Go back

Jana Seidlova

Jana Seidlova

Director of Finance

First changemaking experience: In 5th grade I led a group of kids to help our senior community with daily chores like shopping and cleaning.

Jana’s superpower: Sensitivity to what other people are thinking and feeling.

Favorite place in the world: Jahodov, a small village in the Czech Republic

Favorite quote: Do all things with love. – Og Mandino

Born in the Czech Republic, Jana received her master’s degree in Finance Accounting for international trading companies at the University of Economics in Prague. Jana started her carrier in a private IT company in Prague to manage Finance and Accounting duties. Later she joined a local subsidiary of Unisys U.S. Corporation in Prague as an Accounting Manager and later as a Finance Deputy Director for Czech and Slovak Republics receiving “Unisys Excellence Achievement Award” as recognition of quality of work and achievements.. Prior to fully joining the Youth Venture Inc. team in 2008, Jana worked as a Senior Staff Accountant at Ashoka’s Global Finance team since 2002 with focus on Europe, MENA, and North America finances and later co-managing Shared Services team. Jana is currently working closely with Ashoka’s Global Finance on intracompany consolidations and she is also managing finances of Get America Working! Inc.. At Youth Venture Inc., Jana is responsible for all Finance, Accounting, HR and Admin duties.

Changemaker Identity

Based on our research, we have found that young people begin to see changemaking as a key part of their identity at this part of the journey.

Iteration

Young people tend to repeat this step multiple times before moving on to the next stage of the journey.

Organizations

Youth serving organizations in our network value changemaking culture for their employees as well as the young people they work with.  They help grow changemaker mindsets in their employees and provide opportunities for youth to practice empathy and changemaking at various points in their day.

Companies

Ashoka partners with the most innovative corporations ready to co-create a multi-faceted partnership that engages various parts of their business. Ashoka looks for corporations that embrace changemaking culture internally with their employees as well as within their broader business.

Over the years Ashoka Youth Years US has partnered with over 50 corporations to encourage tens of thousands of young people to become changemakers and grow changemaking culture within their businesses.

Media

Ashoka has many media partners that are dedicated to spreading the everyone a changemaker message. Some of our partners are below.

mtv logo
Forbes logo
The Christian Science Monitor Logo
Huffington Post logo
Bloomberg News logo

School districts

We live in a world of unprecedented change. How are we preparing students to navigate and contribute to this world? We need to re-imagine education to support teachers, parents, and administrators to prepare students to thrive in their rapidly changing world. Our partner School Districts commit to shifting their culture towards one that embraces changemaking by spending a school year integrating changemaking into the mindsets of their teachers, school curriculum, larger systems, and district culture.

A changemaker identity for educators and superintendents is one that will ensure resilience and creativity to overcome the classroom’s and district’s many obstacles. 

click here for resources specific to:

government

Ashoka has defined the field of social entrepreneurship around the idea of systems change. Our work as the Youth Years team continues this work by engaging with visionary policy makers at all levels to ensure that the outcomes which lead to an everyone a changemaker world are solidly embedded in the structure and systems of education in ways that support the next generations of changemakers.

UNIONS

The Unions with whom Ashoka works represent hundreds of thousands of nurses, teachers, paraprofessionals, higher education faculty and public employees who work day in and day out to teach our kids, keep our families healthy and improve our communities. Ashoka works closely with our unions partners and the communities they serve to create a future where everyone can discover their power to be a changemaker and where young people learn to thrive in this volatile and rapidly changing world.