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Hi everyone. My name is Alisha Raghoonanan.

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I am a project engineer/project manager
for EGP South Africa,

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and I've been selected to participate
in the “Back to school” program

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to raise awareness at high school level
with STEM careers,

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because that is when girls
would be making career choices

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and moving into university level.

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My high school is Lenasia Secondary

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and it is in a little Indian district
in Johannesburg South.

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And what we found is that
our communities are very orthodox,

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parents are usually very strict and stern on girls

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and they view engineering still
as a very male dominated field.

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So I find that having selected these four girls

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and started the mentorship program with them,

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we've gotten to a point now where
there's almost a sense of inspiration

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and companionship that's there because
we've come from the same background,

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so we can relate to each other.

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When you think of an engineer,
you think of… you've got a very, you know,

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set kind of specification in your mind
of what this person looks like,

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how they conduct themselves.

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And that's no longer the accurate definition.

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When I first got to the school

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and I started having this conversation with (with) them,

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I could almost see like the lights go off in their brain,

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or their eyes widen, and they were like:

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“Oh, my goodness, this person is an engineer!”

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that grew up the same way they did

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and experienced all the same challenges
that they've experienced.

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I'm proud to be a female engineer in South Africa.

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I would really, really like

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to have other young ladies join me
in the renewable space.

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We can really make such a huge difference in the country

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and maybe even globally.

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We still have a lot of work to do.

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And the most important thing, in my opinion,

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is for us to shift our mindsets.

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We have to treat everybody the same
and measure them

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based on their performance and
what they can do and their intelligence.

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