Freedom Cheteni
Freedom Cheteni (born April 1st, 1983) is a Zimbabwean-American educator, businessman, and entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder of InventXR. During his career, Cheteni has held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), and president, while also being the largest individual shareholder. Prior to the founding of InventXR, Cheteni worked as an educator at Design Tech High School, Carlmont High School, and Bessie Carmichael Middle School.
Early life
Cheteni was born at Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in 1983. Born during the Gukurahundi to an inter-tribal family, doctors initially worried for his health due to a Preterm birth brought on by the stress of the ongoing genocides; however, he survived and was named Freedom by his grandmother as it was the only thing she ever wanted and the only English word that she knew. Cheteni has an older sister named Blessed, 4 younger siblings, and 3 half-siblings. Growing up in a farming family in South-Eastern Zimbabwe, he spent much of his time at his grandmother's house in Bulawayo which he described as less of a house and more of a series of huts that formed a village.[1] full of animals including cows, goats, sheep, and chickens who were free to run around. In an interview from 2020, he recalled that there were round huts that had grass around a campfire where they would sit and listen to stories from his grandparents. Many of the stories that his grandmother told him were about her life and experience living in Southern Rhodesia. His maternal grandmother was originally from Zambia; however, she later moved to Zimbabwe before finally settling in South Africa. Through his Maternal heritage, he is related to the Mandela Family and Nelson Mandela, while his Paternal heritage is linked to the Ancient People of Great Zimbabwe known today as Masvingo. He has described his family as being "scattered"[2] throughout Zimbabwe, Zambia, and South Africa.
During his early years, Cheteni would be woken up at 4 a.m. by his grandmother to begin his workday. His breakfast would include a traditional fermented drink called Mageu which he would drink prior to working in the fields of the village. The fields in the village were used to grow foods such as Maize and Cotton, with the latter being sold to a ginnery at the end of the harvest season.
Education
Cheteni viewed education as the "only access to get out of poverty" and the only way to leave the situation in Zimbabwe. His father valued education highly, later becoming a teacher himself, and held high expectations for his children. Following a poor academic performance in Grade 1, Cheteni set a goal to succeed in his education, primarily out of a desire to gain his father's approval, and quickly moved up the academic rankings after only 1 year, finally reaching the top of his class during Grade 5 (a position he would continue to hold until high school). Cheteni attended high school at the prestigious Kutama College where President Robert Mugabe was once a student. During his time at Kutama, Cheteni recalls that President Mugabe would visit the school and speak to the students twice a month, something he remembers fondly; however, later referred to as verging on "indoctrination"[3]. While in high school, Cheteni's home country of Zimbabwe began experiencing economic hardship and political turmoil, which caused him to seek refuge at the United States Embassy where he began studying for the SAT, supported by his teacher Rebecca, in hopes that he would be able to move to the United States for college.
Cheteni chose to study at Colorado College, where he graduated with a degree in Neuroscience. During his time at the college, he had to learn about American culture and later recalled that once a month he would prepare a Zimbabwean-style meal for his friends to teach them about his own culture which everyone enjoyed. During his first 3 years at Colorado, Cheteni was involved in student government and took extra classes to move ahead of his classmates. During his junior year with only one class remaining, Cheteni decided to take a leave of absence to prepare for the birth of his son, Patrick who was born in New Mexico later that year, and to focus on health issues at the Mexico–United States border. While in New Mexico, Cheteni lived in Las Cruces and attended graduate school at New Mexico State University. While at New Mexico State, he received degrees in Molecular Biology and Public Health.
Post-College
While in New Mexico, Cheteni was arrested for allegedly failing to keep his student visa active and spent 5 months in a jail cell in El Paso, Texas before a Judge reviewed his status and deemed that his papers were in order. During his time in the detention center, guards often joked about the irony that someone named Freedom would end up detained; however, he now looks back on the experience as a remarkable time that allowed him to view some of the injustices that exist in the world. Following his release, Cheteni applied and was accepted, to a program exploring alternative teaching methods at Stanford University which he viewed as a path to becoming a teacher. During his time at Stanford, Cheteni was contacted about providing education to students at a school for Native American children in Oroville, California, where students rarely progressed further than 8th Grade. He would go on to accept this opportunity and began teaching at Ipakanni Early College Charter in 2011. After seeing success from graduates of his program at Ipakanni, Cheteni moved to San Francisco where he began teaching and mentoring children who had recently immigrated to the United States, many of whom had come from the Philippines.
Cheteni began teaching as a STEM teacher in the Bay Area in 2013 at Bessie Carmichael Middle School in San Francisco, before moving to the Mountain View Los Altos High School Foundation the following year. In 2017 Cheteni began teaching at Design Tech High School in Redwood City where he worked with students in subjects such as Math and Design Thinking. At the end of the 2017-2018 school year, Cheteni began the Designership Institute at Stanford University which evolved into InventXR, a company invested in providing immersive learning to students around the world. He is currently working on a project to provide people with the ability to experience past events through the use of Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and Augmented Reality.
Personal Life
Cheteni is currently in a relationship with Hyung, a nurse at the Stanford Hospital. They live in California.
References
External links
References
This article "Freedom Cheteni" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Freedom Cheteni. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
