Asking for What You Want . . . with Shirin Laor-Raz Salemnia

Creative Innovators with Gigi Johnson

Question: What can you do with focus on drive in both toys and STEM? And what can a persistent Shirin Salemnia do?

Guest: Shirin Laor-Raz Salemnia, Founder and CEO, WhizGirls Academy and PlayWerks

Shirin shares a passionate tale of drive, success with extreme persistence, and then designing new businesses to give back. She talks about her journey through college, Mattel, MGA/Bratz, and building her two current businesses. She didn't take no for an answer -- and said no many times to missions that pulled on her coattails. She is one of our more driven guests, not taking no from guidance counselors, security guards, and many other people in her life. The movie Big set her on her mission and voices as distinctive as Deepak Chopra and Simon Sinek inspired her to her current paths of giving back.

Our Guest

Shirin Laor-Raz Salemnia is the Founder and CEO of PlayWerks and the founder of WhizGirls Academy. PlayWerks is an interactive media company that creates high quality multi-platform immersive games and experiences that engage children and adults. WhizGirls Academy is where students engage in project based learning and gamification that help them with tech and digital literacy while acquiring coding skills, entrepreneurship tools, and building confidence and growing as members of their communities with a healthy balanced lifestyle slant.

In 2013, she hosted the first Hackathon for Women and Girls with The White House Council of Women and Girls. In May 2014, she hosted the Kids Hack for LA in collaboration with Mayor Eric Garcetti, the White House, and will.i.am's i.am.angel Foundation. Also in 2014, Shirin gave her Ted Talk "Are You a Gamer or a Gardener?" at the TedxYouth conference in Los Angeles, CA.

She is currently teaching Tech for Social Impact/Entrepreneurship at USC School of Engineering/(ITP)Viterbi. In December 2014, Shirin joined President Obama, the First Lady, and Vice President Joe Biden along with hundreds of college presidents and other higher education leaders at the "Reach Higher Summit" at the White House to announce the commitment to serve 25,000 inner city children and adults nationwide.

The first WhizGirls Academy Mobile Tech Tour event with Mayor Garcetti in South Central Los Angeles in December 2014, was attended by 1500 people. More recently, in March of 2015 Shirin was honored by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin as 2015 LA City Pioneer Woman of the Year. Check out his write up and her appearance at the Getty House with Mayor Garcetti (Check out the 12th pic). In October 2015, She was honored as a Tribeca Disruptor Innovation Fellow.

In March 2016 she was honored as IJWO Woman of the Year.

Mentioned Links

• Twitter @ShirinSalemnia
• Facebook @ShirinLaorRazSalemnia
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/shirin-laor-raz-salemnia-a95381
• WhizGirls Academy: http://whizgirlsacademy.com/
• TEDxYouth Talk: Are You a Gamer or a Gardener? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJvOSG9A6O4
• Mattel: https://corporate.mattel.com/en-us
• MGA & Bratz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bratz
• Jetsetter by Shag: https://www.artcollectorz.com/artworks/artwork-detail?artwork_id=2544&edition_id=3375
• Jordan Mechner: https://www.jordanmechner.com/
• Oviatt Library at Cal State Northridge: https://library.csun.edu/
• Jack Dangermon at ESRI: https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/author/jdangermond/
• The Movie Big: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_(film)

Timecode

• 00:06 Introduction
• 03:17 PlayWerks, Tom Hanks, and College Choices
• 05:13 WhizGirls Academy and hackathons
• 06:25 Arc-GIS and Esri
• 12:15 Career Centers and Conflict
• 12:59 Persian Parents
• 15:09 Nutrition?
• 16:02 Finding Toy People
• 18:06 Walking Into Mattel
• 19:23 Super Persistent
• 21:18 Interviewing at Mattel
• 23:44 Deepak Chopra and Crisis
• 25:49 Choosing Options and Saying Yes
• 28:51 General Assembly and Persistence
• 31:10 Success? Self-Metrics
• 33:09 When Do You Close Doors
• 35:24 Everyone Has a Mission

Our Mission

Through our guests’ stories, we aim to inspire current and future change agents who are creatives, entrepreneurs, researchers, or community leaders who are seeking inspiration and support around creative innovation — changing the ways we create, collaborate, engage, change lives, and build communities.

Your Host: Gigi Johnson, EdD

I run transformative programs, speak/moderate, invest, advise, and produce multimedia on creativity and technology. I taught for 22 years at UCLA, where I ran the Center for Music Innovation and the podcast "Innovating Music," built four industry-connecting programs, and taught undergraduates, MBAs, and executives about disruption in creative industries. Before UCLA, I financed media M&A at Bank of America for ten years.

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Sponsored and Produced by the Maremel Institute