Akash Patel
Akash Patel began his teaching career in very small rural communities in Oklahoma where people had never seen or met “a brown Indian guy who spoke five languages and had traveled to over 50 countries”. He used his travel experiences to design all of his lessons. For example, he used his experiences of working with elephants in South Asia to teach children to make elephant poopoopaper and map elephant DNA to study poaching patterns. He currently teaches ESL with Oklahoma City Community College and serves as Epic Charter Schools’ Math+ Instructor and ELL Liaison. Patel previously taught Spanish with the Dallas Independent School District and fourth grade at Hayes elementary school in Oklahoma City. In both schools, his students have come from very difficult backgrounds and have included gang members, drug addicts and juvenile delinquents. The majority of his students at both schools had never traveled outside the US.
In his first year of teaching, he was recognized by the State Department of Education and the Multicultural Education Institute as the January 2015 Educator of the Month and the 2015 Multicultural Teacher of the Year for promoting global citizenship in his classroom and achieving a successful academic turnaround. In December 2017, Patel was selected from over 30,000 nominations as one of the top 50 teachers around the world and shortlisted as a finalist for the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize, a $1 million prize that is awarded annually to one teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession: https://bit.ly/2JKeXF5 In June 2020, Patel was elected to the National Council of the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) to serve the 2020-2022 term. At UNA-USA, Patel chairs the Global Engagement Summit committee, the largest gathering of grassroots changemakers and global activists in the General Assembly Hall at the UN and the Educators Affinity group, responsible for helping educators from across USA champion the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their classrooms.
In January 2021, Patel was inducted in the International Literacy Association’s 30 Under 30 List. In January 2022, Patel was elected as the first-ever immigrant President of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). In June 2022, Patel was elected Vice-Chairman of the National Council of the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) to serve the 2022-2024 term and in June 2024, he was elected Chair of the same organization to serve the 2024-2026 term. Patel was also featured as a 2022 TIME Magazine Innovative Educator of the Year.
Akash has connected all of his classrooms with people and professionals worldwide using virtual platforms such as Facebook video calling, Skype, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. At first, he started inviting his friends from social media platforms. Eventually, he mobilized over 1,000 volunteers from over 150 countries to join his Global Connect database at the Happy World Foundation (www.happyworldfoundation.us), a Texas based global education nonprofit he founded after the passing of his twin brother Anand Happy Patel.
Patel frequently speaks at regional, national and international conferences about his classroom experience. He has also trained over 100,000 teachers to use the Global Connect database and other multicultural programs. Today, thousands of American children travel to countries worldwide through Happy World Foundation’s global education programs.
Nonprofit Leadership
Chairman, UN Association of USA, 2024-2026 term
President, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), 2022-2024 term
United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) – National Council Vice-Chairman, 2022-2024 term
United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) – National Council Member, 2020-2022 term
2020-2022 Chair, Global Engagement Summit, UNA-USA
2020-2022 Chair, Educators Affinity Group, UNA-USA
Institute for Humane Education (IHE) – 2019-2021 board member
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) – 2020 Nominations committee member
Leo Benardo Award for Innovation in K-12 Language Education committee at ACTFL, 2021 Chair
United Nations Association of Dallas, board member
Happy World Foundation Inc., Founder
World Experiences Foundation Inc., Former Founder and President
United Nations Association of Oklahoma City, former board member
Patel’s Accomplishments
2024 Commendation from Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt
2024 Most Welcoming Champion Award, Shot@Life, UN Foundation
2023 Notary Public Commission, Secretary of State, State of Oklahoma
2022 Lifetime Achievement Award, President’s Volunteer Service Award, White House
2022 TIME Innovative Educator of the Year
2021 Magna Award, 7th International Conference on Peace and Light, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
2021 40 Under 40, Dallas Business Journal
2021 Appreciated Teacher of the Year and $2500 grand prize winner, Gulf Coast Educators Federal Credit Union
2021 30 Under 30, International Literacy Association
Commissioned as an Honorary Admiral in the Texas Navy by Governor Greg Abbott in November 2020
2020 George H W Bush Inspiration Honor Roll
2019 Texas Foreign Language Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award
2019 Rotary Club of Dallas’ $2500 Service Above Self Teacher Award
2019 Spirit of Hope Award from CNN Hero and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People Sister Rosemary
2019 Outstanding contributions to the teaching of foreign languages and innovation in education award from the Government of Samsun, Turkey
2019 Outstanding contributions to the teaching of English as a Second Language Award from the Government of Tamaulipas, Mexico and the Superintendent of the public schools of the city of Nuevo Laredo
2018 Oklahoma Human Rights Award, Oklahoma Human Rights Alliance
2018 Leo Benardo Award for Innovation in K-12 Language Education from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
2018 $1 million Global Teacher Prize Top 50 finalist
2018 Immigrant Professional Excellence Award, Immigrant Journey Awards Gala
Teacher Ambassador, Varkey Foundation
Daily Point of Light Award by President Bush Sr.
