Ezza Naveed: Social Entrepreneur, Learning Designer, and Segall Innovation Fellow Shaping the Future of Education
Show Notes:
In this episode of The Slow Dive Podcast, host Farida Rafique engages with Ezza Naveed, a social entrepreneur, learning designer, and Segall Innovation Fellow whose work bridges education, empathy, and imagination.
Ezza shares her journey from Pakistan to the Bay Area, and how she built transformative initiatives like the Young Leaders’ Program in partnership with Urraan and the Imagination Lab, launched through the Segall Innovation Fellowship, to empower immigrant and underrepresented youth as changemakers. Now serving as the School Community Outreach Lead and Learning Designer at #HalfTheStory, she focuses on advancing digital wellbeing for middle and high school students.
Together, Farida and Ezza explore how social entrepreneurship, creativity, and community can shape meaningful change, emphasizing the importance of empathy, personal growth, and engaging deeply with our communities to create a more connected world.
A conversation on imagination, equity, and empowering young changemakers around the world.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Imagination and Impact
01:48 Joy and Personal Connections
04:43 The Journey of a Learning Designer
06:35 Happenstance and Synchronicity in Life
12:31 The Minerva Experience and Its Impact
15:34 Creating Change in Pakistan
17:49 Standout Stories of Transformation
23:30 The Reception of the Young Leaders Program
27:33 The Drive for Social Entrepreneurship
28:46 Empathy and Purpose in Action
34:59 The Siegel Innovation Fellowship Experience
42:07 Digital Well-Being and Youth Empowerment
47:01 Skills for Aspiring Change Makers
50:02 Future Goals and Aspirations
Takeaways:
Ezza Naveed embodies the spirit of social entrepreneurship and community building.
The importance of personal connections and joy in our lives.
Learning design is about creating engaging and compelling learning experiences.
Happenstance and synchronicity play crucial roles in our journeys.
The Minerva experience shaped Ezza's perspective on education and opportunity.
Creating change in Pakistan requires understanding the disparities in educational access.
Standout stories from the Young Leaders Program highlight the transformative power of education.
The reception of the Young Leaders Program has been overwhelmingly positive.
Empathy and purpose are essential in social entrepreneurship.
The Segall Innovation Fellowship provided Ezza with the resources to impact immigrant students.
ABOUT EZZA NAVEED
Call to Action: She is always seeking like-minded educators and changemakers from around the world, especially those working with vulnerable and low-income students in Pakistan.
Follow her work on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enaveed
Ezza Naveed is the Inaugural Segall Innovation Fellow, through which she received funding and launched the Imagination Lab, which is a social entrepreneurship program for immigrant high school students in Massachusetts. She also founded the "Young Leaders' Program," a fellowship in partnership with Urraan, in Pakistan. YLP is a free program in northern Pakistan that has trained 900+ students to become local changemakers by developing their social-emotional, leadership, and technical skills (such as coding or graphic design).
She is also a Global Social Impact House 2024 Fellow through the University of Pennsylvania and an Oval Office Fellow 2024 at Harvard Kennedy School. She graduated in May 2024 with her Ed.M. from Harvard University. She graduated in 2021 from Minerva University with her B.Sc. in Cognition, Brain, and Behavior, through which she lived and studied on four continents and in 5 countries.
Currently, she works as the School Community Outreach Lead and Learning Designer at #HalfTheStory, a nonprofit focused on digital wellbeing in middle and high school students.
In her free time, she loves mentoring young people, rollerblading, riding bicycles, and writing poetry."
