Rishi Gurukulam, CBSE Residential School
Pushpa Valli's first professional role was Programme Manager at Rishi Gurukulam, a CBSE residential school rooted in ancient Indian learning traditions. Between 2002 and 2005, she encountered Gurukul practices as part of everyday education: voice-based learning, rhythm, peer teaching, and natural memory techniques.
The question that emerged at Rishi Gurukulam was not simply how to teach more material, but what conditions make learning easier and more joyful for a child. It became the thread connecting the next stages of her work.
What Pushpa Valli observed here was striking: students were able to master subjects at a significantly faster rate than in conventional schools. The methods were not complicated; they were simply aligned with how the brain naturally learns. This observation became the seed of everything she would go on to build.
This experience became the starting point for a continuing enquiry into how children understand, remember, and apply what they learn. Her later study of child psychology, cognitive science, educational neuroscience, and neuroplasticity grew alongside that practical interest.