As a kid, Khalil was an exceptional math student -- finishing an entire workbook in one week while the rest of the class was still on the first chapter. After school, he spent afternoons in his stepmom's classroom and eventually became her unofficial teacher's aide. He noticed that many students struggled with math, causing them to fall behind. With that in mind, in 2010, Khalil co-founded NBA Math Hoops [8]. Centered around a sports-themed board game, the learning program involves students [9] from sixth to 10th grades using dice and stat cards of players in the NBA and WNBA to make arithmetic problems fun.

The program now reaches 10,000 students in more than 350 schools. Khalil, who is CEO, hopes to reach more students with the game and develop more innovative educational programs. "I'm not a math geek or a math whiz," he said. "I just know how important it is to get through math and know that so many of our young people struggle with that."