2017 Alumni Hall of Fame, Oklahoma City Community College
2017 NextGen Under 30 Award, IonOklahoma Magazine
2017 Labor Commissioner Mark Costello Spirit Award, NextGen Under 30 Gala
2017 Outstanding Asian American Award, Asia Society of Oklahoma
Leadership Oklahoma’s 2017 Helping Oklahoma Award
University of Central Oklahoma’s 2016-2017 Mr. International
University of Central Oklahoma’s President’s tuition waiver scholarship
University of Central Oklahoma’s 2017 Certificate & Medal of Global Competency
University of Central Oklahoma’s 2017 Outstanding Commitment to Civic Engagement Award
Commendations and citations from the United States Congress, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, OK Speakers Hickman & McCall, the Texas and Oklahoma legislatures
32nd Annual Multicultural Education Institute’s 2015 Multicultural Teacher of the Year
Department of Education’s January 2015 Educator of the Month
Journal Record’s youngest honoree of the 2015 Class of Achievers Under 40
Oklahoma Gazette / Oklahoma Business’ youngest honoree of the 2015 Class of Forty Under 40
2015 Oklahoma Human Rights Award
University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma’s 2015 Young Alumni Award
Peace for People’s 2012 Inspiring Youth Award
Oklahoma City Community College’s 2012 Outstanding Academic Achievement in Speech Emphasis Award
News Stories
Dallas Morning News: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2021/11/28/dallas-teacher-to-lead-international-foreign-language-education-group/
CBS DFW: https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2021/01/21/dallas-foreign-language-teacher-students-world-virtually/
NBC DFW: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/dallas-isd-teacher-receives-international-recognition/2532059/
Speaking Engagements
- Keynote speaker, 5th International Hindi Conference, Consulate of India in New York
- Featured speaker, 2023 Global Engagement Summit, General Assembly of the United Nations
- Keynote speaker, 2023 Nobel Fest, Astana, Kazakhstan
- Keynote speaker, 2023 National Chinese Language Conference, New York, Asia Society
- Keynote speaker, 2023 National Teacher Leadership Conference, Kentucky – National Network of State Teachers of the Year
- Keynote speaker, 2022 Region 10 Embracing Multilingualism Summit
- Keynote speaker, 2022 HEAL (Hospital Educator and Academic Liaison Association of North America) Annual conference, Inspiring Empathy, Global Citizenship and Cross-Cultural Understanding in the Hospital Classroom
- Keynote speaker, 2022 SWCOLT, Southwest Conference on Language Teaching, Connecting Your Classrooms with the World While Being Isolated From It
- Keynote speaker, 2021 7th International Conference on Peace and Light, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Keynote speaker, 2021 Stanford University, California World Language Project seminar on Inspiring Empathy, Action Civics and Cross-Cultural Understanding Through the World Language Classroom
- Keynote speaker, 2021 Indiana University’s School of Education Dual Language Summer Institute
- Keynote speaker, 2021 University of Montemorelos’ training for pre-service teachers at the Faculty of Education
- Keynote speaker, 2021 University of the Virgin Islands conference on Connecting Across Cultures in Your Schools & Communities
- Keynote speaker, 2020 IV International Congress on Education, Tucuman, Argentina
- Keynote speaker, 2020 Oklahoma and Colorado Annual Foreign Language conference
- Keynote speaker, 2020 Oklahoma Literacy Association summer conference
- Keynote speaker, 2020 SWCOLT Southwest Conference on Language Teaching Annual Conference in Disneyland, California
- Keynote speaker, 37th Annual Multicultural Education Institute (MEI), University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, February 2020
- Featured speaker, 2019 American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) 2019 national convention in Washington DC
- Keynote speaker, Arizona, Wyoming and Virginia Language Association’s 2019 annual conference
- Host, 2019 Global Citizen Awards Gala, Happy World Foundation Inc. at the Embassy Suites by Dallas Park Central
- Keynote speaker, Uganda Mathematical Society’s 41ST National Mathematics Teachers’ Conference at Kampala University
- Keynote speaker, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) 2018 Assembly of Delegates at national convention, New Orleans, Louisiana
- 2018 TEDx speaker, TEDx speaker on Bringing the World to Your Schools & Communities at TEDxUCO conference in Oklahoma City
- Keynote speaker, 2017 Arkansas Bilingual Association’s annual conference in Hot Springs, Arkansas
- Host, 2017 and 2016 Global Citizen Awards Gala, World Experiences Foundation Inc. at the Oklahoma State Capitol and the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Downtown Oklahoma City
- Featured speaker on Elephants & Global Climate Change at the University of West Indies, Jamaica on October 23, 2014
- Featured speaker on Fighting hate with anti-bias multicultural education at the United Nations Association of Oklahoma City on January 12, 2015
- Addressed members and leaders of the OKC International Visitors Council, Friendship Force of Oklahoma & Sister Cities OKC on international human trafficking and wildlife smuggling at the UCO International House on May 14, 2015 and August 8, 2015
- Presented DNA mapping of elephants for elephant conservation at the Department of Agriculture’s Ag in the Classroom conference at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore, OK
- Presented Connecting Across Cultures in your Elementary, Middle & High School Classrooms at the 32nd, 33rd & 34th Annual Multicultural Education Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma
- Keynote speaker at the Oklahoma Unity Mixer at the University of Oklahoma, University of Central Oklahoma and the UVSA South Leadership Summit at the University of Texas – Dallas
- Visiting motivational speaker, goodwill ambassador and education consultant at the Office of the First Lady of the Dominican Republic: goo.gl/bJjq9L
- Hosted a live video conference with the United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic and the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development at Oklahoma City Community College to encourage global volunteering among students: goo.gl/Wtc9qo