Civic Leadership Forum “How to Talk So Teens Will Listen” Parents Workshop on Apr. 17th attracted nearly 500 parents.

Our Youth mentors:

Carl Shan is the son of immigrants from mainland China. His family moved to the Bay Area when he was 5 years old. He grew up navigating the two different cultures, and often fought with his parents. Now that Carl is an older (and slightly wiser) 28 years-old, he volunteers as a workshop leader to help parents understand their teens and build stronger, healthier relationships. He spent 3 years working as a high school teacher, where he developed many techniques for supporting teens while holding them accountable. He holds a BA in Statistics from UC Berkeley and works as a Senior Data Scientist at LinkedIn. His workshops have reached over 1,500 parents.

Christie Lin grew up in the Bay Area and Taipei before moving to the East Coast to attend Harvard. While in college, she encountered many Asian American peers who struggled with mental health despite their outward “success.” Many of their challenges were tied to their relationships with their parents, and she began to see intergenerational communication as critical to the mental wellbeing of many young adults. After graduating, Christie moved back to the Bay Area, where she ran panels and other initiatives to share the 2nd generation experience with parents. She now works at BetterUp, a startup that helps individuals build self-awareness and communication skills through coaching.

Cat Xu has spent most of her time in the Bay Area – she grew up in Cupertino, studied human-computer interaction at Stanford, and now lives in San Francisco where she works (remotely) as a product manager at LinkedIn. She’s passionate about bridging intergenerational gaps, and building healthy and fulfilling relationships within Asian-American families. She believes good communication is the key to a good relationship, and has taught communication workshops in China and San Francisco.

Chloe grew up in the East Bay, studied Statistics and Computer Science at UC Berkeley, and now works as a Senior Software Engineer at a nonprofit tech company. As a teen, Chloe had repeated awful fights with her mother over small things and felt a deep loss of connection. Now, after having spent many years improving communication with her parents and healing wounds from her teenage years, she is passionate about helping other families similarly rebuild their relationships. She has previously conducted workshops with parents in the Bay Area on how to connect with their teenage children across generational and cultural gaps.

Carlos Gao grew up in Northern California and went to a highly competitive high school. Carlos received a degree in software engineering from Harvard University. He worked at Facebook for four years and then went to work for Google. Carlos’ hobbies include basketball, playing piano, and singing karaoke.

Civic Leadership Forum “How to Talk So Teens Will Listen” Parents Workshop is organized by Silicon Valley Innovation Chanel -Ding Ding TV, Civic Leadership USA, and RICE Helping Families.