In light of last week's International Day of the Girl as well as Global Girl Power's 5th anniversary we had an honour to chat with the amazing Shinjini Das and asked her what it means to be an empowered woman. A Global Millennial Influencer & who champions Global Girl Power ’s mission. Meet The GO-GETTER GIRL, Shinjini Das.
In #sisterhood here is a candid interview of Shinjini Das by Lucky Gill
THE GO-GETTER GIRL
A Multi-Media Personality, a Keynote Speaker, Global Millennial Influencer, Huffington Post Contributor, Brand Spokesperson, and an Engineer. She is fluent in Spanish, and was invited to moderate a panel at the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations Headquarters in recognition as a Global Hero for her international advocacy work to achieve gender equality and champion women’s empowerment.
Shinjini was profiled in INC. Magazine as a Global Hero to share her thoughts on broadening access to education for girls globally, and interviewed in FORBES Magazine as an entrepreneur balancing a corporate career on her strategies to monetize one’s value.
““Shinjini Das grew up in Asia and witnessed the disproportionate school dropout rate for girls. Now, she is working with Usher’s New Look Foundation and the UN to change the ratio and make sure that all girls get an education.” - INC Magazine”
Q & A
Shinjini tell our readers about your background, family and education ?
Born in India, I grew up in Malaysia and spent my adolescence and life ever since in America. Growing up, I enjoyed a very close-knit relationship with my parents and sister, as well as extended family. Every single person in my family believes in the power of strong women who write their own stories, so I am incredibly fortunate to have grown up with such love, support, affection, and encouragement. Education was emphasized from an early age, and I was always a very focused, diligent, and intelligent girl in school. In 2010, I entered Georgia Tech on the President’s Scholarship, and graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Incredibly thankful for the infinite love, support, encouragement, and firm belief from family and friends!
How have you overcome your struggles?
Sheer grit, determination, and an unrelenting work ethic have been vital to overcoming my struggles. In addition, the switch from a fixed to growth mindset was greatly transnational because it proved to me that any quality, subject, or knowledge can be learned, acquired, and or developed with the correct mentality, attitude, and focus. No skill or achievement is out of bounds!
What does success mean to you?
Success is a very holistic pursuit in my mind combining equal elements of personal and professional fulfillment, because one without the effect of the other is meaningless. I have crafted my life around impact on the broadest public platform, which is a deep meaning of success because envisioning your impact in empowering others to act to achieve their highest potential is supremely gratifying. In the future, I hope to continue to live a life based on service, impact, and deep fulfillment.
Who and what inspires you and why?
The stories of those who have escalated echelons in their lifetimes are incredibly inspiring to me, in that I greatly respect the drive, determination, work ethic, and ambition required to climb the ranks from level 0 to level 10, because while it is natural to stay in one’s zone, it requires a different level of will power and mental agility to forego the comfort zone and seek comfort in a higher level of being as well as global impact. I am thoroughly inspired by the men and women who ask more of themselves and their lives every day.
What are your hobbies, and how can someone connect with the authentic you? Some of my favorite hobbies include dancing, listening to music, trying out a wide variety of restaurants (big foodie!), shopping for the latest jewelry and fashion trends, and reading inspirational books. In order to connect with my authentic self, someone would have to be authentic themselves, and live with grace, class, intelligence, and morality.
Tell us about your career and achievements
Over the course of the past year and a half in American media, I have truly discovered my passion for creating social change via the digital medium, which is a very exciting space to play in right now. In the past year, a couple of highlights included launching the ‘Every Hour Matters’ campaign while serving as panel moderator at the United Nations Headquarters as a UN partner Together for Girls Global Hero in order to advocate for the streamlining of resources available globally to facilitate post-rape care. In addition, I was profiled in FORBES as an entrepreneur speaking to monetizing value and identifying a unique selling proposition for an individual, brand, or product. Looking to the future, I am incredibly excited about leading my digital media company to greater heights in 2017 and creating mass waves of global social change via my work as a speaker, multi-media personality, and writer.
What makesyou angry, if anything ?
On a personal level, feelings of a lack of fulfillment and on a professional level, a lack of high quality progress towards achievements of aforementioned goals is incredibly irritating to me.
Shinjini, in your words, what do you think needs to be done to help out the less empowered?
Education is paramount to empowering those in all positions, particularly those who lack access to resources which enable empowerment. I have made it my mission to devote a portion of my time in 2017 to speaking to underprivileged youth, specifically, about the powers of visions, dreams, and ambitions, because I truly believe that education and awareness are the first step towards closing the gap between the empowered and not. Dreaming of a more fulfilling future is the principal step towards progressing to achieve said future.
Education is paramount to empowering those in all positions, particularly those who lack access to resources which enable empowerment
Shinjini Das- The Go-Getter Girl
What does EMPOWERMENT, GIRL POWER, and EQUALITY mean to you ?
Global empowerment of girls and women is essentially critical to society’s welfare and sustained progress. It is dangerous to ill-equip 50% of the population to face life’s daily struggles, challenges, and more because dis-empowerment truly does not serve anyone in the slightest sense. We must collectively champion the importance of educating girls and then focus on equipping them with the correct skill set to achieve financial, intellectual, emotional, and physical empowerment. My greatest dream is to live in a world where every girl and woman is empowered, and until we achieve this desired state, we cannot relinquish our powers to transform the status quo. Equality is essentially important to achieving sustained progress since we must consider everyone’s ideas, and fail to move forward if we inherently consider one human being to be intrinsically less than another. STOP this.
What are your interests, and do you pursue them? Any pictures?
Yes, I love dance, music, reading, restaurants, jewelry, and fashion – literally obsessed with jewelry and fashion, which goes to show that you can very well be an empowered woman, a powerful boss, a super commanding leader, yet still be extraordinarily feminine and revel in your innate femininity. I want to empower a greater number of women to own their intrinsically feminine power in achieving success in the workplace and world. No woman must become a man to succeed in the world! LOVE yourself!
"You can very well be an empowered woman, a powerful boss, a super commanding leader, yet still be extraordinarily feminine and revel in your innate femininity."~ Shinjini Das
What message or advice would you give to other young girls and women? LOVE yourself and your innate femininity! Never feel like you must transform yourself into a man to succeed in the workplace and in the world, because you are infinitely more powerful if you choose to harness your female energy and lead from your center, not from a place of dis-ingenuousness. LOVE your woman-ness!
What inspires you to work with Global Girl Power?
I champion Global Girl Power’s mission of empowering, educating, supporting, and protecting women and girls around the world because every girl truly can change the world if she is supported with the opportunity to do so. As a speaker, multi-media personality, and Huffington Post contributor, I advocate extremely passionately for women’s empowerment, and believe that when a woman is intellectually, physically, emotionally, and financially empowered, she is a force to be reckoned with and an agent of global change poised to write one of the greatest stories ever written.
““I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by BEING.” ”
Global Girl Power dedicates the above quotes to Shinjini Das who is an empowering and globally recognized versatile talent with a worldwide social media following of 67K+. She has been featured on ABC, FOX, NBC,CBC, Sirius XM, INC & FORBES. Global Girl Power wishes The Go-Getter Girl all the best for all her endevours ! Follow her journey @SpeakerShinjini and on www.shinjinidas.com
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you
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What is your story?
Signing off in #GlobalSisterhood
Together We Are Stronger