The young guy from Vlora, Albania, Dean Celaj, is listed in the Forbes list among the 30 most successful and internationally influential people under 30 during 2022.

The founder of the Akademi.al platform, which proved to be extremely effective during the pandemic period, told Atlantiku about his life and education.

“I was born in 1997 in Vlore, Albania, in the midst of the Albanian Civil War. I moved to the UK to receive a better education at the age of 15 but decided to come back and contribute to my country (Albania) after graduating with a bachelor’s in science from University College London (UCL). I also hold a master’s diploma from Harvard University”, he says.

His selection among 30 people with the greatest social impact in 2022 by the prestigious magazine “Forbes” delighted Celaj for the fact that his contribution to the country he comes from was recognized.

“It was great news, particularly because I was being recognized for my contribution in the education sector back home and the massive social impact we had during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Celaj says.

But what were his expectations when he established his platform, which is already gigantic in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia?

“When I launched Akademi.al I was dreaming big. I wanted to create a platform that enabled all Albanian-speaking students across the world to have free access to an excellent education. The pandemic accelerated that massively.”

Currently Akademi.al has about 545,000 users and 20,000 educational videos in Albanian.
These numbers made his platform to be used by 1300 public schools in Albania.

Akademi.al is an e-learning platform similar to Khan Academy and Google Classroom, but merged together. It provides 20,000 free video lessons in Albanian language by the best teachers that 500,000+ registered students can watch at any time. On the other hand, it is a learning management system used by 1,300 public schools in Albania, that facilitates all distance learning activities including video conferencing.

Despite this success, the end of the pandemic and the return of teaching to schools could cause the platform to lose its users.

But even for this, the successful Albanian has an idea of how to maintain his platform.

“For sure, 91% of Albanian students accessed Akademi.al during COVID-19. We had one of the best COVID responses in the world. Unfortunately, after the pandemic ended, online learning is being reverted and the progress will be lost if we don’t intervene. I am looking to find new ways that the government endorses online learning as part of the official curriculum, to compliment in-class learning, like in more developed countries such as the US.”

He told Atlantiku.com about what he thinks is the biggest challenge of distance learning in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia.

“In my opinion, it’s outdated policy and overall lack of initiative. Of course, infrastructure, lack of devices, and lack of internet will always be a massive problem, but initiative is number one” he added.

Atlantiku has heard of some complaints from students who do not have the proper equipment to engage in distance learning.

But there is a solution to this as well.

“If the government recognizes online learning as an official alternative to education, especially for students who can’t go to school for several reasons, then the equipment can be found because we are a small population. A lot of nonprofit organizations have donated tens of thousands of tablets to students in Albania. On the other hand, we have developed features that allow students to watch our video lessons offline.”

The recent Harvard graduate told us how he spent his studies at two of the best universities in the world.

“I was lucky enough to receive full scholarships for both of my degrees at Harvard and UCL, so I didn’t have the financial pressure of attending such prestigious universities. Furthermore, both programs offered me the flexibility to work on my entrepreneurial ambitions while I was studying, for example Harvard allowed me to work on independent studies that also benefited my startup, so it was okay,” Celaj said.

Dean Celaj has a message for all young Albanians who want to follow his path.

” Although today’s lack of opportunity and overall absence of competition, particularly in the technology and innovation sector, is driving us to leave Albania, don’t lose hope and always try to contribute in one way or another. Albania needs us! You can count on me to always pursue new ideas and initiatives, so feel free to reach out and work “