ABOUT US
TechShift is an alliance of Student Member Organizations, Volunteers and Board Members who help bring our vision of a fairer technological future to life.
WHO WE ARE.
Founded in 2017, TechShift supports student organizations leading initiatives at the intersection of technology and social impact by providing mentoring, resources, and funding made possible by our alliance of 35 member organizations across 3 continents.
OUR MISSION.
We empower students to shift technology’s role towards bettering society and equitably serving all people in it by supporting student groups to organize initiatives in their communities; and by building a powerful alliance that shares in our vision of a fairer, more just technological future.
OUR STORY.
TechShift began as an experiment in 2014 at Stanford University. Over the following years, Stanford CS+Social Good has grown into one of the largest groups on campus, shifting the conversation around technology at Stanford. In 2017, students from Brown University joined with Stanford CS+Social Good to launch their own organization on Brown’s campus, and an inter-organizational alliance began to form. The alliance has continued to grow with the aim of empowering students at every college and university to shift technology’s unfolding narrative to one that equitably serves all people in it.
Technology is not neutral or impartial. Technological innovation both influences and is influenced by societal structures. We believe that the current wave of technological development can – and is – being used to create a more just society. We also understand, however, the dangers of technological innovation led by select groups of people without consideration of societal effects or public input.
We seek to empower a new generation of leaders working at the intersection of technology and social impact. We believe young people have a critical role in expanding the use of technology as a force for good and building a more socially responsible tech industry.
As students, we have an important role in shaping the future of technology. Many of us represent future engineers, designers, and leaders of Silicon Valley. Through work at our respective universities, we have the power to shift how hundreds of thousands of students understand the role of society in constructing and responding to technology. As a collective, we are powerful in a way that no single person, school, or group can be. We will ignite new conversations by bringing people together across schools, and use our voices to shape our own educations, the national conversation, and industry.
PERSPECTIVE
“How could we—a community of young developers, designers, engineers and educators—better understand and impact of what we build on the world around us? and what are our responsibilities to address these impacts?”
—TechShift Alliance