NEIA’s new entrepreneurship teacher, Baldev Singh Rawat, compares successful entrepreneurs to world-class Olympic athletes. Like all endeavors, becoming an entrepreneur takes practice, failure, and resilience.
“I don’t shy away from failing because we still learn a lot of things,” Baldev said. “Students need to start early so they can fail many times and still succeed. Because entrepreneurship is like swimming, you can’t learn it without getting into the water.”
Baldev’s drive and passion shines through his previous ventures, including founding the award-winning for-profit social enterprise Value Kreation and establishing Resume It Up, a consulting and training firm. With a passion for strategy and growth, Baldev has also consulted for organizations such as ‘Fostering Hope Foundation’ and ‘Who is Coffee,’ helping them develop effective growth strategies. Baldev holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the G H Raisoni College of Engineering and a Master’s in Business Administration from MBA Babson College, F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business, specializing in Business Analytics and Machine Learning.
J. Camp, Humanities teacher and Head of Teaching and Learning, said, “Baldev brings a real-world experience and empathetic approach to working with students.”
When he joined NEIA as the Babson fellow in October 2022, he immediately made an impact, helping students set up the official school store. In April, he organized a trip for the school store team to attend the ASU GSV education entrepreneurship conference in San Diego so that NEIA students could network with entrepreneurs from across the globe. This is the world’s largest education entrepreneurship conference (with 7000 attendees).
Hans-Peter Hansen, a rising 12-grader and member of the school store team, thinks Baldev exudes patience, even when everything is going wrong. “He has a very understanding voice and point of view. He also has a lot of good life lessons.”
Baldev’s big smile became a common sight on campus this past year. And because of his familiarity with the school, his transition from Babson Fellow to full-time teacher will be seamless. Regarding his teaching philosophy, Baldev said, “I believe that teenage entrepreneurship, or any entrepreneurship, should be fun. Education should be fun. And we learn a lot when we are deeply involved in the process.”
The entrepreneurship curriculum is evolving, but Baldev already has big ideas he can’t wait to share. His goal: by the time an innovator graduates from NEIA, they will be equipped with important foundational skills like business planning, budgeting, public speaking, financial literacy, and collaboration.
