It Wasn’t Safe for Debpriya Das to Open Her Own Biology Teaching Center. So She Made One In Her Living Room

Debpriya Das had a gap year between high school in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, and undergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore. Most young people, presented with a wild and free year off, opt to travel, perhaps backpacking through scenic international throughways. 

Das, however, chose to teach biology out of her living room. 

Technically, before she moved her popular and successful biology lessons to her family home, she taught biology to high schoolers at her alma mater, the Mastermind School. Some of her students were only one or two years younger than her. 

“The school reached out to me, and said they were having a hard time finding teachers for biology, which is a sector that’s a bit less developed than engineering, for example, which everyone studies,” Das says. It wasn’t a random call—Das had assisted teachers in the subject while she herself was still a student. She just had a knack, and a love, for the field. 

“I said, ‘OK, let’s do it!’” 

She may not have known it at the time, but those four words shifted the trajectory of Das’s life. Her students, many of whom were skeptical of, or downright repelled by, biology, came to love it because of Das’s innovative teaching style. 

“Most people think of biology and they think of memorization,” Das says. “But, to me, it’s a beautiful world where everything comes together and makes sense. It’s elegant, and I wanted people to see the world that I saw.” 

Rather than making her students memorize long lists of facts and then regurgitate them on the international exams students are required to take, Das attempts to guide them on a journey through the complex network that makes life possible. 

The results of her unconventional method spoke for themselves: Her students were getting top scores on their exams and, Das says, actually enjoyed the subject matter. 

“Honestly, I was surprised,” she says, laughing. “But students were doing really well, and some of them were asking for more.” 

When she was 19, Das moved her teaching enterprise to her home. She opened up a coaching center, Bioland, where she taught students two levels of biology and trained those who were especially eager for the International Biology Olympiad, a global competition for students under the age of 20. 

Maeesha Tasnim Naomi was one of those students. She was in the class Das taught at the high school, then, inspired by Das’s engaging explanation of biology, continued her lessons with Das for three more years at Bioland. 

“To me, her greatest strength is that she believes in her students and would do anything for them when she sees potential in someone,” Naomi says of Das. “I feel lucky that I was one of her students. I remember learning so many things outside my then-syllabus, which not only helped me perform well in my school and [at the] Olympiad, but her notes also help me to this day at university courses. We would simply lose track of time and let our love of biology take over.”

A student at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, Naomi is aiming to turn her love of biology into a bona fide career.  

“Maybe the motivation behind learning in Grade 9 was only to score good grades in exams, but those small moments of understanding biological concepts are what led me to pursue neuroscience and behavior as my bachelor’s degree. Giving biology a chance gave me the opportunity to research cool topics like sexual coevolution and pediatrics in labs at Mount Holyoke College and Boston Children’s Hospital. Thanks to Debpriya Miss, I hope that my journey with biological studies doesn’t end anytime soon!” Naomi says, using a Bangladeshi naming convention that conveys respect and admiration. 

For Das, starting Bioland was a dream. Locating it at home, however, was more of a necessity, she says.

“In Bangladesh, it wasn’t always safe for me to be out alone,” Das says. When she was in school, her parents would drop her off and pick her up, ensuring that she didn’t have to walk to and from her school alone. 

The country has made great progress in the last two decades in improving gender equality, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. But inequalities continue to exist, and gender-based violence is still common. 

With this in mind, Das and her family realized that setting up a teaching center on her own was out of the question. So, she rearranged the furniture in her family’s living room, added some tables, chairs, and a chalkboard, and, soon enough, she had space for “exactly 17 students,” she says.

At the same time she was starting Bioland, Das was also starting college herself. This didn’t deter her from teaching, though; she taught students during university holidays, often from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., every day. 

“Most of my students have done absolutely amazing,” Das says. “I think my methods helped them to be more involved in the material, plus they were learning in a home they felt safe in, because it was literally my home.”

Eventually, Das had to stop teaching in order to continue her own educational journey. Her final cohort of students learned at Bioland in 2018, while Das was entering her final year at the University of Melbourne in Australia. After she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, Das landed yet another game-changing opportunity.

In 2020, she earned a prestigious Schwarzman Scholarship, making her the first person from Bangladesh to do so. Since then, two more young Bangladeshi people have received the honor, following in Das’s footsteps. In 2021, Das enrolled in the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University, and in December 2023, she’ll graduate with a master’s degree in business administration.

Throughout all this, Das never lost her love for helping others. And now, she’s exploring a new venture that would help high school students in Bangladesh, particularly girls, gain valuable extracurricular experience through hard-to-find internships. 

“For people like my sister, who were trying to go to college, it’s extremely difficult to get work experience to show on a college application,” Das says. “Women can’t always do community service because it’s not safe. I want to help these women and girls find safe experiences by partnering with schools and companies.” 

Judges at this year’s Women Who Empower Innovator Awards recognized Das’s enterprising work (and work ethic) with inclusion in a network of entrepreneurial and innovative women founders. The Innovator Awards, now in their third year, have supported 69 founders to date, and distributed more than $820,000 since their inception. 

“Debpriya impressively aligns with the values of Northeastern; she is innovative, globally minded, and committed to uplifting others,” says Betsy Ludwig, executive director of women’s entrepreneurship in Northeastern’s Office of University Advancement, and one of the organizers of the Innovator Awards. “Her global, cosmopolitan mindset allows her to tackle complex societal problems with leadership and passion. Debpriya is an inspiration to us all and we congratulate her for yet another extraordinary accomplishment.”

Das’s new venture is still in its infancy. But as she considers the best way to get it up and running, Das is holding tight to the six-year-old version of herself, who picked up a biology textbook when she ran out of storybooks to read one night. 

“I went to bed reading about white blood cells, how they engulf bacteria they don’t recognize and release digestive enzymes to dissolve it,” she recalls. “It’s so simple; so elegant. I just fell in love.” 

Perhaps it’s not so far off to think of Das like those white blood cells: creating elegant solutions to the spiky problems she—and others—face.