About
Why InVANA?
An educational initiative exploring how people learn through nature, experience, conversation and reflection.
Why we exist
Nature • Wonder • Becoming
Sometimes learning happens while walking through a forest. Sometimes while cycling 35 kilometres.
Sometimes while sitting around a campfire discussing a question that has no easy answer. Sometimes while trying to repair a broken bicycle. Sometimes while simply being given enough freedom to explore.
InVANA creates such environments. Through expeditions, conversations, learning experiences and stories, we explore how people learn — and how experiences can shape who we become. It began with outdoor and experiential learning for adolescents, and continues to grow from there.
The idea
Nature • Wonder • Becoming
Nature sets the terms of the experience. Wonder keeps the questions open. Becoming is what a child carries home — not because we told them what to learn, but because they experienced it themselves.
We don't always need to teach. We can create environments where learning can happen.
The people behind InVANA
Dhruva Kotagi
Founder, InVANA
I am an engineering graduate by education, and my journey has taken me through corporate life, photography, entrepreneurship and Montessori education. Each experience gave me a different way of looking at people, work, creativity and learning.
Over time, my work became increasingly connected with children, education and learning environments. Working closely with children made me curious about something deeper: what happens when we give people the opportunity to experience the world for themselves?
I began to notice how much children learn when they explore, make decisions, work together, make mistakes, solve problems and reflect on what they have experienced.
That curiosity led me towards outdoor and experiential learning.
But the more I explored, the larger the question became.
How do humans really learn?
Is learning only about being taught what to know? Or does something deeper happen when we are given the space to experience, question, discover and make sense of things ourselves?
This question became the starting point for InVANA.
InVANA is my continuing exploration of learning through nature, experience, conversation and reflection.
Through journeys, conversations, stories and experiences, I hope to create spaces where people can discover something for themselves.
“I am still learning how to create these experiences.”
InVANA is part of that journey.
Our values
Responsibility
Choices are ours to make, and ours to carry.
Community
Food shared, water shared, stories shared.
Curiosity
Questions are more useful than answers handed over.
Respect for nature
We leave a place exactly as we found it.
Our connection with nature
Leave No Trace
Every wrapper, every fruit peel, every bottle comes back with us. Leave No Trace isn't just InVANA's principle — it's a way of showing gratitude and respect for nature.
