世光 · SEESALT · New Haven, Connecticut
Sowing light, harvesting eternity.
A youth-led development organisation, founded in 2018 and now based in New Haven, Connecticut. We run community programmes across five countries, connect rural entrepreneurs with international networks, and publish open-source methods and tools for climate-adaptation assessment.
“Where young minds awaken to limitless possibility, where barriers dissolve into bridges, and where each voice joins the chorus of change — into that world of tomorrow, SEESALT walks today.”
Zhijun He, Founder · MacMillan Center, Yale University · About the founder · World Bank Blogs
Who we are
Development economists, climate technologists and policy practitioners — with roots in villages.
We work in two registers at once: community programmes that begin in rural classrooms and on farms, and applied research written for the institutions that fund development. Since 2026 our main operating base is New Haven, Connecticut, where our founder is a graduate student at Yale’s MacMillan Center; our consultants remain spread across universities and field sites in China, Africa and the Americas.
Our work has been recognised by the World Bank Innovation Lab, the UN Tech Over Challenge and the Clinton Global Initiative University — all won in open competition by named individuals and teams, and listed as such below. SEESALT is an independent volunteer organisation. It is not a programme of Yale University, and it holds no partnership or implementing agreement with any UN agency or multilateral institution. We say so because the distinction matters.
Awards and recognitions
Evidence that ideas from the village can travel.
Every line on this list began as a small project in a rural community. We keep it not as a trophy case, but as a record.
- 2025
UN Tech Over 2025 — Challenge 2 Global Champion
A multi-hazard data overlay with child-vulnerability assessment, built by Zhijun He and Tiago Maluta (Innovation Manager, Lemann Foundation) for the UN Tech Over open innovation challenge. Released as open source. What it did, and what it did not establish.
- 2025
World Bank Innovation Lab — Global Runner-Up
Sub-Saharan Africa digital transformation: Zhijun He and team, for digital interventions in Ethiopian food-security infrastructure — real-time agricultural monitoring and early warning.
- 2025
World Bank Innovation Lab — Global Runner-Up
Creative-industry SMEs in Latin America: Zonglin Zheng (Macalester ’28), SEESALT Senior Consultant, leading SEESALT Team 2 at the World Bank Group Youth Summit.
- 2025
Brown University Global Fellows in Courage — Finalist
Zhijun He, one of 90 finalists selected from 2,445 applicants.
- 2024
EU–UKRI “Ruractive” Global Rural Changemaker Fellow
For SEESALT’s approach to rural development and evidence-based rural transformation.
- 2023
Clinton Global Initiative University — Class of 2023
For measurable, time-bound commitments in rural development and child protection across the Asia-Pacific and the Horn of Africa.
- 2023
World Bank Innovation Lab — Global Runner-Up
Asia-Pacific youth employment: rural youth empowerment across emerging Asia — agricultural underemployment, skills gaps and livelihood pathways.
- 2021
Rise Global Finalist (Schmidt Futures & the Rhodes Trust)
Zhijun He, selected as a global finalist for Rise.
Voices
“True development happens when young entrepreneurs in rural villages access the same opportunities as those in capital cities.”
Yan X — IMF Asia Pacific Department“When farmers become scientists and students become teachers, sustainable agriculture takes root.”
Qianli Xu — Cornell University CALS“Capital flows where vision meets execution. Young changemakers are the best investment any society can make.”
Xiaozhao Wu — CICC“Public health isn’t just about treating disease — it’s about creating conditions where communities can thrive from within.”
Jia Chang — Tufts UniversityHow we work
We are SEESALT, here to show the way.
Six commitments that run through every programme, from a soil test in a village school to a diagnostic for an adaptation fund.
Grassroots to global
Sustainable change grows from community roots. We connect local innovations with international networks, so that village-level solutions can travel — from soil analysis on rural farms to climate education across continents.
Youth-led
Young people are not only beneficiaries; they are the architects. We support people aged 16–30 to lead projects, design solutions and mentor peers. Our 135 alumni and volunteer consultants do not wait for permission.
Cross-cultural synthesis
Our Chinese name, 世光, means light for the world. We bring Chinese and Western frameworks of development into the same room, and build solutions that resonate globally while respecting local context.
Ecosystems, not one-offs
Rather than isolated interventions, we build interconnected networks of change:
- Knowledge sharing through workshops and seminars
- Mentorship chains where beneficiaries become mentors
- Resource circulation connecting surplus to need
- Partnership weaving across NGOs, universities and communities
Action–reflection cycles
Find yourself, hold to yourself, walk your own path forward. We pair rapid prototyping with deliberate reflection, so that each action serves both immediate impact and long-term change.
Inclusive excellence
From leading institutions to rural entrepreneurs, from conservation scientists to artists — brilliance exists everywhere. We actively seek voices from marginalised communities, because those closest to a problem usually hold the keys.
