We welcome Ashley Lynn Priore, Founder of Queen's Gambit, to talk about her nonprofit organization that uses the principles and strategies of chess as a catalyst for change and social force for good in Pittsburgh.
Ashley will discuss how chess teaches critical thinking and strategic skills needed for every aspect of life. She believes that through chess, anyone can learn the tools to succeed.
Join us for what will surely be an intriguing conversation!
Transcription:
So good afternoon, everyone. This is Audrey Russo, President and CEO at the Pittsburgh Technology Council. And it's a great day in Pittsburgh sun is shining, lots of change. And we also have a great guest today. So in a moment, I will introduce our guests. But in the interim, I want to give a shout out to Huntington bank for being our incredible partners for so long, and taking a chance on us in doing all the experiments that we do each and every day. And, you know, we've been doing this since the beginning of COVID. And it's great to have an opportunity to connect all across the community about the people who are just doing incredible things, and today is no different. So I am going to introduce in a moment, Ashley Lynn priori, but before I do that, I want to set tell everyone that you are on mute. We've done that on purpose, and we don't want to hear anything in the background. And this chat is available for you to ask questions of our guests. This is not an opportunity for you to sell your wares. We have lots of opportunities to do that. And today is not one of them. Jonathan Kersting joins us each and every day. He's vice president of all things media and marketing for the tech Council. And he's been telling stories and highlighting people in this region. I want to say Jonathan for a quarter of a century does that sound crazy? Yeah, it sounds a little crazy. I know it sounds a little crazy. But we're recording today's show as we do each and every day, we have a whole archive of amazing people that we're talking that we've been talking to. So I'm going to bring up to the forefront. Ashley Lynn priori I call her Ashley, I don't call her Ashley Lynn. And for those of you who don't know her, I would say fasten your seat belts, because we are going to have a really fun conversation and you're going to be blown away by all that she's been doing over the last. I want to say decade, right? If at least the last decade. It's crazy. And it's crazy. And she's relentless. So you're going to be I know that you'll be thrilled. So, Ashley, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. We are recording this show. And so people have an opportunity to listen to it at their leisure as well. So thanks for taking the time, I know that you are busy, but I wanted to set the stage a little bit and we're going to talk about Queen's gambit. But I really want to set the stage in terms of who is Ashley? And what hat What's her journey then today? What are the things that you feel that all of us need to know about you and your work? Because we'll talk about your why and your purpose as well.
Well, thanks so much for having me. I watch these all the time. So I'm really excited.
Um,
you know, I think the first thing is that, you know, I'm from Pittsburgh, so I grew up here.
I,
you know, went through that phase that I feel like all Pittsburghers do when you're, you know, you're about 15 years old, and you're sort of like, I really want to leave, like I went through this phase where I wanted to leave, I didn't want to stay in the city, I felt like I knew everything about the city. I've been, you know, I was like I was at the point I've been to squirrel Hill, I've done everything. And I just felt this urge that I wanted to do something more. But going back in time, when I was really, really little, I was always that kid that like, wanted to be doing things. So I was always busy. I always had this mindset that like I needed to be doing something productive. And I just remember my mom always coming home with these tons of library books about presidents. And granted, they all were full of like old white guys on the cover. But like I still have this urge of like wanting to know more about what were these leaders doing? What was their history, and I was really interested in their own personal life. So I would always write about, you know, who these leaders were, I would read about George Washington and like his, his his early life. And, you know, also I will say that a lot of my biographies came from Wikipedia. So they weren't like, you know, 100% great, but it was still a wonderful, you know, experience to be able to learn about people. And so that's really what I was grounded in is getting to know people on a personal level. And I don't think we do that enough in, in our own lives. I don't think we get to know people enough on a one on one level. So that's what I'm really passionate about. And that's sort of where, when, when people ask me about, you know, who I am I talk a lot about, you know, getting to know people as people not just as like colleagues or business associates.
That's interesting. And it's interesting that you thought by the time you were 15 that it was time for you to get out of Pittsburgh, you know, and very Where did you go to high school?
