The Innovation Fund is a four-week crowdfunding competition that gives VFA Fellows the opportunity to launch their business ideas and projects. Eleven Fellow-led teams are off to the races sharing their new ventures with the world and hustling to raise as much money as possible on Indiegogo.
Kelly graduated from Barnard College in 2015 with a degree in Economics and a minor in Psychology. Born in Los Angeles, she moved to South Korea at the age of 12 and is no stranger to airports. At Floyd, a Detroit-based furniture company, Kelly splits her time between supply chain operations and customer experience. Through All About That Paradigm Shift, she is working to create a movement to help people achieve a deeper level of self-awareness about themselves and the world we live in.
I was biking to the gym one afternoon in Detroit when I was catcalled not once, but twice within the span of a minute. As I pedaled away as quickly as possible, a combination of frustration and confusion circulated in my mind. Why did these individuals think catcalling was acceptable? The next morning, I recounted the previous day with my co-worker, Jacky, and came to the conclusion that people grow up adopting different norms of what is acceptable (in this scenario, that women are objects) and act from there.
He replied, “Yeah, I’m all about that paradigm shift.”
What started as an idea for a catchy t-shirt or tote design turned into our current crowdfunding campaign. All About That Paradigm Shift is a movement to crowdfund and crowdsource a deck of cards to help people have conversations about difficult topics like race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status (and so much more). The most critical aspect is that the public is the one providing their own experiences and viewpoints.
Our goal for All About That Paradigm Shift is that individuals will use the cards on their own for self-reflection or with a group of friends, strangers even. We’ve found that each time the cards were used, people walked away with a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them. We believe this is start of a foundation for change, to break down barriers and stigmas that we all have. Beyond conversations amongst friends and family, we also hope to implement this tool within schools, community spaces, and even with institutions like law enforcement.
We recognize that we live in an age when debates over political correctness can overshadow tackling the heart of difficult issues. We know that a method to facilitate and have these sorts of conversations is invaluable. As a team, we have invested in brainstorming the best ways to approach it and came to a simple, but profound conclusion: the greatest potential for change comes from understanding the experiences of each other. After someone backs our campaign, we follow up with a survey in which the individual can submit their own experience or perspective on a wide range of social issues.
While we’ve reached our Indiegogo campaign goal of $1000 (thanks to all of our amazing supporters!), the conversation is just beginning. We need as many of your individual experiences as possible to make this campaign an even more diverse and thought-provoking platform for engaging in these discussions.
Our team held our first public workshop this past Saturday. A group of relative strangers sat down together at a table, created their own cards, and engaged in discussion for hours. One participant concluded, “We all have so much that we carry with us every day and I think it’s incredible how much we were able to share. I wish there were more opportunities to walk into a room and say ‘this is where I’m coming from.’” Indeed. Here’s to many more paradigm shifts.