It is such a pleasure to welcome Puja Talesara, co-founder of Leadership Demystified, a podcast series on Linkedin, as a ‘Guest Influencer’ at Womenlines panel!
A leadership coach mentored by John Mattone (former executive coach to the late Steve Jobs ), HR expert, Podcaster and mother of 2 lovely kids, Puja Talesara has donned multiple hats with success.
In the 2nd podcast of the series, ‘Discover Excellence with Puja and Charu’ Puja is stating that Maternity Break Should not Be a Break’
Key takeaways from Puja’s sharing-
- Maternity phase should be termed ‘Reignite’ and ‘Reinvent’ phase.
- This phase should be used to discover own hidden strength
- If you are not happy you cannot make your child happy. So work upon your mind, body and soul to make yourself happy.
- Let not other people noise become your inner voice
- Stop judging yourself and stop carrying guilt for things which you are not able to do for kids.
- Focus on managing your energy. Draw a circle, where is your time going and how much energy going. As a mother your time and energy is precious.
- Respond to the things in life, don’t react
Charu Mehrotra
Promoting Excellence in Women!
Founder Womenlines
As an online media partner, Womenlines takes pleasure to share brief about International Youth Leadership and Innovation Forum (2018) in Singapore-
Marks have got only little to do with the future readiness of our children. If that is the case, what helps them to make them future-proof? That was the main thread that IYLIF 2018 dealt with in its annual conference.
International Youth Leadership and Innovation Forum (IYLIF) was held on the 23rd and 24th of September at Lifelong Learning Institute, Singapore.Radio Masti 24*7 Live Singapore was the ‘Official Radio Station’ for IYLIF 2018. As in the previous year, this year also had a theme that was very timely. “Education Disruption in the world of artificial intelligence”, was the theme of IYLIF 2018.
In order to make our children future-ready, it is essential to reimagine education. That will only be fair when we bring all stakeholders of education together. And that is exactly what IYLIF conferences do. Youth, educators, industry experts, thought leaders and parents came together to create a dialogue to reimagine education.
The most commendable aspect of IYLIF is its tradition of making youth one of the stakeholders of education. International Youth Ambassadors, identified through a selection process, from various countries, is a major voice of this conference. What is even more commendable is its strong focus on coaching the International Youth Ambassadors with confidence and public speaking skills and mentoring them to take their ideas into action.
IYLIF 2018 was very successful in empowering the students, parents, educators with the strong mindset and knowledge about how to groom students from an early stage of life with the skillset required for future.
Sindu Sreebhavan is the Founder and Chairperson of IYLIF, CEO of As Many Minds Pte Ltd, author of Infinite Possibilities and lead author of Breakthrough. She is doing the amazing work of promoting excellence in youth through the incredible platform of International Youth Leadership and Innovation Forum (IYLIF). Sindu says, “IYLIF is in the process of creating a pool of young change makers from around the world and to help them realize their real potential. In the next five years, we have a mission to help 1 million youth unlock their potential.” With such a vision, it is easy to see why eminent personalities and organizations rally behind her to support her achieve her goal.
The first day of the event was the IYLIF 2018 Annual Conference. It was highlighted by speeches and panel discussions by keynote speakers, and International Youth Ambassadors, from various countries.A vision becomes a success only when it is supported by people who have the calibre to execute it. Sindu has put together a great team in achieving that. The chief mentor of the IYLIF program is the internationally famous next-level leadership readiness expert, author of international bestsellers on leadership and the World Champion of Public Speaking Manoj Vasudevan.
Dr. Snighdha Sharma worked together with Sindu to ensure the management of the highly successful IYLIF 2018. The speakers and mentors at the forum were another testimony to the fact that IYLIF is going to stay for years to come. Dynamic international speaker Avi Liran was the opening keynote speaker for the event. He encouraged the audience to DARE. Vivek Kumar, Executive Director, NTUC Singapore; Board Member of IMDA, NTUC Club, ESH Honorary Chairman of Asia Pacific Advisory Board of CMO Council spoke on “Being ready for the Future”. Hitesh Ramchandani, the young international celebrity speaker empowered the audience with his speech “Better than normal Gen Z.” Tay Guan Hin spoke about “Paper or Passion”, the age-old question by sharing his inspiring life story of an academic failure to becoming the Global Executive Creative Director of J. Walter Thompson.
Other eminent speakers and panelists such as Jonathan Chee, Khyati Kapai, Lavinia Thanapathy, Mavis Ho, Michael Henry, Michelle Martin, Ms. Suchi, Puja Talesara, Rahul Shah, Ramesh I. Perera, Rayson Choo, Samiksha Tembhurne, Sandeep Pachpande, Selvakumar Simon, Sonia Kapur, Varada Murthy, Vicky Vaswani, Vivek Iyyani, Yana Fry.
Ruby Mathur, Aditi Vasudevan, Andrena Phoon and Sehr Sannah Kapur did a great job with hosting the conference as the masters of ceremonies. The three International Youth Ambassadors from last year, Aditi Vasudevan, Andrena Phoon and Sehr Sannah Kapur took the responsibility of MCing the event, along with Ruby, with much enthusiasm and confidence. All panel discussions sparkled with interaction. The combination of masterful facilitation and expert panelists resulted in making it one of the best interactive events in the city. What is more interesting is the fact that the forum also used technological platforms to boost audience interaction.