So I went to Ellis for high school. So my aunt went there, my sister went there. So it was something in the family that we would all do. And I I did love my experience I sort of was one of those students that would turn a lot of heads. Anytime I saw something that was wrong, I would always be like, we need to fix that. And some people love that some people didn't. But I feel like that's everything that we do. But it's also important to note that you know, what I was really, really little I was homeschooled. So I went through that experience of, you know, my mom had to be in contact with Pittsburgh public schools, to create this own curriculum for us. So I had a lot of freedom growing up when I was little. And then I went to an online school. So right when online schools were, like, booming, and people would would look at you and be like, you go to an online school, like, is that like an actual school? Like, do you actually learn things? So that was, that was a new experience for me. And then I went to St. Edmund's in squirrel Hill. And then I went to Alice. So I had four very different early learning experiences. So that was, that was a big part of my life, too. So I basically tell people I've been in every type of school that you can imagine.
And so now now, what do you do?
I'm at Pitt now. So I'm studying English and political science. So I did decide to stay in Pittsburgh. But I didn't go to Duquesne, which is where all my siblings went where my dad went. So I was the kid that did something very different. So at least I did something different.
That's great. And so when do you finish?
I finish technically in 2022. So next year, which is very weird. I feel like it's flown by.
It has swung by, but you've been busy doing a lot of things. So let's, let's go back. Like let's go back to playing chess. So you started playing chess really young? Which is the best time to play chess?
Yes. Because you're, you know, you're learning all of these new skills, tons of research shows that when you play chess at an early age, you have better standardized test scores and critical thinking skills. So it's great to learn early. And I learned when I was, well, I say I learned but I feel like I already knew what I was doing. But I started to play when I was about four years old.
What do you mean, you always knew what you were doing.
So I watched my brother's play. And this is something that's really important, I would say, because chess is still very male dominated. I mean, growing up, it's continues to be male dominated. But my brothers learned how to play. My mom didn't know how to play. So she wanted our dad to teach to teach her kids. My brothers learned first because they were the boys in the family. So I just watched them. And my sister and I got really upset because we were like, why are they learning chess? Why aren't we learn chess? Like, what's this? What's this difference between them? And keep in mind, I was only four. So my parents were probably worried I was gonna, like, eat the pieces and choke. I don't think they were thinking about like, you know, she wants to she wants to, you know, play this game. And so I just watched my brothers play. And I was that annoying little sister like peeking over and seeing what they were doing. And then one day, I asked my dad to play with me. And he was like, You don't even know how to play. And I was like, no way. It can't be that hard. I mean, like, you just like, move things. And I ended up feeding him. And he was like, what's going on? I remember my mom's like peering through like the kitchen door. And she was like, what's going on? It was like, my parents thought it was a big deal. My brothers were like, no, like, this is all US, like we taught her.
Taught me.
But yeah, and I just learned that I adopted the pieces. And I knew how they moved. I just did it by observation. And then we all did tournament's together growing up. So it was a big tournament scene. Pittsburgh used to be a big place for chess, people from all over the country would come here to play in the in the early 90s. So if you wanted to play chess, you would come to Pittsburgh. But that really started to decline, when I got engaged in it probably in the early early 2000s. So for 10 years, Pittsburgh was on top,
well, what happened, what the shift was.
So I think that a lot of a lot of the chess teachers that were here, they left I think that opportunities emerged in New York and St. Louis, and no one was here to really cultivate it and continue to bring it forward. So grandmasters wouldn't come here anymore. But it was a big part of of chess, I mean, Pittsburgh chess club was established by Andrew Carnegie Steel Workers. So it was always a big part of Pittsburgh history.
I had no idea. So okay, so you play chess, you're in these tournament's. You're, you know, doing really well. It's part of your life. And then you decide at what age and what period of time in your life to start a nonprofit.
