About

Project StarShot is, first and foremost, a community outreach program. It believes that meaningful change targeted at a particular group must address that group directly. It is designed to, with these communities, identify and address the issues of this gender disparity between men and women in science, engineering, and technological fields. It will target both issues of women undertaking studies in STEM, and its corollary vis a vis women going on to work in STEM fields. It will aim to course-correct by educating, and inspiring young women to pursue not only studies, but also careers, in STEM fields.

Project StarShot will aim to do this by employing a multi-modal approach, beginning first, with the identification and education of the issue. To do this, the StarShot article series will look at the pervasiveness of, and reasons

behind, gender inequality in engineering fields in urban India. This article series will then form the foundation of a workshop series to be conducted in collaboration with our NGO partner. These sessions will be directed at 14-18 year old girls, and seek to raise awareness of the career trajectories they have available to them, should they wish to pursue STEM education. Project StarShot will further aim to look closely at where we’ve gotten it right — through an interview series with prominent women in Physics and Engineering fields: an inquiry into their experiences and insights into success in a male-dominated field. Since the project runs along a theme of accessibility, this interview series will be converted into a webinar where girls can engage with these women and understand the nuances of women’s success in STEM.

Crucially, Project StarShot acknowledges that among the many obstacles facing women hoping to pursue an education or career in STEM, we must also recognize the significant mental health challenges that such an undertaking entails - too often, women are compelled to sacrifice their mental health and wellbeing in order to succeed in these fields, and the anxiety, stress, and depression associated with overcoming systemic challenges often goes unrecognized. It is also important to acknowledge that women’s mental health requirements and issues are not always the same as those of their male counterparts, which means that a one-size-fits-all approach might prove insufficient. That is why, as part of our broader efforts, Project StarShot seeks to include and address issues relating to mental health and well-being, in both our content and engagement efforts. After all, success is not the only metric by which we should measure women’s participation - well-being and happiness are just as important!