Authors: Grace Li and Vrinda Iyengar

I had the pleasure of interviewing Athenian EmpowHer in this installment of our Student Spotlight Series. We are joined by Siri Kelshikar, Isabella Semis, and Natasha Sinha, leaders of Athenian EmpowHer, to discuss women’s empowerment and how they create change within their community. 

Q1: Please introduce yourself/your team and the mission of Athenian EmpowHer!

Hello! Our names are Siri Kelshikar, Isabella Semis, and Natasha Sinha! We are the Athenian EmpowHer leaders and run a podcast to inspire young women to pursue their passions professionally. Siri is the STEM Outreach lead, Isabella is the Business and Law Outreach lead, and Natasha is the Student Board and Community Engagement lead. We work together to produce podcast episodes every 8th of the month, but are also in progress of planning an event for anyone in the community to join. (The event is an interactive booth fair and a professional panel, more details to come on our Instagram!) Our mission is to empower young women to pursue their passions in a professional field, whether it is in STEM, Business, Law, etc. in a fun and exciting manner. 

Q2: What inspired you to start Athenian EmpowHer and how do your initial motivations influence your approach towards conducting interviews for your organization?

EmpowHer is inspired and Based off of Athenian WiSE, a program and public event that encouraged young women’s interests in STEM fields. We wanted to take that idea a step further by including Business, law, finance and more! Also, Isabella and Siri attended Stanford’s Young Women’s Leadership Summit and was inspired by the host of the podcast “She Can Ball” to create our own podcast to reach a wider community audience. Since our podcast features talented women from our local community and beyond, we thought it would be fitting to launch our first episode on international women’s day, March 8th, and to continue that legacy by our monthly podcast episodes being on the 8th.

Q3: Why did you decide on a podcast format specifically, and how do you think the format of a podcast lends itself to working towards the empowerment of women?

We landed on a podcast format due to its conversational nature to help our audience feel like they are talking to these professionals themselves. By hearing first hand experiences from doctors, engineers, physicists, and teachers about their job and their journey to achieving their dream is tremendously impactful. By hearing these stories, young women can learn that there is no “correct” path needed to achieve a dream, and if you are determined and passionate, anything truly is possible!

Q4: How can people support or get involved with your organization right now?

One way that Athenian EmpowHer can be supported is by tuning in to our episodes, following us on Instagram to learn more about the women we highlight and our future event, but most importantly, to whomever is reading this article, we hope that this can empower you to pursue your passions, take that risk and be curious about things that excite you!

Support Athenian EmpowHer on their socials here:
Website: https://athenianempowher.wixsite.com/athenian-empowher
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/athenianempowher
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/16yifwvCHAU8rl8rAyXMIB?si=EFo2hui4T1qLfo_5sth-WA
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AthenianEmpowHer