So I began teaching when I was eight. So my brothers did classes at our local library, and they were going to get ready to go to high school and then college and we needed someone to take over and I was so persistent on teaching these classes. And I said to my mom, I really want to teach this Last, I'm going to go in and you know, recommend myself when I was like your age, like, I don't know if parents would feel comfortable with an eight year old teaching kids how to play chess. And I was like, No, no, it's we're all young people. We're humans, like, we can do this. And so she worked at the library. And you know, my mom didn't she was like, Well, I think you should wait. So me being me and I looking back, I'm like, if my kid ever did this, I would be so mad. But I went to her boss. And I was like, Hey, I really want to teach this. And her boss was like, okay, that's fine. And I was like, really? She said, Yeah, you could have just had your mom set it up. And I was like, but she said, No. And I like threw her under the bus. And it was, it was great, though, because my, her boss was just like, Yeah, let's do it. And so I started to teach. And then I saw that all of my students were boys, and parents were just bringing in their sons to play. And that was very frustrating for me, because I thought, as a young woman, I could help get other young women engaged. So I started to teach it more places and continue to notice that trend, you know, a family would walk in, the boy would would sit down, the little girl would ask, Hey, can I can I learn how to play too? And the parents would be like, Oh, no, this is this. Your brother's more interested in this? How would we go over here somewhere else. And so I kept noticing that and I wanted there to be a space in Pittsburgh where young women could learn chess, or it could be just an inclusive space. because growing up, I would go to tournaments. My sister and I would be the only women there. And that's very frustrating when you're a young person, and you don't see anyone that looks like you, you know, so I wanted to start things Gambit. And I took out a huge piece of paper from my mom's room. And I just mapped out ideas, I just throughout all of these crazy ideas that I had, I was like, we could have, you know, chess teams, and we could get, you know, there to be a big space in Pittsburgh that that, you know, houses all of these chess activities, and I just threw all these ideas on paper. And then I just researched, you know, how do you start a nonprofit? And I'd said first thing was business plan. So I was like, Okay, I'll do that. And so I just started typing out these ideas. And, you know, my mom said, If you need anything, I'm here. But I feel like this is something you want to do on your own. And it was I felt like, I didn't have a lot of knowledge on the subject. But I wanted to do it myself. So I was like, How hard could it be? I mean, it's only $125 to file a fee for the nonprofit. So I raised the money. And I did. And I connected with a couple of Pittsburgh leaders. You know, like max King, who was so gracious to meet with me, I just reached out to him and I said, Hey, this is what I'm doing. Can you help me? And he gave me advice. And that's when I started to network with people and just gain this advice. And then queens Gambit emerge. I remember getting the letter for the nonprofit in the in the mail, and I was like, Hey, guys, look at this. I was showing my siblings, and they're like, Oh, I didn't even know that you apply for that. And I was like, Yeah, I just did it. I was so excited. I don't think they knew what it meant until like, I got the website going. And then it started to become more real. And then queens Gambit was born. I was 14 at that time.
So did you have a board at the time? Or did you have I mean, you have to do certain things to become a 501. c three.
Yeah. So I reached out to people I knew in the community, my, my, my mentors, and I just said, Hey, can you help me get this off the ground. And they were so gracious. I mean, that's the thing that I do love about Pittsburgh is that there's very specific leaders in the community who want you to succeed, and they wanted to get engaged, and they wanted to help me. And then as we as we built it, and continued on, people started to reach out and say, hey, how can we get involved, parents were reaching out. People make nonprofits, or how to start a nonprofit out to be very, very hard and difficult, and it can be. But I think that you need to find the people in those spaces who know what they're doing. And I remember when I reached out to you for the first time, my website was a mess. It did not look great. And I said, Hey, here's what you can do. And that's what you need. You need people to be honest. And also say, here's how we can help not people to just sugarcoat things and say, Hey, this is this is great. I don't think you need to do anything, you need to have that honest feedback.
Right? That's great. No, that's a great story. And that's true. And that's so what, what, you can go to two websites now, and I and Lexi will put it in the chat. But there is the chess Institute, right? And there's queens gambit.org. So let's sort of fast forward right. So what kinds of things if you go to the Queen's gambit.org site, you can see the kinds of offerings that you have, have you been able to offer things during COVID?
