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Ordinary Magicannmasten.org · giving portal

In honor of Navid Izadi · Sanandaj, Kurdistan

The school is built. Now let it fill with music.

The Navid Izadi School of Music + Art

Hundreds of students aged 12 to 18, girls among them, will learn to play instruments and to build them, in a school that carries his name. Your gift puts the instruments in their hands.

Give an instrument (opens the Moms Against Poverty campaign page in a new tab) See what your gift buys
  • School built
  • Open to girls
  • Ages 12–18
  • Gifts from $5

Independently curated. Professor Masten and the University of Minnesota are not affiliated with this campaign.

In honor of Navid Izadi · Moms Against Poverty

The Navid Izadi School of Music + Art

Sanandaj, Kurdistan

  • Built. Announced on what would have been Navid Izadi’s 37th birthday.
  • For girls, too. Music and art, chosen “so girls could also attend!”
  • Hundreds of students, ages 12–18, will learn to play instruments, and to build them.
Give on the campaign page (opens the Moms Against Poverty campaign page in a new tab)

You give on the Moms Against Poverty campaign page. Gifts go to Moms Against Poverty, a 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 20-8865521); the campaign page says they are tax-deductible. annmasten.org never sees or handles your money. Campaign details as of Oct 29, 2026.

Hear Navid Izadi

Ayande. Future.

Ayande, meaning “Future” in Farsi, is Navid Izadi’s debut album. It is out November 13, 2026.

His cousin Lily and his brother Aden restored his laptop and hard drive to recover the work-in-progress files. Dave Aju completed the record with a “gathering of musical family collaborations,” and executive produced and mixed it. It is dedicated to his son, Tesla.

“…equal parts an incredible debut album and a true family affair tribute to one of the most inspired creative souls we’ve ever known.”
— Bandcamp album notes
Pre-order Ayande on Bandcamp (opens Bandcamp in a new tab) Navid Izadi on Bandcamp (opens Bandcamp in a new tab)

Buying the album supports Navid Izadi’s music. It is separate from the school fundraiser: gifts to the school go only through the Moms Against Poverty campaign page.

Listen to Ayande on Bandcamp (opens Bandcamp in a new tab)

12 tracks

  1. Birds Of Prey
  2. Diagnostics/Escape
  3. Andromeda
  4. Islands
  5. Chica Go
  6. IMX
  7. Keep It Movin
  8. Space Race
  9. Fingertips
  10. Stardust
  11. Mm Mm
  12. Never

What your gift becomes

From a tuner to a piano.

The building is finished. Now it needs what makes a school sing: the stands and tuners of daily practice, traditional Iranian instruments, a piano, and the carpentry tools to build instruments by hand.

$25 “Missing You” The tools of every lesson Provide students with metronomes, music stands, tuners, footstools, and more. Give $25 on the Moms Against Poverty campaign page (opens in a new tab) $75 “Good Life” Toward a traditional instrument Contribute toward buying beautiful traditional instruments for the students. Give $75 on the Moms Against Poverty campaign page (opens in a new tab) $200 “On My Mind” Santoors, ouds and setars Help us get Santoors, Ouds, Setars, and other beautiful Iranian instruments. Give $200 on the Moms Against Poverty campaign page (opens in a new tab) $500 “Feelin Purple” A piano, and tools to build Contribute toward the big costs of keyboards, tars, a piano, and important carpentry tools for building musical instruments. Give $500 on the Moms Against Poverty campaign page (opens in a new tab)

Any amount helps, from $5 up. Level names and descriptions are quoted from the campaign page as of Oct 29, 2026; you choose your gift there.

“The dollar goes a long way in Iran, so even a ‘small’ donation will help us do big things for the students.”
— Aden and Mamani, campaign page
“Resilience does not require extraordinary resources in most cases, but instead is the result of what might be called ‘ordinary magic’.”
— Ann S. Masten, Education Canada, 2009

The science

Why music and art? Because children thrive on ordinary things.

Across children facing poverty, war, disaster and displacement, Professor Masten’s research keeps finding the same short list of protective factors. Four of them are what a school of music and art offers every day.

01 Caring adultsPositive relationships with other nurturing and competent adultsMasten’s “short list” of resilience factors
What a music and art school offers

A music teacher is a steady adult who knows each student by name, and hears them get better, week after week.

02 MasteryPositive self-perceptions; self-efficacy (mastery motivation system)Masten’s “short list” of resilience factors
What a music and art school offers

An instrument rewards practice in small, audible steps: a scale, then a phrase, then a song. Her advice for schools: “create opportunities for successful mastery experiences, building a sense of mastery in graduated steps.”

03 BelongingBonds to effective schools and other prosocial organizationsMasten’s “short list” of resilience factors
What a music and art school offers

A school that opens its doors to girls and boys aged 12–18 is a place to belong: to practise, to perform, to make friends.

04 CultureCultures that provide positive standards, rituals, relationships, and supportsMasten’s “short list” of resilience factors
What a music and art school offers

Santoors, ouds, setars and tars carry centuries of Iranian musical tradition. Here, students learn to play them, and to build them.

