social-emotional-learning
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The Survey That Grew Up: How a Yale Dorm Project Reads 15 Million Kids
It began as a way to ask students what they thought of school. A decade and $105 million later, Panorama reads the data of 15 million American kids - and now wants its AI to write the next move.
Pixley AI
Pixley AI is a Y Combinator (F25) startup that turns a child's drawing or photo into an animated cartoon character in seconds, then generates full personalized episodes around a lesson a parent picks. The goal is to convert passive kids' screen time into active, co-created, and educational play. Founded in 2025 by childhood friends Krish Iyengar and Pranit Agrawal, the company also builds Pixley Studios, an agentic tool that turns a single idea into a production-ready video.
Sown To Grow
Sown To Grow is a K-12 platform that helps students set goals, reflect on their learning, and check in on how they're feeling - giving teachers and district leaders the real-time signal they need to support student well-being and academics through Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS).
Patrick Cook-Deegan
Patrick Cook-Deegan is the founder and CEO of Wayfinder, a K-12 curriculum company that teaches purpose, belonging, and durable skills to more than 1.5 million students across roughly 4,000 schools. A former All-American lacrosse player turned human-rights advocate in Burma, wilderness guide, and Stanford d.school fellow, he built Wayfinder out of five years teaching character development in an Oakland public high school. He named the company after the ancient Polynesian navigators who crossed oceans without instruments - his bet on how to redesign the American high school for the 21st century.
Wayfinder
Wayfinder is a K-12 edtech company that builds a PreK-12 platform for purpose-driven learning, combining research-backed social-emotional and life-readiness curriculum, MTSS-ready resources, and real-time insights. Born out of Stanford's d.school K12 Innovation Lab, it helps students develop durable, future-ready skills like purpose, belonging, adaptability and collaboration, and is used across thousands of schools and districts.
Breathe For Change
Breathe For Change is a San Francisco-based education company transforming schools from the inside out by training educators in mindfulness, social-emotional learning, and yoga. Founded in 2015 by Dr. Ilana Nankin and Michael Fenchel, the company has certified over 20,000 educators across all 50 states, creating ripple effects that reach more than 20 million students. Through a suite of programs including a fully accredited Master's degree (with William Jewell College), a Human Intelligence Certification, and the original 200-hour wellness and yoga teacher training, Breathe For Change makes the case that teacher well-being isn't a perk - it's the foundation of student success.
MEandMine
MEandMine is a Silicon Valley startup that uses AI and neuroscience-backed games to surface the silent struggles of K-12 students. Its platform delivers ten minutes a day of personalized, gamified skill-building, while an AI engine flags psychological risk by analyzing 160+ in-game behaviors, giving teachers and counselors real-time signals for early intervention.
Rupa Gupta
Rupa Chandra Gupta is the cofounder and CEO of Sown To Grow, a K-12 edtech platform that puts students in charge of their own learning through goal-setting, progress tracking, and structured reflection. A former Bain consultant turned school administrator, she co-founded the company in 2015 after witnessing firsthand the gap in tools that gave students genuine ownership over their education. Sown To Grow has raised over $5M in venture funding and serves districts across the United States, with measurable outcomes including record-breaking graduation rates in Stockton Unified School District.
Elinor Huang
Elinor (Wen-Hsin) Huang is the Founder and CEO of MEandMine, a San Jose-based AI-powered mental health platform for K-12 students that uses gamified, neuroscience-backed tools to help children build emotional regulation skills before crises emerge. Motivated by the loss of an MIT classmate to suicide and the 11-year average gap between symptom onset and treatment, she built MEandMine into a certified B Corp with partnerships spanning Google, Stanford Medicine, and the NYC Department of Education, and raised $6.6M in venture funding including a $4.5M round in June 2024.
Ilana Nankin
Dr. Ilana Nankin is the Founder & CEO of Breathe For Change, a San Francisco-based organization that has trained over 15,000 educators in mindfulness, social-emotional learning, and yoga — reaching an estimated 1-5 million students across the United States. A former Pre-K teacher turned Ph.D. researcher turned movement builder, she launched Breathe For Change in 2015 after her own students demanded she formally train them. Her organization runs the world's only 200-hour Mindfulness, SEL & Yoga Teacher Training designed exclusively for educators, a Master's in Human-Centered Education in partnership with William Jewell College, and an expanding professional development platform for schools and districts.