How global virtual communities can help kids achieve their dreams | Matthew Garcia

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_04]: TED Audio Collective

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I want to tell you about an organization called CHI XR, founded by educator and entrepreneur CHI Frazier.

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_01]: CHI XR is a virtual education platform that seeks to make learning accessible to all.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Interest in students can sign up to take virtual reality field trips to the White House or the Louvre.

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Even the Great Barrier Reef, all without ever having to leave their neighborhoods.

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_01]: In the early days of COVID, when many of us were under strict lockdowns, this service was a hit.

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And it helped democratize access to virtual communities, experiences and ideas.

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm obviously excited about what CHI XR does, but I'm equally excited about who CHI Frazier is.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Because CHI is exactly the type of person who could have really made use of this service.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_01]: From being homeless at 16 to finding her way to the pages of Forbes magazine,

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_01]: CHI is a perfect example of the untapped potential on the other side of the digital divide.

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_01]: And her story demonstrates that people who have first-hand experience with challenges

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_01]: are often the ones who are best positioned to lead the way towards solutions.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Sherrell Dorsey and this is TED Tech.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Today, we'll hear from musician and entrepreneur Matthew Garcia on the promise of online education tools

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and how we can help every kid reach their full potential.

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Imagine this. In 2030, the CFO of a Fortune 100 company is a bot.

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[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm Dina Tempelrasten, the host of Click Here, a podcast from Recorded Future News.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_04]: Twice a week, we tell true stories about the people making and breaking our digital world.

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[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_04]: My paintings had been scraped to use as training data.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_04]: And the ugly of AI.

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_04]: Every week on Click Here from Recorded Future News.

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[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm the Latinx son of immigrants from a small Texas border town.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Growing up, I didn't have access to classical music and I never been to the symphony.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_00]: But I always knew that I wanted to play a string instrument.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_00]: So in sixth grade, when we got the opportunity to pick our instruments for orchestra class,

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I took one look at the viola and said, great, that'll work.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And as I began to play the instrument, I immediately fell in love with it.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Even though my middle score orchestra director was a fabulous bass teacher,

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_00]: she could only teach me so much on the viola.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And because there weren't any viola teachers in my town,

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_00]: to be able to play the things that I heard in my head,

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I turned to a teacher who seemed to know everything.

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_00]: YouTube.

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_00]: By watching countless hours of YouTube videos of the great virtuosos

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_00]: performing everything from Beethoven to the musical suite from Star Wars,

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00]: I tried to mimic their techniques and incorporate them into my own playing.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: With a few difficult years of practice,

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_00]: a lot of blood sweat and tears,

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_00]: and the endless support of an entire community of people who really, really wanted me to succeed.

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I began to play at places that I've never even dreamed of, like Carnegie Hall,

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_00]: and bring my music to audiences across four different continents.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_00]: It had been one of the most difficult learning experiences of my life,

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_00]: but one that proved an important point.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Anyone from anywhere can do incredible things,

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_00]: and you connect them with the knowledge and resources that they need to thrive.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: On my travels, I became friends with the elite young musicians who seemed to have all the resources.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Because they lived next to musical capitals like New York, Chicago or LA,

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: they set it at places like Juilliard on the weekends.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_00]: They watched your teachers perform major symphony orchestras,

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: and they had access to almost every musical opportunity that you can imagine right in their home communities.

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And even though I was proud of the hard work that I'd done to get to their level,

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I hated always feeling behind because I never had access to private lessons.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00]: So you can imagine how excited I was when I had the opportunity to take my first professional private lesson

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_00]: with one of the best violists in the world.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I just knew he'd be so excited about how much progress I'd made on my own

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: and encouraged me to become a professional musician.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: So it came as such a surprise when he told me to quit.

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_00]: He said kids like me who didn't start playing at an early age,

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: who didn't have access to private teachers and the best resources,

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: who didn't really understand how the classical music industry really operated

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_00]: generally could not make it as professional musicians.

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Now classical music is incredibly competitive,

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00]: and sometimes people with all the resources don't even make it.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm sure he thought he was doing me a favor, and maybe he was.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_00]: But I was shocked. It hurt.

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: But I didn't want to disrespect him so I smiled, said okay and left.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I was a 15 year old who loved playing the viola more than anything,

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: but in that moment I seriously considered putting my instrument away forever.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Now I'm 21 years old, and I couldn't be more grateful

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_00]: to have experienced that moment of discouragement

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: because it opened my eyes to the fact

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_00]: that 13 million children in the United States

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: who live outside of major U.S. cities,

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: pursuing a career in something like classical music, ballet, art,

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_00]: research, and many other historically exclusive fields

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: is incredibly more difficult if not practically impossible.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_00]: In classical music, for example,

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: people of color make up only around 15% of America's orchestras

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_00]: despite representing almost 42% of the U.S. population.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: So in some ways, I don't blame that viola teacher for telling me to quit.

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Music opportunities tend to cluster around major cities,

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_00]: especially the charities and nonprofits

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_00]: that try to help underserved students,

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_00]: and I just wasn't around them.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_00]: But people have talent everywhere,

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00]: and everybody deserves a chance to grow that talent

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: and share it with the world.

