Gary Sheng
Civics Unplugged
New York, NY USA
"If you're not flourishing while you're trying to make the world a better place, you're doing it wrong."
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Gary's work combines: Politics, Non-Profit Organizations, and Helping People
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
I recommend attending free or affordable workshops and bootcamps related to computer science instead of paying a ton of money to learn how to code through university. Read a ton of books and podcasts across the "political aisle" to understand how American civics and politics works. Fall in love with self-directed and small-group learning. I recommend doing a lot of self-development work during high school and college so you understand your passions and strengths.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Computer Science
Duke University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
I spent the first 22 years of my life setting myself up to climb the corporate ladder—I worked hard to test into a magnet high school where I led multiple clubs so I could get into a good college.
2.
I went to Duke University where I focused on getting good grades in order to land internships.
3.
I was able to get an internship with Google as a software engineering intern, which then led to a full-time position with Google as a software engineer team lead after I graduated.
4.
My only two priorities after graduating were to host fun parties and to get promoted at work.
5.
When the 2016 presidential election happened, I realized I didn’t know much about how the world works, so I started getting into online activism.
6.
As I got more involved in activism, I started to lose myself in the anger surrounding major political issues and wasn’t able to maintain good relationships with my loved ones anymore.
7.
I decided to spend the next year humbly learning, thinking about our democracy, and trying to understand how we’d become so polarized.
8.
I eventually met my co-founders for Civics Unplugged—we realized if we didn’t do something about our democracy now, it would fall apart, so we created our organization to help Gen Z create change.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
You have to pick an educational and career path and stick to it.
How I responded:
The way the traditional educational system is currently set up, we're prevented from changing our minds. Youth are pressured into choosing a path early on and sticking to it in order to find success. I fell into that for the first 22 years of my life. Now, after taking the time to become intellectually curious, I realized that I'm still learning about myself—and I'm proud to say that! We need to be able to explore, learn, and become empowered beyond the narrow success path that society has set.