The Impact Agenda

We’re thrilled to welcome Audrey Wisch to the i-Impact Podcast. Audrey is taking time off from Stanford University to pursue Curious Cardinals, allowing students to build their passions and college students to explore theirs. Audrey was recognized in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Education and Youngest category.

Join us as we discuss Audrey’s passion for education and how she built an impact startup as a college student. Audrey shares her time as a competitive athlete and how building resilience as a founder is game changing. She shares Curious Cardinals’ creative approach to creating impact for employees, students, families, and mentors, and their strong commitment to empowering individuals to teach what jazzes them up the most.

Themes include the power of role models, inspiring curiosity, building organically, leadership styles, humility, and “culture carriers.”

https://www.curiouscardinals.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-micay-wisch-39a95a1b2/

1:48 - How did Audrey’s educational & extracurricular background shape her love of learning and view of education?

8:06 - What was the journey from tutoring to building a startup?

12:42 - What is the importance of mentorship and what differentiates Curious Cardinals from other mentorship programs?

20:14 - At Curious Cardinals, student mentors help to create the courses, which is interesting because young people often discount their own ability to teach or educate others due to a lack of  “expertise”. How did Audrey overcome this barrier & how does she and her team inspire others to do the same?

25:09 - Audrey took time off from Stanford to build Curious Cardinals - Was this a hard decision to make? What would be Audrey’s advice for other aspiring students who are looking to create their own startups but are still in school?

30:22 - What experiences were most important in shaping Audrey’s ability to be a founder/CEO?

34:00 - What are Audrey’s big takeaways for how to be an effective leader and the skills that strong leaders should have?

40:43 - What are Audrey’s exciting plans for the future, personally and professionally?

In this special episode of the i-Impact Podcast, we get the joy of chatting with both Mason Mei and Kenneth Kwok. Mason is a 17-year-old student from Shanghai, China. He is the founder of Support Asia SDG, an NGO, which aims to help Asian businesses, farmers, smallholders, and anyone in need of professional support to reach SDGs. Kenneth is the Founder and CEO of Global Citizen Capital, an impact-oriented multi-family office investment venture based out of Hong Kong. Other than being an impact investor, entrepreneur, Kenneth also works to spread awareness of global contemporary issues to parents and kids in Asia through Kids4SDGs, Asia’s leading social impact ecosystem advancing Education for Sustainable Development.

Join us as we discuss helping youth find their passions as early as possible to contribute to finding solutions to world problems. We chat about having the guts to start something on your own and finding opportunities to help society during the global pandemic. Kenneth speaks to the importance of shaping decisions based on what world problem you want to solve in 10 years, instead of what career you want to have. Mason gives us the inside scoop on how he founded his own company as a young teen.

Themes include SDGs, advice for impact-driven youth, interdisciplinary approaches, creating your public image, and finding advisors.

https://www.kidsforsdgs.org/

https://www.globalcitizencap.com/

https://www.asiasdg.com/

2:20 - Which SDG are you both most passionate about and which deserves more attention?

5:17 - What is Kenneth’s journey to the founding of Kids4SDGs and his mission to empower youth?

9:42 - Mason, how did you create Support Asia SDG, an NGO in Southeast Asia that does environmental and general SDG Consulting for Asian businesses, farmers, and smallholders?

13:55 - What are some common traits of youth who are most successful at creating impact or integrating impact into initiatives? What are some skills you would recommend cultivating to succeed in social impact related projects/career paths?

22:20 - We'd love to hear an example of when you faced a major challenge in your entrepreneurial journey, and how did you overcome that challenge? How can individuals build really strong resilience?

29:08 - What are some tips for creating a brand for yourself in order to gain the resources & connections to expand the impact of your work?

33:36 - Mason, as a young impact leader, have you experienced instances of not being taken seriously? How do you overcome this barrier?

We are thrilled to welcome an incredible creative to our podcast today, Lindsey McAlister! After working for the Arts Council of Great Britain and the Gulbenkian Foundation implementing the arts in schools, Lindsey McAlister left the UK to travel. After one year, she arrived in Hong Kong and has been there for 35 years. In 1993, Lindsey founded the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (YAF). Lindsey was awarded an MBE on the Birthday Honors list in 1997 for her work in the field of youth arts and an OBE for her contribution to UK Arts overseas.

We chat all about Lindsey’s creative process and her star projects, including her recent trilogy of shows in which she wrote and directed (“#Hashtag”, “Only a Girl”, “I'mperfect''), the annual Arts in the Park Youth Arts Festival and future collaborations with Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Arts District. Lindsey shares her story about founding HKYAF after coming to Hong Kong with no connections and little resources, and how relying on her grit and determination was essential in her ability to create what is now one of the most successful youth arts organizations in Hong Kong and globally.

It has been game-changing for Lindsey to ban the word “challenge” from the YAF vocabulary and reframe it to “opportunities.” Learn more about how Lindsey has pushed HKYAF in new directions especially during the pandemic and aims to create a positive thinking mindset around the arts in HK, and empower more youth to engage in the arts.

https://www.hkyaf.com/

2:08 - When did you know that engaging in the arts was something you loved and wanted to do? And why did creating opportunities for people to engage in the arts become your mission?

