SARIC Rising Tide

asha khanal 14 15 Asha’s determined focus on continuing her professional growth first connected her with SAR100 and a training program on green hydrogen being held in New Delhi, India. She talked her way into the course, despite it being targeted toward an Indian audience. It’s the same focus that drew her to the SAR100 program for women in the energy sector. “I knew I definitely wanted to attend,” Asha muses, adding, “I wonder if I am the only one who applied in three ways: by myself, and nominated both by my employer and the Nepal Engineer’s Association! The syllabus caught my eye; it was very challenging and provided training and networking at a level I had not seen before.” What’s been invaluable for Asha is the program’s focus on connecting participants across borders—opening windows into what other countries are doing with renewable energy and helping them work better, both within their countries and across geographies and cultures. Collaboration also plays a key role outside of work, and her biggest regret is that each day offers just 24 hours. She’s regularly invited to speak with, and mentor young students, and is an active volunteer with the Nepal Engineer’s Association, where she works to increase awareness of STEM education in schools. As an active association member, she helps organise annual programs that bring engineers to classrooms in government schools. This is valuable exposure, especially given that only 20% of female students in Nepal want to study engineering. Most focus their attention on medicine, or nursing. “I love to see their attention and interest change when they see women engineers in front of them. It’s the classic: if she can do it, so can I mindset and we see it happening in real time.” says Asha, before adding a powerful statistic. “Women make up 51% of our population. And yet, they only represent 12% of the workforce. That makes our awareness programs even more important. We are still struggling with development - sustainable development - and I always encourage female students to help our country develop by studying STEM in particular. Our society is changing fast, and we know that. Sometimes our thinking is cemented by habit. Let’s do our best to break it. At the same time, we should be accountable and responsible leaders and stewards of this change.” breaking mindsets Asha enjoys a conversation with a peer at the SAR100 program SAR100 has given me increased visibility at work and the opportunity to collaborate with my capstone-project mates on international research papers, including ‘Market insights and Comprehensive Review on Agrophotovoltaics’, expected to be submitted to the IEEE PES conference.