Oh, yeah, it's really expanded during COVID. I would say I think that online chess has had an entire boom, people are just playing Online, they're bringing out old chess sets. You know, I, I wish I invested in chess comm earlier, because it would I've, you know, making so much money. And we just play online with our students. And we're reaching students not just in Pennsylvania anymore. But across the United States, we have students from Australia, so like their students from everywhere, and they're coming together in this safe space. So when we started, we were doing all sorts of in person programming, and we would go to the students and I and we still hope to do that once COVID sort of slows down. But for right now, we're doing everything online. And that has the its pros and its cons. But I think one of the best things is that we're just able to research and reach so many people and young people, yes, we are good at technology. I mean, we do know what we're what we're doing when we can log on to zoom. And students feel comfortable in that way. I mean, that's how I was raised, I literally went to school in a place that was look like zoom before zoom was created. So we sort of shifted and and during that time of I would say between 2018 to 2020. I was doing other things outside of just chess programming. So I would meet with businesses, or I would meet with foundations in general. And I would say hey, do you guys teach strategy to your employees? Like do you talk about what strategy is because I would always talk about chess as this not as a competitive game. And as a very intense, you know, sort of Beth Harmon route. I mean, people can go that way. But I view it as just teaches the skills, the skills, everyone needs to know, how can we implement chess into schools and to businesses and to all of these places, so that we are talking about this vehicle for change. So we know that chess teaches you how to think about problems, how to come up with problems that might arise, how to come up with multiple solutions, everything that is needed for life. And that's how we, you know, that's how that's how the stratasys Corporation was formed. Because the chess Institute is a nonprofit that teaches chess to the community, it is a very much that historical aspect, where it's like, you want to do chess classes and clubs and tournament, you can come here, but the strategies Corporation was what I really became just love talking about chess as a way to, to solve problems, and also using chess in a way that it can be innovative for the future. Because someday, chess will probably be solved. I mean, it's not you know, that day, I hope it is not for a long time, but it won't put us out of business, thankfully, because it's about the journey of it, the journey of finding the checkmate, not that end result. And that's what life is. I mean, we don't, you know, look towards like the end of life, we look towards what's in the middle of it.
So that's interesting. That would be salt. I've never really thought about that. But I guess you're probably right, there's so many variables, but I guess you could figure it out. And I hope that doesn't happen. That's probably the old fashioned side of me saying, I hope that doesn't happen. Because I do think it's the journey. One of the things that you talked about, if you do you follow any of these kids, like Do you know where these kids are, that you've engaged with over the last eight to 10 years.
So I've had been lucky that I've been able to create really strong relationships with these kids in these families. Because again, it's that personal side coming out, I want to get to know people, I want to know their passions. And a lot of the students have become teachers for queens Gambit, they don't teach some of our classes, which was really exciting. Some of them have become interns, and just doing really cool stuff in the organization. You know, I had one student said, Hey, I'm really interested in social media. And I said, Well, what what do you think about queens Gambit social media, and I told them to almost criticize our media pages, not in a way that would be you know, you're here, all the things you're doing wrong, but here are the things that you can improve on. And they took that and they ran with it, and they're doing the social media now. So that's why I love learning about what students are doing. And I think that educators are so good at that you need to know everything about the child have a holistic viewpoint, so that you can really help them in the best way possible. Some of my students have, you know, continued with chess, but they're also you know, doing other things, too. They're interested in government or starting their own nonprofit. And that's one of the things the strategies Corporation does. We help students come up with these own ideas and implement them because I had a pool of mentors who helped me and I want to make sure that they have that same support.
So on this some, you might you're going to school, right, and you're also very active civically, you know, you have a big wide around them, and I can see how it's all knit together because I know you a little bit, but what might you tell people in terms of like, you know, going to school having a purpose, or you know, all this activity, I know that You're a big Dewar, not everyone, you know, can achieve your level of productivity, but you have a lot of passion around civic engagement. And you sort of tie that together in terms of, you know, the chess piece. And then moving into civic engagement.