The top of each card is quoted from Ann S. Masten, “Ordinary Magic: Lessons from Research on Resilience in Human Development,” Education Canada 49(3), 2009, pp. 28–32 (read the article, PDF). The bottom is this site’s own reading of how a music and art school can offer that factor. Professor Masten has not studied, reviewed or commented on this school or this campaign.

Resilience ringsConcentric circles: the child at the center, surrounded by caring adults, the school, the community and the culture.CHILDCARING ADULTSSCHOOLCOMMUNITYCULTURE
Resilience lives in the circles around a child.Masten describes a child’s capacity for resilience as “distributed across interacting systems”: caring adults, schools, communities and culture (Child Development, 2014). A school is a circle a donor can help build. And as she wrote in 2009: “Children growing up in hazardous conditions cannot wait for future research on resilience to be completed.”

Where your gift goes

Straight to the charity. Nothing in between.

Every Give button opens the official Moms Against Poverty campaign page. You give there, and they send your receipt. This site is a signpost, never a payment processor.

Recipient
Moms Against PovertyBurlingame, California · momsagainstpoverty.org
Tax status
501(c)(3) public charityExempt since Jan 2008 · IRS data via ProPublica · legal disclosure
EIN
20-8865521Matches IRS data and the charity’s own disclosures
Independent rating
Four-Star Charity95% on Charity Navigator, as of Oct 29, 2026
Portrait of Dr. Ann S. Masten, smiling, at PopTech 2012 in Camden, Maine

Photo: Thatcher Cook for PopTech, 2012 · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The scholar behind the science

Ann S. Masten, PhD

Regents Professor Emerita of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. Her research gave a hopeful name to how children recover from hardship: ordinary magic.

  • Ordinary Magic, 2nd edition (Guilford, 2025)First place, Child Health, AJN Book of the Year Awards 2025. Guilford · AJN
  • 2024 Grawemeyer Award in PsychologyFor the idea of resilience as ordinary magic. University of Louisville
  • American Academy of Arts and SciencesElected 2021. AAAS
  • 62,753 citationsPer OpenAlex, retrieved Oct 29, 2026. OpenAlex profile
  • 2025 APF Gold MedalAmerican Psychological Foundation, for impact in psychology. APF
  • 47,000+ learnersIn her free Coursera course on resilience in children, as of Oct 29, 2026. Coursera

Cited here for her published research only. Professor Masten is not involved with this campaign.

Her scholarship, from the University of Minnesota →Explore the full research atlas →Her official UMN page

Her books

Read the science in her own words.

Seven books as author or editor, from a 1990 volume on risk and protective factors to the 2025 second edition of Ordinary Magic. Each is listed with its publisher and ISBN.

The Hidden Talents Framework: Implications for Science, Policy, and Practice

Cambridge Elements in Applied Evolutionary Science

Co-author, with Bruce J. Ellis, Laura S. Abrams, Robert J. Sternberg, Nim Tottenham and Willem E. Frankenhuis · Cambridge University Press, 2023 · ISBN 9781009350068

Proposes that young people growing up in harsh environments can build intact, even enhanced, problem-solving skills, and asks what that means for schools, services and justice.

Publisher: Cambridge University Press page for The Hidden Talents Framework, opens in a new tab Amazon: The Hidden Talents Framework, opens in a new tab

Realizing the Potential of Immigrant Youth

The Jacobs Foundation Series on Adolescence

Co-editor, with Karmela Liebkind and Donald J. Hernandez · Cambridge University Press, 2012 · ISBN 9781107019508

Research on the adaptation and development of immigrant youth. Paperback 2015 (ISBN 9781316500927).

Publisher: Cambridge University Press page for Realizing the Potential of Immigrant Youth, opens in a new tab Amazon: Realizing the Potential of Immigrant Youth, opens in a new tab

Buy links go straight to the publisher and to Amazon. They carry no affiliate or tracking tags, and annmasten.org earns no commission on any sale. Professor Masten and her publishers have not reviewed or endorsed this site.

All seven books →Her scholarship, from the University of Minnesota →

Speaking

A leading authority on resilience in children.

Regents Professor Emerita at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development, past president of the Society for Research in Child Development, and a keynote speaker from Leuven to Sendai. Her work has been cited more than 62,753 times (OpenAlex, Oct 29, 2026).

  • Ordinary magic
  • Children in disaster and war
  • School success and homelessness
  • Multisystem resilience science
Talks & topics → Speaker inquiry (opens her University of Minnesota profile in a new tab)

Inquiries go to her official University of Minnesota profile. This site takes no bookings.

The Navid Izadi School of Music + Art

Help “fill the school with art, instruments, tools, joy, and hope.”

— Aden and Mamani, campaign page

Give an instrument (opens the Moms Against Poverty campaign page in a new tab) Choose your gift

For everyone

Give to the school

Four gifts, how giving works, and honest answers to common questions.

Foundations & major donors

Help build the next school

Thinking bigger: more instruments, teachers, or another children’s music and art school? Start here.