As a schoolboy growing up in a humble part of Moscow, Nikita Mishin saw the power that extraordinary teachers have in lifting their students' aspirations above their tough circumstances. It ignited a lifetime love of learning and a desire to spread that opportunity to others in need. Even as Mishin built a successful career as a logistics entrepreneur, he never abandoned his dream of educational philanthropy. He established an educational foundation in 2005 and a school in 2017. Now that he has sold his stake in the freight-rail company he helped create, Globaltrans, he is singularly focused on education.
Mishin understood early on that education is not just the key to enlightenment, but gainful employment. As a teen, he earned much-needed pocket money by freelancing articles to local newspapers, combining his love of language and a burgeoning entrepreneurial spirit.
He earned his way into the prestigious Moscow State University during a transformative time – the perestroika era of the late 1980s, when the Soviet Union was opening to the West. As a student in the philosophy department, he heard communist professors criticize history's great philosophers, even as the university was allowing an influx of Western thinkers, such as Jacques Derrida. It was a heady time to be a young Russian intellectual.
Mishin graduated with a degree that would qualify him to either teach or research in philosophy or pursue a PhD. But, by that time, at 22, married, and with the Soviet Union collapsing around him, it was clear that Mishin's first priority must be to make a living. The academic life, and his dream of educating underprivileged kids, would have to wait.
To make money in college, Mishin hired on with a shipping company, helping to manage stevedores on the docks. After graduation, logistics became the logical career path. The new Russian Federation was long on assets but – for the first time in decades without a centralized, authoritarian power structure -- was short on market expertise. That presented opportunities for self-starters like Mishin and his college friends.
For example, Russian steel mills had always been ordered by Moscow to send their steel to a designated port, regardless of how efficient that may or may not be. Acting as middlemen, Mishin and his college friends helped the mills transport their goods by rail to the most efficient ports, where they could be shipped to overseas markets.
Business was good, but it left Mishin little time for anything else.
"I physically had no time to develop my thoughts in educational philanthropy," he said. "But I was never absolutely happy being just an entrepreneur. I wanted to do something else with my life."
Mishin and his partners formed logistics companies Global Ports and Globaltrans, buying and leasing rolling stock, investing in port facilities and buying land to build ports. Globaltrans, the railway company, had a $450 million IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 2008. Global Ports' $588 million IPO came in 2011, also in London.
As the companies matured and his wealth grew, Mishin finally had some breathing room to think about something besides business. His thoughts turned back toward education.
He wanted to build a new kind of school in Moscow, one that was based on principles of respect for the students, that would be accessible for any who qualified for entrance, and that put an emphasis on finding creative ways to engage kids and to achieve high academic results. As with his business ventures, Mishin tapped a trusted friend from his school days to lead the efforts and they recruited other top educators.
"We pulled together an A-Team," Mishin said.
But in Russia, as anywhere, it takes time to create something new like this – site selection, permitting and choosing a headmaster did not happen overnight. While Mishin was planning what would be called New School, he established Dar Charity Foundation to run his educational philanthropy. Dar funded, and continues to fund, educational programs inside Russia as well as in Africa, Europe and elsewhere. This activity gave Dar standing in the philanthropic world.
Finally, in 2017, New School was preparing to open its doors. But before that happened, Mishin got a call from the headmaster, who asked him to come visit. When Mishin arrived, the headmaster put a paint brush in his hand. Because the school's faculty were all new to each other, the headmaster decided on a team-building activity of painting classrooms.
"It was a great idea," said Mishin, "and I still regularly see some of the people I painted with that day."
New School met a ready demand. In its second year, there were nearly 800 applications for the 48 seats in the entry level class for the pre-K through 11th grade school. Demand remains high. The school continues to receive about 600 applicants for that class each school year. Fees are kept low, at about half other Russian private schools, to attract a diverse student body with admission kept on a needs-blind basis - if a students get is accepted, Dar will ensure their fees are covered.
The success of New School proved its concept had appeal. When some New School faculty moved to Montenegro, they established a kindergarten there based on the same principles which has promptly found its audience.
Internationally, Dar's ethos – that learning fuels life – was the underpinning for a model that aims to use education to help students discover their own path, regardless of their situation. To this end, Dar is creating traveling groups of teachers who will put on short-term math camps in Africa and other areas, then return to check on their students' progress. Dar supports projects in Israel and Armenia, is considering a school project in Columbia and is looking at sites in Eastern or Southeastern Europe for a school. There's a program for giving college scholarships to young people who will come back and help their home communities after graduation and establish the value of education in communities that do not value it.
Creating this sense that education, when done well, has value beyond the curriculum is key to Mishin's vision and so Dar seeks to foster this culture as it expands. Mishin talks about the world's great private schools, such as Harrow, Eton and Andover, having this culture; an "atmosphere" that has been cultivated over centuries. New School, though much younger, has created its own atmosphere.
As an example, Mishin notes that he frequently attends New School classes via Zoom and watched a history teacher explain the Battle of Granicus by dividing students into Persians and Macedonians and re-enacting the conflict in a school hallway. "They may not remember the dates, but they will remember the event," said Mishin.
"I think there is a huge demand for the attentive and caring atmosphere that our school creates," Mishin said. "We have teachers who say to students, 'Come with me on this wonderful journey to the world of knowledge.' With Dar, we want to see how far we can bring this spirit to others."