I think it has to do with, when I grew up, I saw all of these inequalities in my community. So I would see that there were not a lot of women at tournaments, I would see that they would give away a pink top girl trophy, and when there are only two girls at a tournament, like my sister, and I would always get it. And so it would just become like a priori household trophies that you would that you would take home. And so like, I noticed all of these inequalities, and I was really interested in why they were happening. And I think a lot of times young people are sort of just are forced to like, look at all the positives, we're supposed to think about everything that's great in our community, and network in a positive way, and get internships and think about, it's all about the positive. And I love the positive, but at the same time, life is also full of negatives, and you your organization wouldn't exist, mine wouldn't exist if we weren't solving a problem. And I view everything as, as sort of, you know, problem solving. That's what chess is about. I mean, you have a problem, how can you come up with multiple ways to solve it. And when I was interacting with nonprofit leaders for queens Gambit, a lot of them would look at me and either have two responses, they would either say, Oh, this is so great, how can I help you? Not? How can we help each other? How can I help you more, you seem really young, I think your ideas are going to shift. So you probably shouldn't like put a lot of time into this. Those were like the two responses. And young people get that all the time. I mean, I've gotten that so many times. So I'm just used to it. And I, you know, Queens Gambit, I was like, we could do a lot more with this. So one project I'm working on is about getting more young people on boards, because nonprofit boards are historically filled with older white guys. And that's just a fact. And you know, we are working on why tutu is a youth on boards movement. I have friends from pit and other mentors who are on the board. And we just talked about how can we make boards more inclusive? How can we provide training for young people, everyone's worried about how young people don't have enough background or training to get on nonprofit boards. But we should also talk about how nonprofit boards don't know how to interact with young people. So we do both of that work. We work with organizations to provide training, we work with young people and then do board matching. So my my entire life is always about like finding a problem and saying, Well, how can we how can we solve that? So anytime someone approaches me, and they say, Hey, I'm really frustrated about this. I'm like, Well, what can we do about it. And that's why I love doing all of these different projects. Because to me, it's not, you know, doing like tons of different work and trying to build a resume. It's about No, I'm trying to solve these problems. Because we have a community, we need people to solve problems. So we should all work together to do that. And I wish that civic engagement was taught more at schools, it's just not taught, taught enough. Students don't sometimes don't know that term, they're doing the work. But they're not encouraged to do it.
And you're right, we don't talk about that at all. And we learn it, we fumble into it. For those of us that like to solve problems, we just fumble and stumble into it. And so you have been pretty active, you know, you were very active in terms of the Biden administration in the election process there, you've been active in local. So can you talk a little bit about that, I mean, what kinds of things that you're optimistic about, but some that, you know, maybe you should be concerned about, and that we should think about in terms of solving problems, because we have a big change, we now have a mayor elect, you know, should nothing changed between now and November of a new air. And we have a new administration in Washington. And there are lots of issues that you're passionate about, and you've corralled people around. So just shed some light into that. I know, we don't have enough time to go really deep. But I'd like people to know a little bit about that.
One thing I will say is that public policy is seen as something that only elected officials or policy experts can do. But starting a nonprofit in Pennsylvania, you have to be at least you know, really, technically you have to be about 18 years old, because beforehand, you have to have someone sign off on it with you. You have to be 16 years old to serve on an advisory board. So there there are all these limitations. And young people are realizing that we want to get involved in public policy. So that's how I got involved in local government. One of my mentors, Erica strassburger, she gave me my first internship at the city. I had no idea what I was doing, but she saw something in me and she said, You know, I think you'd really like it. And so she I owe a lot to because she opened up this world of government and how government is around to help solve problems. So I looked at the In Harris platform, and I said they are not doing enough for youth engagement. So I rallied around young people, and we came up with a plan to get more young people a part of the administration. And it's that easy as to if you have no people personally, then it's easier to have them come together and solve a problem. And then with with local government, I'm just all about youth engagement. How can you engage underserved communities and communities that are not highlighted, and creating youth councils? And that's something that we did with the Gainey campaign. I mean, we had young people who were just like, hey, I want to have a seat at the table. And we're not like sugarcoating things. I mean, young people come up with big lists of things that they want to see change. And that's what's exciting. I think sometimes people look at an elected official, and they're worried to say something, they're like, they want to praise them. And young people are just like, No, we need to have a world to live in, you know, because climate change. So that's what that's what young people do. And that's what I'm passionate about is is connecting citizens, especially young people with their government officials, because you're connecting solutions and problems together.
