When a high schooler at NewComm manages a $10,000 budget, the money is real. So is the authority, and so are the neighborhoods they're designing solutions for.

Chidi Asoluka spent 16 years as a classroom teacher before founding NewComm, a civic design studio where high schoolers from historically marginalized communities pair literature with real community challenges. He joins me in Atlanta for a special in-person CEO Series episode to share how a dream about Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon became an English elective in Philadelphia, then a summer program for 11 students, and now serves more than 150 students in the Bronx, with Brooklyn coming this fall.

We also talk about the bank CEO who paid his full Georgetown tuition, why success shouldn't require erasure, how senior "managing partners" help run the organization, and how the Net Gala, the first project students funded with their $10,000 budget, became NewComm's annual fundraiser.

Resources & Links

Learn more about NewComm and follow along on Instagram. Connect with Chidi on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Watch Chidi's TED Talk

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