Khan Academy founder Sal Khan to give Johns Hopkins Commencement address

Sal Khan, an innovative educator, entrepreneur, and author who founded the nonprofit educational organization Khan Academy, will speak at Johns Hopkins University's commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 22.

Khan, a former hedge fund analyst with degrees from Harvard and MIT, discovered his passion for education in 2004 while remotely tutoring his cousin, Nadia. From Boston, Khan would tutor his cousin who was living in his hometown of New Orleans over the phone and using Yahoo Doodle. Other family members soon reached out for similar help, prompting Khan in 2008 to begin recording videos of his lessons and posting them on YouTube.

By the fall of 2009, he quit his hedge fund job and committed himself full time to his growing nonprofit online endeavor. Today, his impact is demonstrated through the more than 180 million registered Khan Academy users in 190 countries.

His classes and tools for parents and teachers have helped countless students. Members of the Class of 2025, who used Khan Academy in high school, are still tapping into its resources today.

"The innovative approach to education that Sal Khan brought to life more than 20 years ago has reimagined the learning experience for students worldwide," Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels said. "Our institution's first president Daniel Coit Gilman in 1876 articulated our mission as bringing knowledge to the world. In embodying that mission, Khan offers a stirring example to our graduates who grew up using Khan's technologies and now seek to make their own lasting and meaningful impact."

And now, Khan is working to harness the power of AI to help students of all ages through personalized learning. In his book, Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That's a Good Thing), Khan discusses how AI can enhance classroom learning, highlighting how it will free teachers from routine tasks to allow more time for personalized and hands-on-learning.

"We're at the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen," Khan said in a 2023 TED talk.

Khan will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the commencement address, where about 1,450 Johns Hopkins undergraduates, 60 graduate students, and 130 doctoral students will claim their degrees. About 11,360 students in total will graduate in 2025.