What to know
- Fourteen-year-old Sahana Venkataraman from Mississauga created a Virtual Reality (VR) initiative called “The Lotus Project” to challenge stereotypes and deepen understanding of underrepresented cultures.
- Inspired by her research into South Asian history and experiences with peers’ misconceptions, she aimed to address cultural misunderstandings through immersive storytelling.
- Using the VR program Unity, as well as skills developed after joining The Knowledge Society, she built a VR walk-through of Nalanda University, allowing users to explore classrooms and learn about overlooked historical figures.
- The project is still in development, but Venkataraman hopes to expand to other cultures and bring the VR experience into schools to promote empathy and cultural awareness in diverse communities.
A 14-year-old from Mississauga is hoping to change the way people perceive different cultures, through her VR walk-through experience “The Lotus Project.”
Sahana Venkataraman, a grade nine student from St. Francis Xavier Secondary School, started planning the project after winning gold for her research into South Asian history at the International History Olympiad, a celebration focusing on world history, attended by the top elementary and high school school students.
Venkataraman told Now Toronto that the research she did into underrepresented cultures inspired her to delve deeper, especially due to stigma around the subject.
“When I went back to school, I noticed a lot of my peers had a certain shallow idea of many cultures that didn’t really match the true depth and history of everything that had shaped that culture, or everything that had had to happen in order for that culture to be the way it is right,” Venkataraman explained. “I realised that there was kind of a gap, and this was leading to a lot of shallow stereotypes being placed on millions of people and a lot of misunderstanding was being created.”
Venkataraman began the project in September 2025, after joining The Knowledge Society (TKS), a youth program based in Toronto.
“They expose you to all these emerging technologies and entrepreneurial mindsets, and they kind of prepare you for the future,” she explained.
Through the program, Venkataraman began looking into Virtual Reality (VR) technology.
“I discovered VR and how [it] had a lot of ability to create impact and create empathy in others,” she said. “It was really great at conveying stories and communicating. So, I decided to combine my interests of tech and history to create The Lotus Project.”
Using Unity, a VR game development software, Venkataraman taught herself VR coding and began creating a walk-through, immersive experience of her first location, ancient India’s Nalanda University, the world’s first residential university established in 5th century CE.
“If you put on a VR headset, you can walk around the university like you were actually there, and in each classroom you get to learn about a different aspect of underrepresented history,” Venkataraman said.
She said the first classroom would feature Acharya Kanad, an Indian scientist who is known as the first to conceptualize an atomic theory.
“A lot of people think that John Dalton or Democritus were like the first people to ever conceptualise an atomic theory, but based on my research, I found that it was actually… Kanad, who conceptualised it in the sixth century BCE. That’s 1000s of years before Democritus or Dalton,” Venkataraman said. “In the first room, you actually get to attend a lesson from this ancient Indian scientist. You’re in this ancient university and your student, and you’re learning like it was thousands of years before.”
Venkataraman added the university once housed 5,000,000 to 9,000,000 books or scrolls, before they were burned down by colonialists.
She explained the importance of highlighting these ancient cultural institutions following colonialism and erasure of historical scripts.
“It was always such a tragedy of how all of these amazing educational institutions, libraries, places of knowledge, were destroyed or burned down. It was always something that was really heartbreaking to me and I’d always felt really sad that we couldn’t revive it,” she said. “I started exploring [VR], and then I realised that there was potentially… What if I could recreate these ancient institutions that I wish were still here in a digital form?”
Venkataraman says she’ll begin her VR project with South Asian history, with the hope of eventually expanding to other underrepresented cultures.
“Canada is such a diverse society. We’re known for our diversity and so if our citizens aren’t able to understand the people around them properly, then I feel like that would make for a pretty divided society,” she explained.
She added she wouldn’t be where she is today without her highly supportive family, backing her every venture. Venkataraman said they never hesitated to make sure she has everything she needs to succeed and that she owes her entrepreneurial spirit, courage to challenge conventions and determination to the empowering household she’s growing up in.
The Lotus Project is still under development, but Venkataraman says she hopes to bring the project to students with the help of community partners.
“I hope to take this to schools to teach students about different cultures, where I discovered this whole problem in the first place,” she said. “I think this could be a really cool new way for them to learn about it.”