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Because when we allow people like me

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_00]: to systemically be prevented from entering into these competitive fields,

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: we uphold the elitist and exclusionary systems

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_00]: that allow so many children

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_00]: to be told that they're not worthy enough to pursue their dreams.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to change that.

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_00]: For many years, I had no clue how.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_00]: But when the COVID pandemic hit

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_00]: and our entire world went virtual,

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I saw an opportunity to help others learn music online

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: regardless of who they were,

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: or they lived,

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_00]: or what they could afford.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_00]: So I texted a few friends I knew from around the country

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_00]: and put together a founding team.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Together we reached out to 20 other musicians that we knew

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_00]: and asked each of them to teach a free virtual private lesson a week

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_00]: to an underserved young student.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_00]: This meant that students like Samuel Igbo,

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_00]: a 14-year-old violinist from a small town in Texas

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_00]: who dreams of pursuing a career as a concert violinist,

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: could receive personalized musical mentorship from Nicky Nagavi,

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_00]: a prize-winning violinist at the New England Conservatory.

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: My idea inspired and connected hundreds of people

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: from all walks of life to offer their time and expertise

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_00]: to aspiring musicians like Sam from around the country.

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And now, just two and a half years later,

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_00]: this little idea has turned into through the staff,

[00:08:17] [SPEAKER_00]: a national nonprofit that has provided almost $600,000

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_00]: of free virtual private lessons

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_00]: to almost 1,000 young musicians from Fresno, California

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_00]: to Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't realize it,

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: but I'd accidentally started a virtual nonprofit.

[00:08:35] [SPEAKER_00]: We didn't just use the internet to deliver our services.

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Our organization existed on the internet

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: because our program was run entirely by volunteers

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_00]: from around the country who worked together

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_00]: for a common cause despite never meeting once in person.

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Because our students and teachers

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_00]: could learn from each other online wherever they were,

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_00]: geographic boundaries no longer mattered.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_00]: This digital workspace meant virtually no startup

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_00]: or scaling costs,

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_00]: so we've been able to grow and make incredible changes

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_00]: with a budget of only $9,000 over two and a half years.

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_00]: It was only after I began to see this profound potential

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_00]: for impact that I realized that virtual organizations

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_00]: can help us better distribute educational resources

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_00]: directly to those who have benefited from them the most.

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And at this work in classical music,

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I figured it could work in other places too,

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_00]: this time in academic research.

[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_00]: When I began to explore biological research

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_00]: in my second year of college,

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I remember trying to find a mentor

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_00]: and being discouraged to only see white male researchers.

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Just like in music, this trend is systemic.

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Only 15% of all doctoral researchers

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_00]: were Native American, African American, or Hispanic.

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to change that,

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_00]: and I knew that the virtual nonprofit model

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_00]: that I had already developed could make a difference here too.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I could start something that could help generations

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_00]: of future young researchers break into academia.

[00:10:07] [SPEAKER_00]: So in 2021, my best friend and I gathered a founding team

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_00]: of 31 college students

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_00]: and started another virtual nonprofit

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_00]: called the Pre-College Research Institute.

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Together we've created four 32-hour virtual research courses

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_00]: that have taught, trained, and inspired

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_00]: 160 high school students of color

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_00]: from Clerk's Dork, South Africa to New Delhi, India

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_00]: to Alpharetta, Georgia.

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_00]: If I could break down barriers in access to music

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_00]: and academic research, anyone can do it anywhere.

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_00]: That's exactly what makes virtual nonprofits so powerful.

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_00]: They transcend geographic boundaries

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_00]: and bring opportunities to those

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_00]: who would literally never otherwise have them.

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_00]: They're a new way to find and connect the world

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_00]: to a huge source of untapped talent

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_00]: and a necessary step to nurturing the future of these industries.

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is the future that will not only change

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_00]: the fabric of these institutions,

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_00]: but ensure they survive and prosper for years to come.

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_00]: And as more and more children are connected to the opportunities

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_00]: and knowledge and resources that they need

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_00]: to chase their dreams,

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited to see the people that lead every industry

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_00]: look a lot more like the world around them.

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I know this transformation can happen,

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_00]: but I can't do it alone.

[00:11:27] [SPEAKER_00]: So if you have an idea or interest

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_00]: for how to make a historically inaccessible field more equitable,

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_00]: grab a few friends, brainstorm a way that you can break down the barriers in your field,

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_00]: and start a virtual nonprofit.

[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_00]: You may never meet the majority of the people that you serve,

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_00]: but the effects of your hard work

[00:11:45] [SPEAKER_00]: will touch them in ways that they will never forget.

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_01]: TED Tech is part of the TED Audio Collective.

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_01]: This episode was produced by Isabel Carter,

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_01]: who also wrote it with me, Cheryl Dorsey.

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Our editor is Jimmy Gutierrez,

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_01]: and the show is fact-checked by Christiana Aparta.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Special thanks to Farah de Grunge for her support as a project manager.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Cheryl Dorsey. Let's keep digging into the future.

[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Join me next week for more.