feat.

Jiarong is the Ambassador of Singularity University Shanghai and a social entrepreneur supporting over 70 grassroots communities in China with corporate funding and media exposure. Having graduated with Bachelor's Degree of Engineering from Tongji University and researched in Frontier Lab at Osaka University, she gained a systematic perspective in solving the world challenges innovatively. Seeing many communities endeavor to change the world for better but without much support, she decided to leverage technology and business to enable grassroots communities with a platform to collaborate as well as gain tractions both socially and financially. She and her startup has consulted for organizations, such as Adidas, B Corporation China, Mango TV, Schneider China and United World College Changshu. Tonya also initiated a 3-month mentorship program that provided talented youths from underprivileged backgrounds with career advice in the field of social innovation from successful professionals and influenced more than 500,000 people.

There are many grassroots communities in China and the world changing the world for better in their unique ways. But they often struggles to reach a broader audience and to run sustainably. I created a platform called "feat." for impact communities to get more business opportunities and media exposure. In turn, they gain better financial and social traction. "feat." is currently running on Chinese local social media WeChat and designing its own  mobile application. With this platform, we are supporting passionate and driven change-makers to scale their impact. In the meanwhile, we together are also engaging more individuals, institutions and corporations in joining social impact endeavors.

While leading Singularity University Shanghai and consulting for organizations, I realized that many educational and business entities are actively looking to support social impact initiatives. At the same time, I know many communities that are struggling to breakeven not to say to scale. With in 2 years, our platform already connected more than 70 communities that on average reach around 30,000 youths, and the majority of China's youths still aren't familiar with the domain of social innovation. It's partially because of the lack of education of social innovation in the school system. And the unawareness of grassroots communities is also major contributing factor. Therefore, solving the disconnection between grassroots communities and corporations as well as media, will also lead to the improvement of youths awareness of impact communities.

feat. is a platform for impact communities. Communities can reach and engage members, manage contents and events, collaborate with each other as well as obtain business and media opportunities. Individuals can access to  communities in diverse fields, attend their events and join in impact actions. Companies and media can choose the communities they'd like to support.

Project feat. serves individuals who are interested in social innovation, grassroots impact communities and business entities at the same time. Youths and other individuals can easily access to diverse communities. Communities can expand their scale through media and commercial projects. Companies and media can collaborate with communities and audience that are most relevant to their values and services.

As a first-generation college student myself, I was once faced with the challenge to search for purposeful career options. In the past years, I benefited greatly from participating in different communities in fields including sustainability, technology and education. These communities are the gateway for me to learn about global challenges and emerging fields in social innovation. Moreover, I met many mentors who offered me valuable life and career advice. Many communities even provided members with hands-on project opportunities. The higher the engagement, the more I sa the limitation of the communities to reach more people and run sustainably. Therefore, when I met many young people having the same struggles I had while I was leading Singularity University Shanghai, I saw the need to bridge the communities with more passionate young people. At the beginning, I created a Shanghai Community Map. Later, it exhibited traction on the business side when I gained more experience in consulting. Eventually, itevolved into a platform that creates a win-win-win outcome for youths, grassroots communities and business entities.

This project is important for me because, first of all, it's solving the problem that I met in searching for purposeful career. I personally empathize with so many youths in China who feel lost, want to do something to change the world but can not find the ways. Furthermore, I see "feat." as the opportunity  to not only solve one social issue, but accelerate the actions taken by many impact communities. Last but not least, it creates a open framework for individuals, communities and corporations to work together in making the world a better place. Its potential is unlimited.

In the past 6 years, I learned through trials and errors while managing projects, leading teams to consult for schools and companies, as well as developing communities and a social enterprise.

With academic background in engineering, I recruited a partner and developed Water Quality Index project targeting at unclean drinking water problem. We designed a concept product that can real time monitor tap water quality with multi-spectrophotometer based on research results from experiments conducted on local drinking water, and it won Global Impact Challenge Finland.

While managing Singularity University Shanghai, I recruited a 6-people team to establish and execute community growth strategies. We hosted salons on the topic of leveraging technological innovation to create social change with industry partners, including heads and directors of BCG, Deloitte, Bayer, IDEO. Singularity University’s local community grew from 0 to more than 200 members in a year.

In my recent journey creating "feat.", I developed the product and service strategies from ground up and achieved 1 million RMB revenue in a year. In the process I recruited and managed 1 partner, 2 part time employees and a pool of more than 30 freelancers working with communities to consult for institutions and companies.

I believe these experiences gave me a well-rounded understanding in solving real world challenges with the tools of technology and business. They all prepared me to better contribute to the empowerment of youths and social impact communities in a more systematic capacity.

A great team comes with great challenges. The first time when I led a team that are on average 20 years old more experienced than me, I struggled with confidence issue. Trough intensive strategy meetings, Singularity University Shanghai team established plans to kickstart the operation with brand localization, marketing, community and partnership development. But I hesitated to make decisions. As a result, the strong team produced many great ideas but no action. Seeing the project delayed, I soon realized, my job as the team leader is to encourage others to bring out their best, instead of feeling intimidated by it. Since 2018, I served as the “housekeeper” for the team. I solicited everyone's best ideas, expertise and recourses, devised detailed plans and delegated responsibilities accordingly. And the team efforts bore fruits. Author James Neil Hollingworth once said: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.” Every challenge and failure along the way became a reminder of my passion and lifelong purpose.

Not long after working together with my current partner, I noticed that she tend to retract when put in a position to lead operations independently. When I raised this observation to her, she confided to me that she was struggling with depression under overwhelming workload and aggressive management in her last company. Once faced with the same challenge of being hindered by fear and self-doubt, I decided to coach her to restore confidence. As she understood her personality, working style and future goals better, our collaboration became more efficient and she also gradually started to take initiative both in the company and in her own life.

Leadership and management share many similar characteristics, but they differ inherently in that managers maximize efficiency and success of the organization, whereas leaders ensure that not only the organizations but also each and every member within develops and excels. Therefore, I believe leadership is an act of service to empower others to nurture skills and foster personal growth. When leading a team towards a common goal, I always remind myself to be aware of not only the mission but also values and needs of people, so we can make a truly collective effort.