owner [oh-ner]
owner [oh-ner]
noun — a person who owns; possessor; proprietor
Table of Contents:
- World-class problem solving
- How much do you want to own
- Values at District Zero
- Our progress
- Equity give-back
- Hold us to a higher standard
7. #blacklivesmatter
World-class problem solving
Strength is in diversity.
At District Zero, we utilize proven agile and learning frameworks such as Design-thinking and Social-emotional learning, to empower wellness-informed education.
The first step of design-thinking is empathy. Sounds simple, but extremely complicated to acheive. We’ve gotten good at getting youth to share problems, or ‘blockers’ — but we are always working on getting better. This is acheived by recruiting and inviting all diverse voices to the table. Regardless of skin color, race, spiritual beliefs, and gender preference, design-thinking requires an inclusive and diverse environment to yield successful solutions to every-day problems.
The intent behind this post is to shine transparency around our progress and future milestones at District Zero.
How much do you want to own?
As a muslim-immigrant, I’ve seen my fair share of abuse-of-terms to recruit diverse talent, increase VC deal-flow, and offload idea generation. It sucks when you apply as that ideal candidate and don’t even receive an acknowledgement.
My colleagues and social networks publicly know I have been seeking a co-founder, venture investor, and Heads of all critical departments in our company. In fact, some intimately know of my offers (Co-founder, Venture Board Member, Head of Operations) which were not accepted because they were just super busy. (makes sense). I’ll let them call out how diverse they define themselves as. To me, ‘intelligence capacity’ is recruiting requirement number one.
I believe ownership is about how much of the workload do you want to carry? 100%? 50%? 20%? 10%? 1%? — However involved you want to be, let’s figure that out. It isn’t required to be the original idea-maker to be an owner. After forcing myself as CEO at Cleu, I didn’t want to be the CEO at District Zero. I’d rather be Head of Product. Alas, here I am making public statements on behalf of the company- so the position chose me. Prove me otherwise, and I’ll happily take a different role.
Let us know after reading below, if you’re interested in ownership roles at District Zero.
Values at District Zero
Mission
Accelerate world’s transition to personalized learning.
Awareness
Awareness is the ability to listen. Only by listening, can we build empathy for the pain occurrence. We must be ‘open’ to listening. As I’ve said in personal conversations, “Don’t go in turtle-shell mode. Listen. Then make an informed decision”
Contribution
Contribution is dedicating ourselves and our will to the service of greater impact. As humans, we all have been lucky in multitude of ways. We must give back to the next generation of learners, the land that gives us life, and our elders that have paved the ways before us. Citizenship and community are pillars to the health of us as individuals and groups as nations.
Privacy
Privacy is the cornerstone of trust. If this trust is broken, it’s very hard to re-gain, sometimes impossible. We believe in consumer control and absolutely no-sharing of private data at District Zero. We are continuously building strength around privacy controls and hope to become an industry leader within the wellness and education markets.
Growth
Growth is a mindset. When a human has an outcome in mind, she is driven to hit milestones towards that outcome goal. Without the outcome, it’s difficult to maintain motivation. The daily tasks we do don’t add up and it becomes difficult to see the bigger picture. We believe all learners, junior or senior, must build up a growth-mindset to truly hit the best outcomes in life.
Inclusion
Inclusion is more important than ever in the public voice, however it’s been important to our team for a long time. We believe every voice has equal weight in influence whether it is product development, customer satisfaction, or company culture. We are proud of our inclusive team and will continue to be a leader in this category.
Our progress
Every-day Team Members at District Zero
5
Female vs Males
60% Female — 40% Male
Persons of Color
20% (Me)
Immigrants (residing in USA)
20% (Me)
Equity give-back program
For every new paid customer that signs up on District Zero, we take care of an under-represented or low-income youth in a nearby school district. With the recent uptick in paid sign-ups, we’re now ready to initiate our equity give-back program.
We’re partnering with local 503C non-profits and organizations that support K12 youth mental health and education. If you believe we should support a specific group, let us know.
Hold our team to a higher standard
If you care really damn hard about the health of our youth and their preparedness for the future-of-work, I want to speak with you.
We have five critical leadership (yes, owner) roles that are wide-open to discuss. Request a spot on my calendar and we can start the conversation over Zoom if you believe you’re the right person for the role.
Technology Officer
We need your eyes and mind on algorithms, scaling systems, and technology organization management.
Business Officer
We need your eyes and mind on incoming requests from Academic, Corporate, and Government client accounts.
Data Officer
We need your eyes and mind on the structuring and security of data. We have a goal to structure 1-million trauma data points of which we are 2% to goal.
Clinical Officer
We need your eyes and mind on the organization and scale of clinical studies. With a goal to reduce the use of traditional mental health pills (ie. ritalin, adderall, etc) we believe we’ve made good progress for you to take over.
Academic Officer
We need your eyes and mind on the richness of all educational content and curriculums. Once a student restores focus, we suggest or guide learners to continued learning growth. We’ve done a good job starting up with difficult categories such as Theology, Citizenship, and Social-Emotional Learning; however with the current state, we believe there is more to enhance in World History through the lense of Blacks, Under-represented groups, and LGBTQ communities.
#blacklivesmatter
Immediately, we are organizing the next community design-thinking problem. Our last project was focused on bicycle safety in Naperville conducted by Aurora middle-school students. For the second, we believe our greatest impact would be to focus on police brutality. This means youth and community organizers are invited to join the 10-day problem solving process. If you are willing to support as a guest instructor, please email me.
I’m continuously learning of history every day. I enjoy learning new facts and piecing together the puzzle of life. In the immediate, I don’t know of one specific group to support Black History, but the resource below was informative and I started using it on my social profiles to learn of groups and ways to support.
As you can, please consider supporting in any meaningful way- without causing yourself anxiety. Trauma can be addressed by simple notes in a personal diary to the most public statements. Support more via link below.
My deepest condolences to all of the black families that experienced loss at the hands of police brutality and racial injustice. I promise to do what I can with educating the youth. Prayers to all the souls below.
Ways To Help
_(Frequently Asked Questions) Can I link this on my Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Website, etc? Yes, you absolutely can!…_blacklivesmatters.carrd.co
-uzair