4:30 - Tell us more about this journey of starting HKYAF and building it to become one of the most successful arts organizations in Hong Kong/globally.

11:05 - Congrats on the recent HKYAF show “I’mperfect” written and directed by you – a tale of three teenage girls and their journey to self-esteem – How did this musical idea come to be? What was the significance of this musical to you/impact that you’ve seen of this project?

16:20 - What are the major challenges to getting into the arts for HK youth? How does HKYAF solve that?

19:47 - How did you turn COVID into an opportunity for YAF? How did you reinvent the foundation?

22:40 - Tell us more about the process of conceiving an idea for a project and how you see it through to its completion - what’s the most challenging and rewarding part?

26:44 - How do you view art as a medium for making a positive social impact in the world?

31:20 - What additional work can be done by individuals, neighborhoods, and Hong Kong as a whole?

34:30 - What would you say to those considering arts careers but are afraid of the uncertainties?

36:18 - What are the next exciting projects that you and the foundation are working on?

39:45 - What are your takeaways for us and mottos for life?

We are thrilled to have another spectacular guest on the i-Impact podcast today, Natalie Tung. Natalie is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of HomeWorks Trenton, a free community-based after-school residential program. Growing up in a numbers-driven public school system in Hong Kong, the opportunity to attend a boarding school in New Jersey was a transformative experience for her. While earning her teaching certificate as a sophomore at Princeton University, Natalie started HomeWorks with the idea of replicating this experience for girls in marginalized communities around the world. Since 2016, she has built a diverse team of 8 staff members and over 50 volunteers. Together, they have run 6 programs with 40 participants and raised over $32 million in cash and in-kind donations.

Join us as we chat to Natalie about her experience building HomeWorks, which only began when she was a Sophomore at Princeton. Natalie shares about her transformative experiences in boarding school and how her passion to ensure that others had the opportunity to engage in the same  experiences as she, became the basis for her founding of HomeWorks. In this episode, learn about how Natalie overcame the barriers she faced as a young founder and the importance of grounding ourselves in our “whys” in pushing through challenges of founding an NGO. Natalie also shares her insight on how to become an effective ally and serve communities holistically and authentically.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliecwtung/

www.homeworkstrenton.org

2:10 Tell us more about your educational background and how you fostered your love of learning. What interests you inside & outside the classroom?

4:24 - How did HomeWorks begin? Throughout all of the uncertainties, what kept you going?

8:31 - How did you incorporate your experiences at boarding school into HomeWorks?

11:45 - How did Natalie learn where to start in creating HomeWorks?

14:40 - When was the moment you realized you could make leading HomeWorks your full-time career? Did you face any external pressures when choosing your path, which was not the norm at Princeton? If so, how did you overcome them?

17:57 - This is your 7th year leading HomeWorks - how have your priorities changed as the founder of Homeworks since you started your journey?

19:43 - What challenges did you face as a young founder straight out of college and how did you build credibility?

21:18 - How do you examine a problem holistically and effectively serve a community's needs without serving what you think they need?

24:00 - You work with mainly African American and Latinx communities while coming from an Asian American background  -  do you have any advice on how to be an effective ally and help those with different experiences to you with authenticity?

26:20 - Do you have any tips on how to best inspire others to believe in your mission?

27:10 - What are your goals for the future?

28:20 - What are the takeaway lessons from your experiences leading HomeWorks?

Thank you for joining us for the launch of the i-Impact Podcast! We are starting Season 1 strong with our first guest, Ross Overline. Ross is the Founder and CEO of Scholars of Finance, a rapidly growing non-profit organization whose mission is  to inspire character and integrity in the finance leaders of tomorrow.

Ross encourages students to seriously consider finance as their path to impact. He explains how 80% of capital in the US is in the private sector, in business and finance. To solve the world’s problems, we must change the financial system and need strong, impact-minded leaders in charge of our capital. He stresses that going into the finance industry with this mindset is the opposite of “selling your soul.”

Themes in this episode include skill acquisition, finding firms that align with your values, and the sub verticals and types of investment vehicles that offer the largest opportunities for social impact.

https://scholarsoffinance.org/

https://twitter.com/rossoverline

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossoverline/

**Since the time of this recording, Scholars of Finance has grown to 51 chapters with 1600+ members and candidates, and over 3,000 students impacted.

1:47 - What was Ross’ path from working in finance to creating Scholars of Finance?

19:57 - Ross shares insights about the six core values that are at the center of what he teaches at Scholars of Finance. Why are the values so important to individuals working in finance?

27:10 - What is an example of how students have been able to incorporate the Scholars of Finance values into their work?

27:59 - What is a milestone that Ross has been proud of as the Founder of SoF?

30:04 - What are some of the qualities or skills of successful individuals in the finance industry?

32:48 - What sectors in finance have the most potential for impact?

36:19 - What role will impact investing including ESG goals have in the future of finance?

40:51 - What should listeners take away from this episode?

Welcome to the I-Impact Podcast - Launching on 8th of February, 2023!