And when you say young people, what does that mean? What's the operative definition of that?
I define young people as 25. And under because after doing some research, we found that most postgraduate, so especially after grad school, they have many opportunities, young professional boards, they have, you know, different fellowship opportunities, but if you are under 25, you do not have those same opportunities, and almost every laws against you, like you can even rent a car.
In a car. That's crazy.
Yeah. And so it's, it's, it's about how can we get those voices at the table? I'm all for anyone under 40, you know, helping and supporting them. But I think we need to do a better job of getting Gen Z and younger, to have the opportunities that millennials and UPS have.
So what do you want to say that the tech community as we wrap up here, what do you want to say that, you know, you we have you worked on the campaign for the mayor elect? Okay, so obviously, you're feeling optimism there, right? What else? What are you? What else do you want to say to the community who's busy building companies, and sometimes very often have their heads down, but want to live in a very inclusive and diverse community? What some advice from you?
Well, I would say that I mean, strategy connects with everything. So make sure that you are encouraging your employees and staff to think about strategy and what the long term goals are. A lot of organizations we work with, they're only looking at two to three years ahead. They're not looking past that some people look way past that, but they don't look at like the immediate result. So I think just encouraging strategy, talking with community members, and think about ways to engage all people, you know, just because you are a business with a specific product that you may be selling or a specific mission, that doesn't mean that you can't find innovative ways to connect with people. And I'm always happy to sit down with people and talk about that. I mean, most of my day is spent in meetings, looking at, you know, people's business plans and their in their organizations, and talking about how we can get more people engaged. I'm hopeful for a future where we are all more connected, because we say that we're connected, but I don't think we actually are connected, I mean, on more of a personal level where we can each help each other solve problems. And it can be more about personal development instead of just professional development. And I also think that we need to be aware that young people are leaving the city, that's just a fact young people have been continuing to leave. So how can you get young people to stay? How can you say, this is what we can do together? young people can do outreach, but I also encourage organizations to do the outreach to
so what let's get back to chess, how did you think queens Gambit? The movie was?
I thought as a show as a miniseries, it was great. And if I didn't know anything about chess, I would have loved it. But I had issues without portrayed women. You know, people in the chess world called me horrible names. And they called my other female friends horrible names. One of my female mentors was sexually harassed at a chess tournament.
So
no one is going to support like Beth Harmon, like she was supported, right? There's going to be people who won't even let you in. They're going to make fun of you in all different ways. So that's what bothered me. I feel like Netflix had this opportunity to highlight women and girls and say, hey, there's opportunities but you also it also sucks to be a woman and girl in chess because everyone treats you horribly. And one of the things that was a very nitpicky thing that bothered me is that Beth Harmon looks so good going to a tournament everyone's wearing slacks and we look
we don't look good.
So that was on your realistic, but I think that they have the opportunity to highlight it. And it's not just this flowery place where everyone supports you and they kiss your hand. I mean, people throw the board in your face. So
so we are going to wrap up. It's way too short. It's always great having you Larry joy is saying Ashley's clearly wise behind beyond her years, I would say, yeah, no surprise to me. But there are lots of things she's interested in. I want to thank everyone for joining us say thank you so much athlete, for your work, your passion, why you do what you do, we will stay connected, as always. And if anyone is interested in the work she's doing, she's really easy to find. There's lots of ways to support her organizations. And let's make a difference in doing the week. So Jonathan, what is up for tomorrow? And the day after? I think,
well, tomorrow we're preparing ourselves for the dynamic duo at the I triple E the Institute for entrepreneur excellence. Talk to us about how we can build more businesses and underserved communities should be a really good program. And then of course, we had the Children's Museum stopping by on Friday as well too. So we are rounding out the week with some really great guests. Actually, thank
you so much for being with us. Take care, everyone. Enjoy. Enjoy the rest of your day. You're getting a lot of things in the chat. Thanks, Jonathan.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai