Home/Impact
ImpactFor thirteen years, Hua Zhang has worked across education research, school partnerships, parent education and international exchange.
Co-led, with the Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences, a Ministry of Education research project on student innovation in “Internet + Education”; YouthMBA organized the first National Innovative Project Design Contest for Primary Students.
Co-founded the New Learning Revolution forum with Minerva University; led Chinese students on exchanges to the HPI d.school in Germany and was invited to its d.confestival.
More than 5,000 families have joined the Prep Program, and 12 schools and organizations have used it to rethink learning and growth for the next generation.
Eight years as a business and profile journalist at Southern Weekly, reporting from ten countries and more than a hundred cities and towns. After becoming a father in 2011, he began asking entrepreneurs how they raised their children. Their answers became the starting point for YouthMBA Academy.
YouthMBA Academy started with eight people and three ideas: liberal education, design thinking and the real world. It was one of the first teams in China to apply design thinking systematically to youth education.
David Kelley Founder of the Stanford d.school and IDEO
Co-led a Ministry of Education research project with the Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences, co-hosted forums with Minerva University and took Chinese students to the HPI d.school in Germany. Partner schools included Beijing Shijia Primary School, Fuxue Hutong Primary School and Shanghai Pinghe School.
Left: the 2016 Ministry of Education project approval. Right: the 2017 HPI d.confestival in Germany.
China’s “double reduction” policy and the pandemic shook the whole industry. On New Year’s Day 2022, Hua Zhang began livestreaming every morning, setting out on a social experiment: 2,000 livestreams in ten years.
Based in Singapore, he studies how children learn in the age of AI and brings what works to Chinese-speaking families and schools.
The AI Future Ready School program launched at the 2025 World AI Conference
“YouthMBA uses Stanford’s design thinking to help students become more creative and more confident.”
David Kelley
Founder, Stanford d.school
“Hua Zhang is a Chinese education innovator I greatly admire: forward-thinking, action-oriented and truly student-centered.”
Ulrich Weinberg
Chair, Global Design Thinking Alliance (GDTA)
“Using AI to rethink how students learn, and helping ordinary students excel, is an innovation well worth learning from.”
Frank Yuan
Director, ACT China AI Future School Certification
Over 50,000 copies sold; a China Teachers’ Daily Book of the Year pick
For learners in the age of AI
The ideas and practice behind YouthMBA
Three volumes, Zhejiang Education Publishing House
Published by Murmann (Germany) in English and German. YouthMBA is one of 30 design thinking cases from around the world, with 14 pages.