The Female Factor Podcast

In today's episode, you'll meet Maya Puterman. She is a high school junior and the founder of four businesses: Paperecoshop, STEAM News, Teens Make It Happen & Fresh Opportunities. You can follow her on Instagram @mayaputerman where she has linked the rest of her business Instagram accounts.

Hi listeners! In today's episode, you'll hear from Bodhi Mathur.

Bodhi is an Indian American artist from Northern New Jersey who began practicing art since elementary school. She predominately works in oil paint, pen and ink, and charcoal, though she experiments with a variety of mediums. Her most recent works are informed by the relationship between the body, mind, and cultural experience, referencing works from psychological criticism and literary tradition, as well as personal experience. The works largely depict abstract renderings of the female form and hope to discuss the state of womanhood and female agency amidst the current social climate.

She emphasizes the importance of gesture and mark-making as revealing the unconscious, and is excited to continue to explore these themes as a first-year student of the Barnard College of Columbia University. When not making art, Bodhi volunteers at a local women’s center, is an active Girl Scout and Girl Representative, and can always be found with a good book (she's currently reading Beloved by Toni Morrison)!

You can find Bodhi's art on Instagram @bodhinavonaart.

Hi listeners!

In today's episode, you'll hear from Sophie Shulman, founder of Queers Uplifting Queers (QUQ) about how to start a non-profit as a teen and her journey along the way.

Hope you enjoy!

Hi listeners!

In today's episode, I interviewed Chinmayi Balusu. Chinmayi Balusu is a final-year student pursuing neuro-epidemiology at Columbia University. Her current research projects focus on stroke, brain injury, cross-cultural neuroethics and youth science communication. Outside of academia, Chinmayi is the founder and CEO of Simply Neuroscience, a global non-profit organization expanding early and interdisciplinary access to neuroscience for students. Additionally, she serves in leadership and advisory roles with STEM advocacy platforms such as 500 Women Scientists, HFC, American Brain Coalition, ALBA Network and the International Neuroethics Society. For her community impact efforts, she has been recognized as a Global Teen Leader and Everyday Young Hero, among other honors.

Tune in to learn about what it is like to be a woman in STEM.

Hi listeners! In today's episode, I spoke with Chuying Huo.

Chuying is a 16-year-old activist from Ontario, Canada, with a passion for gender equality, public health, and data science. She is the Executive Director of CoVisualize, an education nonprofit that teaches underprivileged youth how to use data science to tackle global issues. Chuying is also a member of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative's Transform Education campaign, advocating for gender representation in higher education. As a research intern at Harvard's Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA), she uses data science to identify geographic disparities in access to healthcare. Her research on the spatial accessibility of eating disorder treatment centers in Massachusetts earned her a speaker role at UNESCO's "Women and Girls: Innovation and higher education" Fireside Chat. In her free time, she enjoys going on runs and reading classical literature. 

Hope you enjoy the episode!

Hi listeners!

In today's episode, I interviewed Manavi Bajpai.

Manavi Bajpai is the founder of Tunes For Kidz and plasy the cello, piano, guitar, ukulele, and is a singer/songwriter! I'm a high school student in Brentwood, TN who has a love for music and just wants to share it with kids everywhere! She is current senior in high school and started this organization almost 2 years ago and couldn't be prouder of the amazing team we have!

Check out Tunes For Kidz:

https://www.tunesforkidz.org/

Hi listeners!

In this episode, you'll meet Alicia Tang.

Alicia is a published and award-winning writer and a first-year student at Northwestern University. She is majoring in journalism and economics while pursuing a marketing certificate at the Medill School of Journalism. Throughout her high school career, she has developed an affinity for both creative and informative writing. She has served as Editor-in-Chief of her high school newspaper and literary magazine, interned at her local newspaper, and served as a freelance writer for a mental health and psychology newsletter. Currently, she reports for both her college newspaper and their broadcast news station and works as an undergraduate research assistant for Medill’s professor Craig Duff to publish a weekly video newsletter.

Hope you enjoy this episode!

Hi listeners! On today's episode, you'll meet Valentina de Pablo.

Valentina was born in Mexico City on March 9th 2004. Her parents are both artists, so her house is essentially an art studio. Despite growing up in this creative environment, her parents took academics very seriously and encouraged her to pursue scientific subjects. They sent her to a French school in Mexico City at the age of 3 where she did her whole scholar career until graduating this summer and then coming to the University of Chicago.

(Sorry about the audio quality in some parts of this podcast)

Veda Swaminathan is a current first-year student at the University of Chicago and a recent graduate of Greenwich High School. Published in the Journal of Future Economists by the New York Federal Reserve, National Champion for the 2020 Euro Challenge, two-time recipient of the World Affairs Forum Award, and Greenwich High School Scholar Leader, Veda is extremely passionate about global affairs and macroeconomic theory; she aims to eventually work in finance and at its intersection with social impact.

During her junior year, Veda co-founded the Imagine, Innovate, Inspire (I3) Competition after observing the damage done to the small business community during the COVID-19 pandemic. She brought Aarya Dhru, another GHS junior, onto the team and forged a partnership with the Institute of Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL) in order to maximize the impact of her work. After serving 50+ high school students and 20+ businesses, Veda is working on taking this competition to a national scale, expanding its mentorship program, building the management team, and completing the registration process for non-profit status. You can contact the I3 competition [email protected] if you have any questions or would like to join the management team.

The focus of the I3 Competition is twofold: first, we work to provide business owners who have historically had difficulty getting access to capital and resources with the tools to adapt their businesses online and maintain that online presence; second, we aim to give high school students a chance to make a real impact and apply entrepreneurial/professional skills in the real world. To do this, we pair teams of 3-4 high school students with a real IFEL small business and give the students two weeks to develop an app, website, or social media presence for the business in the competition’s Practical Division. Mentorship is a core tenant of our competition. All student participants have direct access to formal mentorship sessions with Partners at Big4 consulting firms and corporate digital strategy experts, but they also have unbridled access to informal mentorship from their small business partners. This mentorship is not just for hard entrepreneurial skills like data collection, analysis, and social media marketing, but for soft skills like team management, communication, and professionalism.

In this episode, you'll meet Anna Dao.

Anna Dao is the founder and president of Next Wave Hawaii. When the COVID-19 hit and her local food banks were struggling with the lack of food, she and her cousins stepped in to try and help. She decided to run a food drive where people didn't have to leave the comfort of their homes to donate food; instead, they distributed flyers to houses around their neighborhood to let their neighbors know to leave any donations on their doorsteps for them to come by and pick up. After hosting more food drives, they now have donated a total of 2074 pounds of food to the Hawaii Food Bank.

Tune in for a great episode!