Gino Pastori-Ng
Main profile
Gino was born and raised in Oakland, California, a city that provided profound life lessons on culture and social justice. The powerful connection between the former and the latter was illuminated throughout his childhood at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley. His formal education took place at UC Santa Cruz, where walks through the forest cultivated a passion for environmental stewardship, and a summer abroad in Barcelona inspired an insatiable appetite for global exploration. After completing a B.A. in psychology, Gino spent 2 years in South America and Asia, teaching English, learning Spanish and Portuguese, attempting to learn Mandarin, and photographing everything in between.
Back in his hometown, he supported the launch of a new elementary school in East Oakland and educated thousands of California voters about environmental action before finding his purpose in youth social entrepreneurship. Based on the belief that the people most impacted by the problems are the ones best equipped to create innovative and sustainable solutions, he co-founded Youth SEED (Youth Social Entrepreneurship for Equitable Development) to support youth in low-income communities in launching their own social enterprise projects. Based on the success of Youth SEED, he co-founded Youth Impact Hub Oakland in 2014, as the first co-working space for youth-led innovation in a global network of over 70 Hubs. Gino is a tree hugging hip-hop artist and aspiring yogi striving to find creative ways to unite his passions for social justice, mindfulness, environmental awareness and youth development to accelerate human evolution.
Act from the heart, don't fear the law.
Prepared to fly, cause I dare to fall.
Walking might seem daunting, only if you're scared to crawl.