We thought it would be fun to introduce you to Ricky Shi, who worked on our team Summer 2024 and brought so much talent and joy!

Born and raised in Shanghai China, he left to attend high school in Connecticut. When he was thinking about a career from an early age, he loved music and assumed he would want to pursue a course somewhere that connected him to music. That brought him to UCLA for college as they have such a strong music program.

What he likes most about music is creating it. He always enjoyed playing classical music, but over time he found himself gravitating towards discovering his own voice through writing and producing music. He loves melody and a good beat. He just produced a few soundtracks for one of Change Lab's courses and he describes it as a mix of melodic ideas and sounds. After we heard it, we went a little bit crazy for it and decided you might enjoy hearing it too. Here's a snippet of one he has so generously agreed to share:

(you can choose whichever part of the songs you like the most! My personal favorite: City Daylight 4:50-5:20)

As Ricky started his freshman year, he realized his world was opening up and he was developing an interest in many things, so he started to explore and take a variety of classes. He ended up being strongly attracted to marketing and communication, as courses helped him understand why consumers buy products, how do customers approach their investment considerations in pricing and product interest, and other considerations such as consumers' emotional and social needs. He loves thinking about those things.

While he was thinking about how he could expand his knowledge, he read about Change Lab and decided that was where he wanted to invest time in a part-time summer internship. And, what he says he found right away was that it “was a real community where people are collaborating and working and thinking on the same frequency.” As he says, “that really expanded my thinking a lot. I grew so much from this experience and the opportunity of learning how to create ideas and move them into a completed product.”

We talked, too, about what it was like to come to the US from China and he said “it took all the energy and time and understanding of culture as I could possibly give it. For anyone who has grown up in a sedentary, local community it's quite a shock. I had always seen the world through this small filter of information. Suddenly, I had to learn to understand everything from a bird's eye view.”

He continued, “At first, I had the language and cultural proficiency struggle as I tried to understand what people really mean when they talk. With more time spent and experiences navigating the realities around me, I finally understood what my mother always would say to me, which is that I am a citizen of the globe. I realized that it's about taking on these multicultural challenges and letting myself develop more of an international point of view. There is power and strength in learning to understand more deeply about the world.”

When speaking about philanthropy, Ricky believes that “the whole point of philanthropy is to disrupt resources so that everyone can bring something to the table. It's because the sum of all of that can make the difference.”