Overcoming Adversity
A speech by Ethan Dang delivered to a crowd of 225 people at Enterprise for Youth’s annual dinner celebration, Heroes at Work on April 16th, 2025. One of two speakers, Ethan shared his personal journey and how Enterprise has impacted his life.
Ethan Dang, Enterprise alumni and youth speaker at
Heroes at Work – April 16th, 2025
“But my hobbies alone do not define me. My dad and mom early on emphasized the importance of embracing differences and accepting challenges.”
Hey everyone, It's an honor of mine to be speaking with you all tonight for the 8th annual heroes at work event. My name is Ethan. I’m a native San Franciscan. My fondest memories are shared on the very street of Divisadero. Whether at Alta Plaza park playground, the Cumaica café, or the TeaHut on my block, Divisadero is where I call home.
More about me, I currently attend the city college of san Francisco, with this semester being my last before transferring to a university. I have an interest in strategic marketing and data analysis. I’m 21 years old and enjoy the typical hobby, which includes going to the gym and playing basketball. I also like to read the occasional fantasy book and have taken up another hobby in caring for my little plants. But my hobbies alone do not define me. My dad is a hard working teacher for the San francisco unified school district, and my mom is a passionate nail technician for a beauty salon. Both have taught me the meaning of hard work and early on emphasized the importance of embracing differences and accepting challenges. This would be tested, as an unforeseeable pandemic approached and had me question my faith in myself.
But prior to this, during my early years in elementary at Dr. William L Cobb, all the way up to my time at Lowell high school, I always saw myself as carefree and unbothered, giving little thought as to what the future had in store.
It was only until quarantine did my life see a drastic change. Unable to establish meaningful relationships and being stuck home was not the highlight of my junior and senior years that I was anticipating. During this time, I had begun to develop pretty bad anxiety. I would have trouble speaking with others, lose motivation, and be scared at approaching opportunities. As time passed, it grew difficult to handle, and I began to question my differences among those around me. I know my parents told me to embrace them, but I saw my anxiety as a disease, and that it had to be treated.
Ethan Dang speaking on stage at Heroes at Work 2025 at Terra Gallery in San Francisco, CA
“During my time with this internship, I grew to develop confidence. I collaborated with like minded individuals around my age, and had fun being outside..”
It wasn’t until summer of 2021, that I decided to make a change. I had heard from my brother about an internship opportunity to work as part of the climate career corps, with its initiative to help freshen up San Francisco's gardens. I saw this as a chance to challenge my anxiety.
During my time with this internship, I was stationed at the rose garden and blue heron lake in golden gate park. As summer went on, I grew to develop confidence. I collaborated with like minded individuals around my age, and had fun being outside working with one of our incredible job coaches, Eva.
After my first summer, I was invited by Carlos to take on the role of being program assistant. Unaware of what that meant but excited at the opportunity, I took him up on the offer and the next summer, I came back to the gardens and now saw my role changed.
As a program assistant, it was my responsibility to manage our interns as well as daily operational tasks. I would run job readiness training seminars on how to write a resume, provide interview tips, and help interns understand personal finances. I utilized google’s various software programs alongside salesforce’s database to organize sensitive data, and facilitated group activities alongside my job coach.
I remember last summer, when I was doing my third internship as a program assistant with the climate career corp., in collaboration with the National Park Service. We were stationed at Fort Mason. Our job coach had been away for graduate school, and it was up to me and another one of our program assistants, Kamilah, to step up in their place.
Together, we worked to come up with engaging activities, provide a fun work environment, and ultimately make a difference at the end of the day with the work we put in, learning how our small efforts contributed to a bigger impact on our climate. As scary as it seemed at the time, this experience alone showed me how much I grew from the shy individual I was, to the confident and outgoing person that I’ve become.
Riding this wave of confidence, last year, I attended a HAW event for the first time. I was a table host, meaning I had the opportunity to share a piece of my story with the influential people seated at my table. I signed up for this, because even though I was uncomfortable with the idea of speaking to others, I did it because I saw it as a challenge. And challenges to me are a means of growth.
This spring marks my fourth year being with enterprise, first year as an intern, 3 years working as a program assistant, and now half a year as part of the development and communications team. As a result of my time, I’ve come to realize the importance in working collectively, rather than independently, and understand what it was I wanted to have from a career. That being an environment accepting of who I was, dependable and committed talent whom I find inspiring, and an initiative that upholds society and gives back to the community in some fashion. Enterprise has given me a foundation to stand back up on my two feet and realize my potential. I continue forward in the hopes of being the best I can be, while understanding that setbacks are necessary for growth. As my family taught me, strive for progress, as perfection is unattainable, but progress is achievable.
