Collaboration Sector
The collaboration team is in charge of finding potential and like-minded groups and organizations, creating lasting friendly connections with them, and finding opportunities for possible collaborations. This sector also focuses on publicizing those groups and organizations to accomplish our vision of nourishing a more gender-equal community. We contact via e-mail a lot of organizations and speakers and directly negotiate with them in most cases. Here at Equala, we believe that change begins with creating a strongly bonded community.
Safe Buddy
The Safe Buddy Japan members exhibited their booth at the National Olympic Memorial Youth Center. Safe Buddy primarily focuses on issues surrounding girls’ safeties. And through the hopes of creating a more safe and equal society they have been dedicating their time and efforts to develop an application. They’re currently still in the developing stages of the application. However, the demo they have presented at the booth shows a very promising future. Other than developing the application, they have also done workshops all around the globe in collaboration with their Taiwan, Nepal, and Philippines chapter.
In A.W.E
1. Please give a short self introduction (name, age, hobbies and so on)
Riya Patel:
My name is Riya and I’m 16 and about to be a junior in high school. I love to bake, read, and code in my free time. I’m also looking into starting my own baking business in the near future! I joined on a whim and wasn’t expecting to get as passionate about it as I am now. I’ve always cared a lot about women of color representation in STEM but wouldn’t have thought that I’d be behind something like this.
Erika Salvador:
My name is Erika, and I’m a rising junior from Houston, Texas. As the founder of In A.W.E, I’ve always had a passion for Asian culture and getting women interested in the STEM field, so I created the In A.W.E organization to combine those two passions of mine. During my free time, I like listening to music, hanging out with my friends, and playing escape rooms. In fact, I’ve played over 60 escape rooms across the United States.
2. Please introduce and describe In A.W.E. (Primary focus, goals, and so on)
Riya Patel:
I joined AWE after seeing Erika asking for help starting the account in the Geneva chat for Kode with Klossy. I joined on a whim and wasn’t expecting to get as passionate about it as I am now. I’ve always cared a lot about women of color representation in STEM but wouldn’t have thought that I’d be behind something like this. I’m really grateful this opportunity came my way because I’ve gotten to make some amazing friends with the other girls who run the account alongside me. I’ve also gotten a chance to go out of my comfort zone and reach out to women and interview them, which is something I wouldn’t have thought I’d be doing a month ago. It’s only been a month of working on this account/project but I’m already so proud of the work we’ve done and the online community we’re creating.
Erika Salvador:
A.W.E, which stands for Asian Women Everywhere, is an organization that aims to highlight the stories of Women of Asian descent who work in the STEM field. And through the power of social media, we hope to inspire other women, specifically but not limited to those of Asian descent, to pursue a STEM career. How the organization works is we interview women over zoom and create an Instagram post that summarizes what they said during the interview. We touch on topics such as the culture of the STEM field, their accomplishments, and their Asian culture. All in all, women of Asian descent aren’t given proper representation in the media and are often affected by harmful stereotypes in the workforce and their everyday lives, so In A.W.E organization hopes to show other Asian women in STEM that they are not alone and that they can accomplish anything they put their minds to.
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A.W.E, which stands for Asian Women Everywhere, is an organization that aims to highlight the stories of Women of Asian descent who work in the STEM field
3. Please explain how others girls that are interested can join In A.W.E. (Are there plans for applications and recruitment?)
As of this interview, we aren’t taking anyone on our officer team, but we may have (voluntary) officer positions opening up in the future. If you would like to know if we have any positions open up, follow our Instagram, which is where we post all of our updates. If you are a woman of Asian descent who is getting a STEM related degree at a university or is actively working in the STEM field, please direct message our account in order to schedule an interview with us and share your story.