Sunaina Kuhn (LA’11) spent much of her childhood in her family’s garage, watching her grandfather take apart his Harley-Davidson motorcycle and put it back together. Those days, spent learning while listening, moving, and fiddling with her own two hands and imagination, lit a fire for interactive learning within her heart.

That need to do while learning now inspires her work at ShoeBox Labs in South Delhi, India, where she cheekily refers to herself as head tinkerer — a title that fits in a facility where learning flows through all five of the senses. “Tinkering teaches in such an organic way that we don’t notice or mind the learning,” Kuhn says. “You take a kid out of the classroom and throw them into this exploratory space, and suddenly they’re engaging with phenomena they’ve probably only interacted with theoretically until now.”

Tinkering teaches in such an organic way that we don’t notice or mind the learning.

The road to opening the lab, which currently offers workshops ranging from one day to an entire week, sprang from Kuhn’s time with her grandfather and formative years in schools where learning to think meant questioning the world around her. After college, she spent two years in the slums of Dharavi as a Teach For India fellow instilling the joy of learning in children attending a government school. Her dedication to bringing the world to their doorsteps bloomed from teaching all day into an extracurricular program on Saturdays where kids were able to interact with artists and musicians.

Zafar Bhatri, an implementation consultant at McKinsey & Company in Mumbai who served as a fellow at the same time, says Kuhn’s genuine passion pulls children to her. “Children, I believe, value this genuineness that instantly creates a bond of trust and respect. Sunaina has invested the last five to six years in being closely involved in K–12 education at the grassroots level for her to understand the challenges and potential solutions toward providing a quality education.”

Namrata Sharma, who worked with Kuhn at Teach For India and later evaluating the impact and efficacy of education at Evaldesign in New Delhi, agrees. Sharma joined Kuhn and Akanksha Bapna to take their knowledge of hands-on, impactful educational techniques straight to kids in a new venture that became ShoeBox Labs. “Instead of expecting all children to adapt to one learning style, the world needs to reevaluate teaching techniques as well as assessment strategies to meet the unique needs of every child.” Doing so, Sharma notes, allows kids not only to enjoy learning but to overcome their fears of failure.

Kuhn is excited to continue building momentum at ShoeBox and expand its offerings as she shares her love of learning with new generations of students. “Education levels the playing field — it doesn’t matter where you’re from,” Kuhn says. “But learning how to learn is a skill, and we are responsible to equip the next generation of kids.”