Despite the fact that we have not been able to send people across the Pacific for over a year and a half, our staff have been resilient and innovative in designing online programs and convening people to inspire each other to bring positive social change. For example, we offered our Exploring Social Innovation (ESI) and Exploring Health Care (EHC) programs, which we usually run in Silicon Valley, in the virtual space twice each in 2021. The virtual setup allowed us to invite former staff and VIA alumni from beyond the Bay Area as guest speakers, including Alan Teo, Ayano Sasaki, Derek Antoku, Krystal Smith, Melody Wu, Shengnan “Cicy” Zhang, Tamara Solorzano, and Weerawat “Earth” Mongkolchoste to share their expertise with our participants.
We also had the chance to localize and adapt the content of our online Social Impact Leadership Accelerator program to two groups in Asia. One was for community-based organizations in their early stages in Indonesia. This program was designed in collaboration with VIA Indonesia and their team members Alit Mranani, Rizky Aljaza, and Sita Magfira offered the program in Bahasa Indonesia. Another Accelerator is being offered this fall in Japanese for a community-oriented company in Japan that is owned by VIA alumna Aki Takahashi. While the target audience of these two Accelerators is different, both were developed and tailored in response to the needs identified by VIA Indonesia and Aki, who have an on-the-ground understanding of their respective contexts.
Looking forward, we are engaging in conversations with several partners in Asia on what collaborations could look like in the near- and longer-term future. For instance, with BEAM Education Foundation in Thailand and Shonan Shijuku in Japan, led by VIA alumna Chiemi Iwata, we are identifying their needs and shaping the roles that VIA Global Community Fellows can play once we are able to resume our Fellowship program. Similar conversations are also taking place with Parami University in Myanmar where VIA Executive Director Kazutoh Ishida is currently teaching an online course on social impact leadership. VIA alumna Laura Murphy (Associate Professor, Tulane University) recently joined the course as a guest lecturer and taught a session on design-thinking, which the students enjoyed and appreciated immensely.
The pandemic has given us an opportunity to reimagine our programs and explore how we can optimize our curriculum for the virtual space. We are extremely grateful to our alumni and partners for joining our journey and their dedication to continue nurturing the next generation of changemakers.
