

So you've got 50 that you're doing right now that takes time to customize it for 50 kids. What if the next year you are up to 500 kids?

Azar Chatur:

I could do as a solo person, like I actually also run two virtual programs as well. So amount of kids that I personally work with is like 110. Like I have 110 kids that I work with. Yeah. Personally one, and then not necessarily one-on-one, like it's a group thing, but we use Slack to communicate. So like any of these kids, like we can book a one-on-one meeting with me Totally. And we can totally have conversations. But yeah, if we have 250 kids like joining Calgary's program, like we'd hire like a couple more people to like, to help be like. Facilitating that, those sessions,

Timmy Eaton:

because I really feel like, the homeschool world is so like that, if you got one family that was tied to 20 others and they had different co-ops, and if they really loved it and no, this is a great product. They do that. I've watched it where they'll be like, oh, I love this product. I love the outcome that whether you get from this or the learning is so rich or whatever. Yeah. I just feel like it's smart that whoever connected you to this conference this weekend. Because I really do think that it's just a matter of the right people.'cause then it's word of mouth and then it's yeah, this is a great thing that prepares our kids for a robust, fruitful future in whatever they're pursuing. They're learning skills and knowledge. That's gonna be very helpful.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah, actually, so I'm also working with like on the side of TKS as well. There is this one, actually the founders of TKS his I, I don't know how they're related, but there's this one kid, he's 10 years old, his name's Abby, he's homeschooled and he's based out of Edmonton. And he came into into Calgary this summer. And I just gave him a one week, like TKS experience where. As a 10-year-old, he was like really in interested in space. And so we got into looking into the theory of singularity in space. And then we got into loop quantum gravity and he's 10 years old. And so he literally wrote like a paper and article on loop quantum gravity, what it is, how it works, what some of the like theories are around it and like how technology is being used in like understanding this scientific like phenomenon thing in space. And he actually ran a simulation to show like what it is and how it works and he built his own website and he like did this whole thing in a matter of a week. And again, he's like a 10-year-old homeschool kid based out of Edmonton. And so when you realize as long as you're curious about things and like you have access to the right tools and you have some guidance along the way as well.

Izabella:

Yeah.

Azar Chatur:

Like it's pretty impressive what you can do. And yeah, just, and what was cool to me about Abby because he's homeschooled specifically, he has this time in the day where he can schedule thi like things like TKS into his schedule a little bit more easy. And he's focusing on projects that are actually interesting to him.

Izabella:

Yes.

Azar Chatur:

Rather than just like doing something for just because it has to be done because it's part of the school curriculum. That's it. No, totally. And so yeah, it's just cool to see his progress in a matter of a week. And I still keep in touch with him and he's still building and all that kind of stuff. Ultimately this homeschool idea started with him because it was like, okay, like why haven't we really tapped into that kind of stream of students who are already away from the traditional school system. Yes. And like interested in pursuing areas of interest that might be, something like not super traditional. And it's okay let's take that and let's hone it. And let's try to build projects around it and see what kind of outcomes we can get.

Timmy Eaton:

And that's why that was one of my first questions to Issa was like, just to think of her putting in time at school, from my experience, 17 plus years doing this, like she doesn't need it. She's getting the education she needs and she could do a well-rounded thing with something else she could supplement and people could do it however they want. I'm just saying what an interruption to like the curiosities and things, and it might be supplementing or what she's learning. But man, like you said, the fact that 10-year-old boy can take the time that he wants in a day and go deep on something I wrote my dissertation on home education at the U of A and when I did my doctorate degree. And one thing that like you find, especially in, like you said at the beginning, you said that we're constantly changing in this technological world, ai, whatever. And like people used to think that oh, you have to have this really widespread, well-rounded education. And it's good to know a lot, but what people are finding, especially employers, is the kids that go deep on stuff, they actually pick up all those skills in the depth. So they're learning the nuances and the more deep you go, you're learning something so thoroughly that it actually encompasses and you're only skimming the surface on a lot of subjects that don't really pan out to be what employers or universities want. Yeah. And so this idea of going deep is much more, I think, effective to the learning and for their future kind of preparation.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah. The going deep is something that we talk a lot about at TKS too. It's and especially with AI tools now, it's become more easy than ever actually to like, really understand topics to that level of depth and actually just write really really cool and technical articles and projects around like whatever topic it is.

Timmy Eaton:

I just feel like it could be of real interest to a lot of homeschool families, I know it's not all about tech and venture capital and stuff but people that, especially knowing in the Calgary area, that's your expertise, that could be of real interest to a lot of homeschool families. People are more interested. They're seeing that the, a lot of the systems are archaic and they want something that's more advantageous to their children. And there's a number of ways to accomplish that. And so I think TKS could be at least a supplement if not a main thing. Do you offer any kind of accreditation at the end of. What do you get at the end of TKs or

Azar Chatur:

So we very much advertise ourself as not school. Not, again, not that we're against school either. Yeah. But we know that there's gaps to the schooling system and there's things that students like, it hasn't really changed much since when I was in high school, like years ago to now it's it's the same thing, but our world is changing so much and so in order to like. Best train our students or our kids. If you're a parent, if you're in order to best train them for the real world that exists today, like there needs to be something else to supplement whatever it is that they're learning in school. So that's why TKS exists. And in terms of the accreditation, there's not like a grade that they get, there is like a certificate I guess they get at the end. Yeah. That they completed the program, but really it's in the portfolio that they build. So the end thing that they, every TKs student walks away with is like a portfolio of stuff that they can then use try to get the internship or take and try to build that startup that they wanna build. And so the portfolio, building the portfolio is the thing that they get out of the program.

