Laïlani Ridjali

Destins Liés (or Linked Fates) is a grassroots movement led by people who are faced with inequalities and discriminations first hand and who want to organize and get training in order to build communities based on justice, dignity and mutual assistance.

We offer two training programs :

- The Student Power Program provides training to college students who would like to fight student precariousness. They benefit from a one-year curriculum that will allow them to develop their leadership skills, and master the tools of Public Affairs and defense speech to build power.

- The Melian Leadership Program is a high-level training program dedicated to young people who are faced with inequalities in France. They can be involved in different kind of social impact activities (as volunteers or activists for example) and/or non-profit leaders.

My missions include the following :

• Supervision of the Communications team

• Framing of our internal policy

• Continuing education in Community Organizing

• Workshop facilitation (online and offline)

• Wrote the pilot and bible of a half-hour TV show (dramedy) : interviews, personal statements, character descriptions, narrative arcs, season and episode outlines + research through TV series, movies, books, podcasts, documentaries, music, press articles...

• Development of my first short film : writing, funding, shooting prep (location scouting, casting...)

• Script consultant, translator and live interpreter (French/English)

• May-Jun + Oct-Dec 2022 : Member of the selection committee for the Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, a fund managed by the CNC & the Institut français that is dedicated to co-productions between France and other countries

• Jul-Aug 2022 : 2nd assistant director on the shooting of a five-minute promotional short film for the Westfield Euralille mall (Northern France), in partnership with Vice and Lyly Films
• Nov 11-14, 2021 : Co-led a short film writing workshop for seven people over four days with a fellow Kourtrajmé former student during the 2021 Instagram Creators Campus at La Caserne in Paris

• Jan 2021 : location manager and extra for a two-day Nikon Film Festival shooting (Alexia Hanicotte's "Invisible") + script supervisor for another short competing in the same contest (Éloïse Monmirel's "Tu veux être qui?")

Datteltäter Academy is a program for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People Of Color) content creators mainly based in Germany and Austria. The initiative was launched in 2021 by the team at Datteltäter (the most popular Muslim YouTube channel in Germany) to support young artists contributing to social discourse.

In addition to getting a platform for their work, fellows benefit from targeted mentorship and a rigorous workshop series. They produce a final project tackling an issue of their choosing throughout the entire program.

• Launching of a web-series of short documentaries : creation of the pilot, interviews, shooting, editing, presentation in front of a 300-people audience in Berlin, promotion on Instagram

Located in the heart of Paris, the PwC Experience Center is a creative agency leveraging design thinking to fuel innovation, build unique customer and employee experiences, as well as bolster digital transformation.

I worked on the Marketing & Communication initiatives linked to the project, but also on our offers to startups and other innovation topics (event organization, collaboration with the press and social media teams for publications on PwC's Décryptages magazine).

Part of the Brand, Marketing & Communication Department :

• Handled the edition of studies, the organization of internal & external events, digital campaigns, sales support and CRM databases.

• Worked on several sectors : Government & Public Sector, Transaction Advisory Services, Life Sciences, Power & Utilities, Oil & Gas, Consumer Products & Retail and Diversified Industrial Products.

Winner of the 2015 Google Impact Challenge, Ticket for Change is a French startup encouraging talents of all ages to change our society through entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship by helping them to turn their ideas into actions.

I got the opportunity to take on several assignments :

• Mobilized local partners (Auchan, Groupe VITAMINE T, Adeo…)

• Prepared the two-day stop-over of the 2016 Ticket for Change Tour de France in the Lille area (for 100 people)

International Communications Department :

• Helped to organize a global internal seminar that was held in Milan
• Ran an initiative fostering best practices sharing within the Mazarian community (26 proposals received from 12 countries in nine categories)
• Handled the community management for a global internal contest

• Edited leaflets

• Overhauled the interior guiding system of a clinic

• Organized a medical gathering

Group Human Resources Department :

• Contributed to the preparation of the 1st TEDxAix conference (500 audience members)

• Took part in the launching of the Mazars University platform and in the organization of an internal conference in Berlin (gathering more than 700 partners from 70 countries)

University Cooperation for the Embassy of France in Washington D.C.

• Ran an information campaign about the French higher education system (did interventions in five universities of Florida, individual interviews...)

• Provided technical support to our users (email/telephone)
• Gathered feedback to improve our service and the customer experience as well

• Welcomed clients, booked appointments, sorted the mail out, filed documents, updated the contacts list
• Executed reception desk operations : entered credit cards, handed checkbooks over, did cash withdrawals

• Crafted a business offer form to promote the new NORPAC manufacturing process
• Wrote a complete report and a PowerPoint presentation (both of them in English) about the BREEAM, an international environmental certification

Kourtrajmé Film School was founded in 2018 by Academy Award Nominee Ladj Ly (Director of "Les Misérables").

Attended the three-month long curriculum designed to teach aspiring screenwriters the basics of the craft and guide them in the completion of their own short film scenario. Then became part of the Directing & Editing Track that provides students with an exhaustive set of tools to direct a movie, from production planning techniques to the final piece editing.

