Friday, October 2, 2026

Polytechnic School Senior Brings Khan Academy Founder Sal Khan to His Classmates

By THERESE EDU

Arjun Dhadwal organized a Zoom “Ask Me Anything” session; he says many students asked about AI

Local student Arjun Dhadwal has leaned on Khan Academy both for schoolwork and to learn on his own.

Khan Academy is one of the world’s largest free online learning platforms. In the 2024-25 school year, it reported 104.9 million active learners and availability in more than 190 countries and 55 languages.

On Wednesday, Sept. 23, the Polytechnic School senior turned the tables, bringing Khan Academy founder Sal Khan to his classmates for an “Ask Me Anything” session over Zoom.

Dhadwal organized the event, which was sponsored by Poly’s 3D Printing & Design Club. He co-hosted it with Mark Rasic, the school’s director of college counseling and 11th and 12th grade dean. In written responses to questions from Pasadena Now, Dhadwal described how the session came together and what he heard.

The idea, he wrote, grew out of what he saw among his peers.

“Looking around at my community, I saw an enormous number of peers who were motivated, smart, and full of potential, but lacked the guidance they needed to harness their abilities and make the most of the high school experience,” Dhadwal wrote.

He took the request straight to Khan.

“My father prompted me to reach out to him and his assistant with a simple proposition about my club and Polytechnic and how helpful it would be, and in his humble style, he agreed,” he wrote.

What stayed with Dhadwal most was Khan’s account of his own career. Khan described how his path, priorities and values changed over time, and how often he came back to his roots and his passion for education.

“His story encouraged me (and I’m sure other students, as well) to focus on what I really value in my life, and chase that over money, success, etc.,” Dhadwal wrote.

Khan was a hedge fund analyst before he quit in 2009 to work full time on Khan Academy. The nonprofit offers free videos and practice exercises across K-12 subjects.

Many students asked about technology’s role in education, especially artificial intelligence, which Dhadwal called “a contentious topic among educational institutions these days.”

In Dhadwal’s telling, Khan “suggested that while AI can be used negatively by serving as a cushion to offload cognitive effort, for those who are really interested in learning, AI can actually increase cognitive involvement and benefit curiosity.” The key, in Khan’s view as Dhadwal relayed it, is encouraging students’ intellectual curiosity and desire to learn.

Khan has spoken publicly this year about AI’s limits in schools. In an April interview with Chalkbeat, he said that for a lot of students, Khan Academy’s own AI tutor, Khanmigo, was “a non-event.” He compared AI tutoring to a teacher sitting at the back of a classroom, waiting for students to ask for help: “Some will; most won’t,” he told Chalkbeat.

Dhadwal was struck by what students didn’t ask.

“I was surprised that not many students asked him about college, though his answers to questions on career guidance and how his priorities have changed over time shed some light on college’s role in life,” he wrote.

Khan Academy has been a regular part of his own studies.

“I’ve used Khan Academy a lot for school and for my own personal learning, and it’s been enormously helpful in conjunction with in-class lectures for building solid understanding of material,” he wrote. “Sal has been an inspiration to me for a while now, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to speak to him, and to share the opportunity with my classmates, too.”

As organizer, Dhadwal wrote, he was responsible for the logistics, for clear communication among everyone involved and for publicizing the event within the school. Multitasking and staying organized mattered most, he wrote, calling them skills “that my three years as a high schooler at Poly have already significantly strengthened.”

Poly, a K-12 independent school at 1030 E. California Blvd., opened in 1907. According to the school’s history, it grew out of the same institution that became Caltech, which split off its grammar school that year to focus on the college.

Dhadwal wrote that the session gave the club “such a strong start to the year.” Its current plans involve using 3D printing and computer-aided design software on engineering projects meant to benefit the community.

“While we don’t have any more guest speaker events currently planned, I hope to organize more for the year, as I feel we can really make a strong community contribution this way,” he wrote.