Timmy Eaton:

And on top of that, I would add, just based on my conversation with you and Issa, like Isabella, like she's connected to the public health dude in Edmonton, right? Oh yeah. What? Oh yeah. I have this guy that I do training with and everyone asks him what's his education? And he is my results are my certifications or my results are my credentials. And the idea is find, you can give a piece of paper at the end of TKs or you can just go how many people have you networked with? That are legitimate future prospects. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's what matters. Yeah. I don't care about the piece of paper if I'm already in with people who actually know the industry.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah. Yeah. There's this talk that we do, it's called the Pyramid talk, where we say okay, if you want to be at like that top edge of the pyramid, if we're talking about like careers being the pyramid if you wanna be like the CEO of this company or the founder of a company or whatever it is, like to get into that top thing, it's not necessarily all just about like your knowledge and skills. You also have to have the relationships and build the network and have the right mindsets in order to crack that like kind of top, echelon of whatever it is you want to do. Yeah. And yeah, like the relationships is super important part of TKs and it's like coming out of it like. Yeah you will have like mentors, you will have built relationships with experts in different areas of whatever topic you're interested in. And then also like you build relationships with like other students who are doing cool things. And that's another underrated part of the TKs experience. Yeah. 15 years from now, all of these, like 15-year-old like Issa. She's going to definitely be going off and doing some cool things and like yes. Who are in her cohort here at TKS, like they're also gonna be doing cool things. And now you have this network of other people doing all these cool things. And TKS, again, being a global community, they have access to all of those people.'cause we have again, I mentioned like a Slack channel. So people in Calgary can still jump on a call with someone in Dubai if they want to. We actually facilitate that too. We call'em brain dates. Yeah. And so we tell students like every week, like, how many brain dates did you do? How many people did you talk to? Like from like within TKS? Just to build relationships, build friendships. After TKS sessions, like groups of students will go off and get bubble tea or grab ice cream. Or last week there was a market happening in the city. So these people who are in the program become their closest friends. As much as you build projects and do the techie stuff and the science stuff, and whatever project area it is, even if it's not tech and science, there's also this like friendship and networking element to it that I think, kind of slips under the radar sometimes.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. It's like an amazing byproduct that isn't highlighted enough and our world is so concerned about a paper or something like that, but those relationships, like you said, I think you can't underestimate what that means. Dude, this has been an awesome conversation. I've really enjoyed it. I appreciate it. I just wanted to finish I, one thing I like to ask people in these podcasts is like, how was the interview for you?

Azar Chatur:

Oh, yeah. It was good. I. I don't know. It's I just enjoy talking about this kind of stuff. The reason I joined TKS was because I just think it's such a unique program and it's one that I wish I had when I was younger, and just being able to be a part of it and seeing the kids do what they do, like it truly like inspires me and it's like exciting for me. Yeah. So like I could talk about this stuff like all day. Yeah. Yeah, that you providing this opportunity for me and I didn't prep for it or anything. And you said at the start, you're just gonna hit record and we'll see what happens. Yeah, I'm all done for that kind of stuff and yeah, it was good.

Timmy Eaton:

Awesome. Thanks for taking time. I appreciate it. I'll give you the last word, anything you wanna say in closing, and then good luck this weekend at that homeschool conference and whatever you're doing and good luck with all that you're doing. TKSI

Azar Chatur:

wish I could go to it, but we run our TKs sessions on the Saturday, oh, gotcha. Hopefully it will not be going, but like I've got someone else to go. Oh, cool.

Izabella:

Good.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah. But to summarize things like if there's a student or parent out there listening, something we just did today was like trying to understand how to help people in Calgary. Just like how to help Calgary just be a more innovative city in general. And so something that just came out of this was just like trying to help people who are like in the mindset of like traditional thinking of okay, my student has to go to through school, get the diploma, go to university, do the four years, and then they'll figure out their career. It's no. Like how can we like, change that cycle?

Izabella:

Yes.

Azar Chatur:

How can we like, try to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship a little bit more and break out of that traditional mindset of thinking. Because everything's changed today. Like even as an employer who's looking for someone to hire they're not gonna be like looking at your grades from high school. They're actually gonna be looking at okay, what have you done? What work have you done? If I was someone who's hiring, I would be looking at Okay. What projects have you built in this area that I'm hiring for? Show me the work. Yes. People post, actually I was just looking on Twitter the other day and there was like literally like employers, like people hiring based off of they wrote a tweet and they're like. Feel free to DM me to your work in X, y, and Z field. And that's how we're now gonna hire. Don't send me a resume. Show me the projects. And so I think if you start thinking about that I think that's probably the most important takeaway is let's break away from the traditional systems a little bit and let's look into like how, the new era of hiring and technology and work is going. And let's try to adapt and figure out ways to best support these kids in this kind of environment that we live in today.

Timmy Eaton:

Yeah. And I don't mean to extend it, but you just said so many cool things that like, that idea of not even a resume, it's consistent with what we just said about my results are my credentials. If you wanna see what I can do here's what I can do. And that must mean more to employers. And so I think that's really cool. Yeah. Thank you so much. I appreciate you taking time today.

Azar Chatur:

Yeah, no worries. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Timmy Eaton:

That wraps up another edition of this Golden Hour podcast. If you haven't done so already, I would totally appreciate it if you would take a minute and give us a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify. It helps out a lot, and if you've done that already, thank you much. Please consider sharing this show with friends and family members that you think would get something out of it. And thank you for listening and for your support. I'm your host, Tim Eaton. Until next time, remember to cherish this golden hour with your children and family.