Why Us, the Village

I started "Us, the Village" after years of working at the intersection of technology, education, and youth, and years of raising my own children and asking many of the same questions other parents are asking. My background began in computer science, but my work gradually moved toward a different question:

How do we help young people become capable, confident participants in the world they are growing into?

That question has taken me through learning and human development, constructionist and maker education, educational technology, learning experience design, teacher development, and university teaching. I co-founded a makerspace where I saw thousands of young people learn by building, experimenting, solving problems, and discovering what they were capable of. More recently, at UCI, I worked with students around technology, AI, identity, and human-centered design.

Across all of these experiences, and as a mother raising three children, I kept seeing the same thing.

Young people need more than school.

They need opportunities to understand what is possible, meet people whose lives and careers they can learn from, develop practical skills, try things before making major decisions, ask real questions, and learn how to navigate a world that is changing extraordinarily fast. And the adults supporting them need access too. Parents and caregivers cannot help young people navigate opportunities, education, careers, technology, and AI if they are trying to figure out that changing landscape alone.

That is why I started Us, the Village.

The idea is simple: bring people, knowledge, skills, experiences, and opportunities closer to young people and the adults supporting them.

Sometimes that means a conversation with someone who can show a teenager what a career actually looks like. Sometimes it means a workshop where young people build a skill they can use in the real world. Sometimes it means helping parents understand a new technology, pathway, or opportunity. And sometimes it simply means connecting people who would otherwise never find one another.

I don't believe empowerment comes from telling young people that they can do anything.

It comes from giving them enough knowledge, skills, exposure, support, and access to begin figuring out what they can do, and how to get there. Us, the Village exists to help make more of those connections possible.

Safoura Seddighin

Founder-Us, the Village