Moonshot Community Spotlight: Jadyn Nguyen
We are thrilled to spotlight members of our community doing hard, beautiful, and important work. Our Moonshot Community Spotlight blog series highlights people, beyond Moonshot Fellows, who have been impacted or involved with Moonshot leaders and their organizations.
Today, we highlight Jadyn Nguyen, a relationship-driven leader and an advocate for equitable education, who has worked with many Moonshot Fellows and their organizations, including Cory Montalvo via YEBO, Wisdom Amouzou via Empower Community High School, TeRay Esquibel via Ednium, and more. Check out his story below.
My name is Jadyn Nguyen. I graduated high school in 2019, and I believe the key to this universe is being your full self. My path so far hasn’t included attending a traditional four-year college because I couldn’t quite afford it and because I felt like my calling was to stay in my community of Denver and help contribute my talents.
In high school, I was a part of the Colorado Youth Congress (CYC) where I got to practice things like public speaking, relationship building, and community organizing. It was through CYC that I was introduced to Moonshot Fellow Cory Montalvo (Cohort 1). He invited me to serve as a student design partner for his startup media non-profit called YEBO.
Once I graduated, I was offered a part-time role at YEBO, where I was tasked with launching my own podcast! YEBO believes in self-determination, as such, they gave me professional grade-recording equipment, and I was off to the races. I created “The Superhero Mindset,” a show that argues that people don’t need to be fully prepared to successfully face the challenges life throws at them. Like our favorite superheroes, we must confront our villains to realize the full potential of our powers.
On top of my podcast with YEBO, I was offered an opportunity to help facilitate a podcast elective at a new school: Empower Community High School, which was co-founded by Moonshot Fellow Wisdom Amouzou (Cohort 1). This was during the start of the COVID lock down, where educators across the nation were trying to find ways to connect and relate with students. The COVID context helped to inform YEBO’s next move which was to pilot video games as a means of developing relationships and relational equity with our virtual learners.
Jadyn (left) with members of the Moonshot Community! Alejandro Fuentes Mena (Cohort 2), Luis Antezana Alba (Cohort 4, founder of Juntos), and Tania Chairez (Cohort 3, founder of Convivir Colorado)
I went on to spend roughly 2 ½ years at YEBO, climbing to full-time Program Manager. During that time, I designed an elective curriculum with our CU Boulder research partners; “The Remix” put our learners in the driver's seat for exploring video game ecologies. I helped raised $20,000 for organization from grant applications. YEBO was eventually designed to focus fully on podcast production, and I was ready to move on to the next chapter. Since then, I’ve fully produced and launched my own podcast.
At this point of transition, I began to question my place and where I wanted to be in the future. I reflected on what I had enjoyed from the past year. I was fortunate to have done one-off consulting-esque work with organizations like Formation Ventures, co-founded by Moonshot Fellow Brian Lightfoot (Cohort 2), and even facilitated some workshops for Moonshot Cohorts 5 and 6.
I’ve always been a fan of mission driven organizations, and I was following Ednium: The Alumni Collective, co-founded by Moonshot Fellow TeRay Esquibel (Cohort 4), super closely because they were building impressive momentum. In my free time, I’m often learning about related organizations that are mission-driven and do positive youth development work.
Jadyn with Destiny Hardney (Cohort 5), co-founder of the Dream, Create, Inspire Tour
It’s at this time I notice that most organizations are not yet consistently posting social media content. I decided to take a leap and launch a business where I can help these organizations consistently post value-driven social media content. My first client ended up becoming Ednium because I developed a relationship with them and attended their early events (ex: DPS Alumni Bowlero Bowling, fun fact I actually pitched them the idea for Top Golf as their next big outing).
Four years ago, I applied to be in the Moonshot Fellowship, and while I didn’t get in, I’ve still become a part of the Moonshot family over the years. I’ve been able to interface and fall in love with the programming of many Moonshot organizations because these amazing founders have clarity on their “why.”
Moonshot team members and Fellows share a deep sense of purpose, and they’re a part of a supportive community. I’m incredibly grateful to Moonshot for existing and supporting the development of these founders. Moonshot has impacted my life as well as the countless people who get to benefit from their operations and commitment to the community.
Working with Jadyn
Jadyn Nguyen is available to collaborate with! He can curate values-driven social media content for your community, allowing you to dedicate your resources to the core functions of your organization; edit podcasts; and consult on youth development organizations. Please feel free to follow him on Instagram, add him on LinkedIn, and/or reach out at jadyndrpenkhay@gmail.com