ISW WEW: The Next Generation Speaks: What drives them, motivates them, and keeps them going!
By Kalyani Kanuri

As part of ISW’s ongoing series of Women Empowering Women (WEW) panel discussions, this month’s event featured an impressive panel of young women. Held on March 5^th via a Zoom session, these young women of South Asian heritage offered unique perspectives and valuable insights on how they decided on a career path, what motivates them, and what keeps them motivated. The program was kicked off by Snehalata Kadam, chair of WEW who gave an overview of WEW’s core mission and the importance of learning from these young talented women. This discussion is aimed at helping students in making educational and occupational choices based on the experiences of the panelists.  The impressive panel consisted of Amee Desai, Gayathri Nandyalam, Kavya Ragunathan, Rhea Vyas, Sneha Hingorani, and Shubh Agrawal.

Kavya completed her undergraduate studies at Boston University and worked for a few years at the Broad Institute where she realized her love for research.  She is a first-year doctoral student at Duke University studying developmental and stem-cell Biology.  She moderated the event and asked the panel thought provoking questions while also providing her insights. Throughout her childhood, Kavya wanted to pursue a career either in PR or communications. But when she listened to a lecture on neuroscience in college, she fell in love with it and that got her thinking about a career in science. Kavya provided wonderful recommendations on career choices and talked about the importance of personal wellbeing. She is a huge believer in the importance of carving out personal time which is as essential as eating and sleeping

Amee, recently finished her master’s in health care administration at the University of Connecticut and has been working as a Team Lead at Definitive Healthcare for the past two years. She always knew that she wanted to pursue a career in healthcare although she was not sure if she wanted to focus on the administrative or clinical side. Amee credits the wide range of classes offered at UConn for helping her decide to focus on the administration side of healthcare. Amee encourages students to be open minded and take a variety of classes before deciding on a major.

Gayathri is a senior at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), studying Computer science and is interning at Microsoft this summer before returning to Georgia Tech for her master’s in computer science. Growing up she wanted to study medicine and become a either a neurologist or a cardiologist. She participated in a lot of premedical programs but in her freshman year at college she had a change of heart after taking classes in computer science, entrepreneurship, and leadership. She has found a common connection between her two passions of medicine and computers and would love to utilize her computer skills to make an impact in the medical field. She encourages students to be open minded and explore various courses before deciding on a career path.

Rhea teaches first grade while also pursuing her Master’s in Moderate Disabilities at Worcester State University. From a young age, Rhea knew that she wanted to make an impact on our youth and pursue a career in teaching. Growing up she felt the pressure from the South Asian community to become either a doctor or engineer. With the encouragement and support of her parents, she overcame these pressures and followed her passion and became an elementary school teacher. Rhea has a special interest in urban education which stemmed from growing up in New York City. She encourages students to follow their interests and not to compare with their peers.

Sneha is a third-year medical student at Drexel university’s College of Medicine in Philadelphia. Throughout her undergraduate years, she explored options such as physical therapy, Physician assistant but eventually decided to pursue a career in practicing medicine. She worked in a clinical setting during her gap year between her undergraduate studies and medical school. She felt that that time away from school helped her develop immensely both on a professional and personal level. She feels that it was one of the best decisions of her life.

Shubh worked as a high school counsellor for a few years before deciding to pursue a degree in clinical psychology. She received her bachelors from Brown University in Health and Human Biology and is currently pursuing her doctoral Studies at William James College. Her long-term goal is to help the South Asian community as she feels that there is a dearth of Clinical psychologists focusing on the unique challenges of our community. She also emphasized the importance of selfcare and the need to prioritize health and wellness especially in our younger generations.

Overall, this WEW event was very informative as the participants did an excellent job articulating the considerations behind their career decisions. The panelists provided invaluable advice and guidance to our younger audience.