Four agencies, one SEESALT
What we run.
Each agency has its own page. Terra and Ember are where most of our people are; Adaptation Lab is where our newest work is.
SEESALT Institute
世光研究院
The research and knowledge hub. Our consultants bridge academic research with field implementation; the Institute publishes SEESALT’s frameworks and working papers, including the ones the other agencies run on. ICGT framework · MoonHalo
SEESALT Terra
坚地计划
Our flagship programme: one-on-one mentorship with industry experts on business plans, access to finance and regulatory navigation, with peer learning across cohorts. About Terra · Kokrobite (Terra ’25) · VerdeVision (Terra ’26)
Ember Seminars
微光研讨会
Development-economics seminars and SEESALT’s capacity-training programme. Ember also hosts outreach conversations on agriculture and the informal economy, informed by our founder’s work with the World Bank Youth Advisory Group. Stories · Alchemilla (Ember ’25)
Adaptation Lab
世应实验室
Open-source diagnostics for climate-adaptation finance: a published method that separates a state’s disaster-response capacity from its prevention capacity, and the multi-hazard data layer that separation requires. Global champion, UN Tech Over 2025 Challenge 2; methodology paper accepted for the AAG 2027 Annual Meeting; protocol v0.1 published September 2026, not yet run on a country. Overview · Method · AAG 2027 paper
SEESALT+ Collaborative programmes
Wheat Ear 2030 Explorer Camp
Captures from the 2025 SEESALT+ summer programme.
A collaboration between SEESALT and the Maitian Education Foundation. Eleven- to fifteen-year-olds from cities spend the summer with rural communities in Hunan Province, China, working on real community challenges through project-based learning and cross-cultural exchange — building critical thinking, leadership and the habit of social innovation.
Read the programme report (WeChat)
Maitian Education Foundation
SEESALT Terra Sunward Youth Society
Rural youth as hometown changemakers.
Across emerging Asia, rural communities lose their young people to the cities, rarely to return. Sunward Youth Society works with rural youth aged 11–18 to find their strengths, build pride in where they are from, and lead change at home.
Since founding we have reached more than 200 students in rural China, with a particular focus on at-risk youth in urban–rural transitional zones — from factory towns to remote mountain villages.
Toolbox
How we work is written down.
The methods our consultants are trained on are public. Anyone running a community programme can use them without asking us.
- SEESALT Toolbox 101The basic kit for a first project: scoping, partners, budget, exit
- Stakeholder engagement and consultationWho to talk to before doing anything, and how to record what they said
- The structure of a SEESALT reportWhat every project writes up, in the same order, so results can be compared
- Our approach to the UN SDGsWhere our programmes map onto the Goals, and where we stop claiming they do
- Reading list for emerging development practitionersWhat we ask new consultants to read first
Open roles Adaptation Lab
Who we are looking for.
Unpaid, remote, co-authored. What we offer is shared design authority over a method that is published before it works, and an open-source contribution record. You do not need to be at Yale, or a student anywhere.
zhijun.he@yale.edu · Full description on the Adaptation Lab overview
A second geospatial engineer
To take the multi-hazard data layer from competition prototype to reusable tool. The hard part is not modelling; it is testing whether prevention effort leaves an observable proxy at all.
Global health security
Someone who knows the JEE, IHR core-capacity assessments and the GHS Index literature. The same attribution logic appears in pandemic preparedness, and that line of argument is currently an outline.
In-country researchers
Based in the case countries. Attribution contests happen in local languages and local politics; remote coding misses the part that matters.
SEESALT in the news
Selected coverage.
From development organisations and outlets that have followed our work.
- Open Source Developers Saving the World with Code, Not CapesApache Software Foundation
- ASF Plus One newsletter, June 2025Apache Software Foundation
- UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies on the Tech Over 2025 championsUN ODET on X
- Students attend Clinton Global Initiative UniversityGW Today
Join
Let your story be heard.
Whether you are launching a social enterprise, organising your own community, or building a tool that should be a public good, SEESALT offers a platform, mentorship and a network of 135 young leaders — from climate work in Latin America to education in rural Tanzania, from agriculture in Africa to conservation across Asia. You do not need to be at Yale, or a student anywhere.
Chief Happiness Officer
Hi there! I’m Pampam.
I am SEESALT’s official mascot, hopping around Cornell with my human, Sky Xu. When I am not nibbling carrots from the CALS research gardens or supervising soil-sample analysis from my corner of the lab, I am here to connect you with the SEESALT family.
Questions, collaborations, or an idea that needs an approving nose-wiggle? Write to zhijun1933@gmail.com — that is our founder’s inbox, which I have commandeered. I review everything for Timothy grass and lettuce-related content first.
播种光明，收获永恒
© 2026 SEESALT · 世光 · New Haven, Connecticut · zhijun.he@yale.edu