• Wrote a 20-minute family drama (Bow and Arrow)

• Co-wrote a 30-minute mockumentary/autofiction (Inside Kourtrajmé) with my fellow students

• Assisted six student co-directors in the making of a 20-minute comedy (Five-O) : location scouting, castings, search for accessories, costume management, etc. The project was featured at the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner in 2021 and on the Tribeca Online Premieres platform in 2022.

LION is a selective two-month long training program (weekends only) designed to shape experienced project managers, web developers and growth hackers into stellar employees in leading startups.

TOEFL score : 637/677 (Jan 2011)

Entrepreneurship & Innovation - Suzhou, China (Jan-Apr 2015)

International Marketing & Business Development - Paris, France (Sep-Dec 2014)

Member of two non-profit student organizations

• 2011-2012 : Tutor at Perspectiv' (for a pupil in seventh grade)

• 2010-2012 : Member of Défis du Coeur (Téléthon, Sidaction, blood donation campaigns)

Two-year intensive theoretical training aimed at preparing the competitive entry exams of the French Grandes Écoles

• Courses followed : Maths, Geopolitics, English, Spanish, French and Philosophy

• Top marks at the finals

• Valedictorian of my 26-student class (Jul 2010)

Graduated Magna Cum Laude (B)

Option : "European Section" (three-year History & Geography program in English)

Banh Mi Club aims at promoting the Asian continent and its different cultures through events / social experiences, as well as via content that is broadcast on the nonprofit's media.

Recipient of a merit-based scholarship granted to high-achieving students from a modest background but with an ambitious career plan.

Every year, the Francis Bouygues Foundation awards about 50 scholarships (for up to six years) to French students, as well as foreigners who have enrolled French high schools abroad, to facilitate their access to higher education. I am part of the 4^th class.

I have volunteered to mentor another fellow student from Fall 2016 to Summer 2018. My role was to provide her with advice when needed and guide her through her college years (helping her to find extracurricular programs or even scholarships for example).

Startup Banlieue is a two-day hackathon designed to foster entrepreneurship among the Paris area projects' youth (mainly, but it is also open to people from other neighborhoods).

I was in charge of the Marketing & Communication strategy of a startup willing to launch a brand of tailor-made jeans for women in France.

Organized by The Family and Talents Optimistes in Paris, UNIDÉ is a customized three-day program specifically designed for college students who want to create their own startup.

100 of them, coming from all over France and representing 25 projects, benefited from the coaching and support of 15 entrepreneurship experts during an intensive training weekend made of challenges.

Koudetat On Demand is an online program designed to give entrepreneurs the keys to success. The learning material is built around five categories : state of mind, idea, product, team and financing.

The concept was created by The Family, a fellowship of founders. Twice a year, they select 50 startups from around the world. In exchange for a 5% equity, they provide everything you need to build a scalable business : advice, mindset, network & a world-class investor demo day — no matter where you come from.

Taught by lauded Harvard professor Michael Sandel, Justice explores critical analysis of classical and contemporary theories of justice, including discussion of present-day applications.

Topics include affirmative action, income distribution, same-sex marriage, the role of markets, debates about human rights and property rights, arguments for and against equality, dilemmas of loyalty in public and private life. The course invites learners to subject their own views on these controversies to critical examination.

The principal readings for the course are texts by Aristotle, John Locke, Emmanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, and John Rawls. Other assigned readings include writings by contemporary philosophers, court cases, and articles about political controversies that raise philosophical questions.

CS50x is Harvard University's introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming for majors and non-majors alike, with or without prior programming experience.

An entry-level course taught by David J. Malan, CS50x teaches students how to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently. Topics include abstraction, algorithms, data structures, encapsulation, resource management, security, software engineering, and web development. Languages include C, Python, SQL, and JavaScript plus CSS and HTML.

Problem sets inspired by real-world domains of biology, cryptography, finance, forensics, and gaming. The on-campus version of CS50x , CS50, is Harvard's largest course.

This course was designed with experts and entrepreneurs to provide aspiring changemakers with the best support to move from their willingness to change the world to actually doing something about it.

It was build by the Ticket for Change teams, HEC Paris professors, leadership and project development coaches, with the assistance of more than 55 pioneers who bring a wide range of experience and expertise to the table.

National contest : over 1,500+ applicants | Reached the Top 12

This initiative encouraged Twitter users to pitch their craziest idea in 140 characters, then in a 30-second video (for those who made it to the final round). The winner would get up to 10,000€ to make their dream project come true.

As an aspiring filmmaker/photographer and travel addict, my project was to do a seven-week world tour across seven cities (London, Stockholm, Toronto, Vancouver, Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney) to shoot a series about women entrepreneurs and document this experience on a blog.

Worldwide competition : 25,000+ participants from 200+ countries

Reached the Top 30 in the Asia-Pacific Region while studying Entrepreneurship for a semester in China

The Grand Prize was a one-year world tour during which the winner gets to volunteer for six weeks, do two six-week internships in the cities of their choice and travel up to eight months anywhere they want.