I spent much of this last quarter in deep contemplation, both with other people and in my own writing and reading. Questions I grappled with included: What does it take to create a process towards equity that in and of itself is equitable? How do I determine, as the Founder and Executive Director of #NYCEDU, where we…
Author: Deborah Chang
I take down barriers to youth-led collective impact
Learning is Fundamentally Human: Cornell BigRed//Hacks ‘17 Keynote Address by Deborah Chang
Cornell BigRed//Hacks is the oldest student-run hackathon in the country. This year, 40+ teams worked on hacking together a technology solution for an education problem. I was invited to give the keynote speech as an educator, serial entrepreneur, and community builder. This is a transcript of my speech.
My Quarter in Review: Spring 2017
For the first time in five years, I didn’t organize Startup Weekend Education NYC. Instead, I was its facilitator! This was significant for several reasons. I passed the baton. Eugene Leventhal and his organizing team did all the heavy lifting. I was there to share our previous Startup Weekend Education NYC resources, but they recruited the coaches,…
Reflections on my TEDxPrincetonU Talk: How to fail successfully
November of 2013, I gave a TEDx talk on how to fail successfully based on my own experiences. At the time, I was a budding entrepreneur who was working on a multitude of ideas including one that I laugh about most: The Conversation Coach. The main point of the talk was: “For my entire life I…
TEDxPrincetonU: How to Fail Successfully by Deborah Chang [Transcribed]
“For my entire life I was taught how to be successful, but I was not taught to fail.” But “the only thing that’s certain about the future is that it’s uncertain. So failure is inevitable. And if failure is inevitable, we need to work that into our process of learning and growing.”
My Quarter in Review: Winter 2017
A Look Forward After two years of organizing #NYCEDU on a part-time volunteer basis, I’ve officially stepped into a new role as “founder.” In taking this step, I’m accepting the responsibility for guiding #NYCEDU from a loose collaboration of education innovators to an organization with the processes and discipline to scale up in both members and…
My Personal Mission Statement (v. 4)
January 10th, 2017: As a tree grows, it shifts its resources from growing quickly to growing deeply. That is how I’ve grown this past year, and my personal mission statement, lightly updated but more heavily imprinted, is a reflection of that growth. January 9th, 2019: As I read this personal mission statement over, I conclude that I’m…
My Quarter in Review: Spring 2016
Progress is the goal, not perfection.
My Quarter in Review: Winter 2016
What I Accomplished My greatest accomplishments over the last three months was that I finally made it to Thailand! My Thailand trip has been a dream since August 2014, and I was able to save enough money to go by September 2015. December 2015, I headed off to Thailand, and spent a whole month enjoying…
Words Matter; Symbols Matter: Technology Adoption in Education
Larry Cuban, a well-respected education blogger, recently posted the following: Technology Evangelists, Skeptics, and Those in the Middle In it, he points out that what is new is not always what is better and that the language being used to describe late adopters of technology include value judgments that are frankly dangerous. “Evangelists for technology seldom…
