can go to school and change the world
you see as a little kid like most kids I
had no idea what I wanted to do when I
grow up actually my only real hobby was
creating these silly films with my
friends and looking back what was really
cool about filmmaking was that no two
days were the same filmmaking is you
realize pretty soon a matter of solving
unique problems in novel ways for
instance this one time I wanted to take
a dolly shot a dolly is just a little
card you put your camera on it and you
can follow a target very cinematically
and the thing is I didn’t have $300 to
rent a dolly but that didn’t stop me
instead I rented a wheelchair and do the
same shot from the wheelchair for $10
instead right and it was moments like
this that sparked something in my head
that it is in my power to solve problems
and I wished that there was some way to
take the things I imagined and build
them but how I was always fascinated
about how technology is driving change
in our world how previously unthinkable
breakthroughs are possible today because
of technology so it became clear that my
next big challenge would be to learn
understand and leverage technology to
take those ideas from my movie scripts
and build them in our world so I did a
natural thing I hopped onto a plane I
landed in Silicon Valley and I locked
myself into something called a coding
boot camp for three months straight my
taste looked a mix between algorithms
creating my own project sitting cheap
fast food all of it and it was awesome
because with a few lines of code you are
able to solve real-world problems by the
time I finish this I was missing college
classes and I wanted to go back to my
university friends I wanted to share
this new world with them but the
challenge was people are afraid of
technology people are afraid of
technology I heard it all from I
struggled mathematics in high school
this is probably not something for me –
I’m the creative type but in the
following months I have taught
programming to hundreds of university
students and I have not found one
that is not able to learn how to code if
their mind is set on it it is important
it is a rewarding and empowering
experience and most important most
importantly the world needs you look at
this nine hundred thousand a big number
not only because I used my biggest
PowerPoint PowerPoint one friend but
this is the shortage of IT professionals
in the European Union that we need by
2020 these are people that we lack and
it’s a shame
because without these people we are
missing out on innovation we are missing
out on solving problems that could have
otherwise be solved it’s really a shame
and then here’s the number B another big
number a million what does this one step
for we have seen and heard how our world
has a big crisis that people have to
flee their homes because of injustice
and because of war more than a million
refugees have reached the shores of
euros of Europe in 2015 alone people
that want to start a new life in our
communities and I’ll put yourself in my
shoes
imagine you’re in this red spot and
you’re thinking there’s a huge IT crisis
nine hundred thousand specialists are
needed and we lack and there is a
million people that want to start again
nine hundred thousand 1 million now I’m
not crazy I’m not saying we should match
all of them but what if we could match
some of them as it turns out if you put
two big problems together
you don’t necessarily end up with a huge
one yet our world is increasingly
controlled by the wealthiest and their
wealth when have we decided that money
is the currency that dictates somebody’s
future opportunities why is it that in a
globally connected world
the best education in the world is not
that it’s not accessible to everyone
well I believe that we should try to
build a world in which greed and passion
are more valuable than money and on this
foundation
something called restart network came to
be a coding bootcamp for Refugees that
takes people with no IT background and
over three months of hard core
programming helps them start a new life
you see what’s really cool about this is
that it is completely crowd-sourced it’s
the idea that if you have the aim of
helping a million people you do not need
a million dollar to start from the
community is driving it and as I was
teaching this boot camp I had a chance
to be in front of these newcomers and
teach them programming I realized that
having access to education is not enough
because think about it last night I took
this USB stick and I could literally
download the whole Wikipedia database in
English all the English articles are in
my hand you could argue the immensity of
human knowledge is in my hands
but would it do any good if I take this
USB stick and I give it to somebody here
we did do any good if I go on an
airplane and I starts throwing this USB
sticks over some developing country we
know the answer because there is
something missing we also miss access to
equal opportunity we miss the chance for
these people that acquire new skills to
use them to solve problems around them
to study wording careers we must give
people the chance to work hard for
something that they are passionate about
so restart Network ask the world are you
going to join us on our mission to make
world-class tech education a reality for
anyone and the world responded from
industry-leading tech companies to
experts to people like us it proved that
we can come together to solve problems
that matter to all of us because we
truly rise by lifting others and
something like crystal network does not
solve the crisis it’s just a little part
of the solution if you look in the world
today there are more refugees than
during the second world war if you look
in the world today there are more
refugees than during the second world
where
but what gives me tremendous hope for
the future is seeing our first class of
students graduate more than half of them
already have internship or job offers
and all of them are empowered and more
confident to tackle the issues around
them many more of these classes are on
the way and look don’t get the wrong
message this is not our only problem
that we lack IT specialists and there is
a refugee crisis in fact if you look in
the world today 900 million people
cannot read or write more than a billion
people do not have access to clean water
they do not have access to electricity
what can we do about that
I think it starts with a simple
realization that a project like restart
network was set up by a team of
university students myself included our
average age was 21 but it did not matter
because for the first time in our
history it is possible for people like
us to have an impact in the world it is
possible for small teams of both
thinkers to leverage technology start
small but aim to have a global impact so
we can solve really big problems as long
as we understand the power of working
together so what problem are you going
to solve thank you you
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