IYLIF 2018 explored four major perspectives in relation to education disruption – technology, values and soft skills, diversity and professional development for teachers to equip them to face the uncertain future. Keynote by Zubin Daruwalla on the topic “Role of mentorship in education” opened up a crucial area we often tend to miss. International Youth Ambassadors amazed the audience with their impressive speaking skills, ideas and quality of thoughts. The mentoring provided to them was evident in their speeches.
On Day 2 of IYLIF 2018, there were separate workshops for teachers and parents. The students took on a journey from a growth mindset to SMILE to design thinking to Morse Code translation. At the students’ workshop, while Sindu Sreebhavan facilitated her favourite topics Growth Mindset and Design Thinking, Ruqya Khan took a session on SMILE and Gabriel Perumal on Morse Code translation. At the teachers’ workshop, Manoj Vasudevan mesmerized his audience with his talk on public speaking and storytelling skills for teachers. Furthermore, there was a mesmerizing session on values by Mallika Kripalani. Sindu Sreebhavan took a session on “How to implement growth mindset in the classroom.”
We see how IYLIF is becoming a major voice in implementing its tagline – “Creating the future.” IYLIF 2018 was extremely successful in giving the much-needed pointers to the education industry, parents, youth and educators. We are sure the education systems around the world has taken notice of the takeaways from this forum. If they take action on at least ten-per cent of those pointers, I am sure we will have a brighter future ahead.
Charu Mehrotra
Promoting Excellence in Women!
Founder Womenlines
Womenlines takes pleasure to welcome Dr Lakshmi Ramachandran as a ‘Guest Influencer’ at Womenlines panel. Dr Lakshmi is an active proponent of female participation in science. She is a keynote speaker, blogger, author and mother of two. Passionate about writing and speaking Lakshmi loves to inspire, provide hope and motivate people around the world through diverse stories from her life as a woman in science and mother. In this article, Dr Lakshmi is sharing an interesting aspect of how volunteering can help you in career advancement-
Here I share my experiences volunteering in science and my learnings on how it can help to advance your career.
1. Identifying a suitable volunteering opportunity
Although I used to volunteer in local groups, committees and activities all through my career in science, my first opportunity to volunteer in an international group came quite unexpectedly. I met Dr.Fanuel Muindi, co-founder of The STEM Advocacy Institute at the UNESCO international symposium and policy forum focused on girls education in STEM. He had presented the stories in science project at the symposium. Stories in Science is an initiative through which real stories of scientists are curated from around the world. These stories, which bring to light the challenges, failures and successes of people in science serve as a resource for the public and aspiring scientists to understand the nature of science.
Later, through follow-up emails, I got to know more about the goals and mission of this think tank, which is to conduct advocacy research that leads to the development of new ideas, tools, and insights to support trainees, organizations, and policy makers in science around the world. The concept resonated well with my personal values, ideas, and vision for science to benefit all. I shared my own story in science and very soon I found myself in an enthusiastic science think tank discussing and implementing ideas.
2. Volunteering in science helps to expand your knowledge base
Despite being a busy working mother, I found time to volunteer for the STEM Advocacy Institute owing to a passion I developed for the stories in science initiative and the wonderful and supportive team. Also, I have felt that when volunteering, the pressure is less and satisfaction is high. Although the responsibility when taking up assignments is the same as a regular job, there is greater flexibility and added the fun element to volunteering. I felt that in very little time, I gained more knowledge on science communications, especially global insights, and realized the power of stories in science to effectively penetrate the society. Also, the amount of learning I have gained being in this group is significant as every idea, publication, initiative and tool is shared through the group and regular team meetings.
3. Volunteering in science helps to expand your network
Needless to say, volunteering for the STEM advocacy institute has helped to expand my professional network considerably. I now collaborate with people from all over the world and the experience is phenomenally rewarding.
4. Volunteering enables you to give back to the society
Besides the STEM Advocacy Institute, I have self-initiated a couple of voluntary projects to promote the participation of females in the STEM (Science, Technology, Education, and Mathematics) education and careers. One of this is the organizing of the Gender Summit in Singapore in 2019 (Aug 27/28). In my experience, I have not only felt empowered myself through these activities but also have gained a lot of fulfilment in empowering others in the process. I have received tremendous support from like-minded people and that is fuel and strength for forging ahead despite challenges. Finally, when the focus is the benefit of the society and people, it benefits everyone involved. Volunteering in science can help you bridge a career gap and land your next job in science
I joined the team initially as the stories in science ambassador and was later recruited as a Senior Program Specialist at the STEM Advocacy Institute. This helped me put to use my biggest strengths- thorough analysis and development of strategies – as well as networking and communication skills. The volunteering experience enabled me to pursue the next level in my career through renewed confidence, exciting new network and opportunities. Based on my personal experience I highly recommend volunteering/internship in science as a way to expand your horizon and advance your career in science.
5. Volunteering in science can help bridge a career break/ land your next job in science
I joined the team initially as the stories in science ambassador and was later recruited as a Senior Program Specialist at the STEM Advocacy Institute. This helped me put to use my biggest strengths- thorough analysis and development of strategies – as well as networking and communication skills. The volunteering experience enabled me to pursue the next level in my career through renewed confidence, exciting new network and opportunities. Based on my personal experience I highly recommend volunteering/internship in science as a way to expand your horizon and advance your career in science. This is also an excellent way for those, especially women, who have taken a career break to focus on family, to maintain and build networks that may help bridge your career gap and land your next job.
What are the types of volunteering opportunities in science?
You could look for volunteering opportunities 1) within your institute/university such as contributing to outreach and career development programs, 2) local or global non profit organizations such as the UN or UNESCO (https://www.unv.org/become-volunteer) 3) programs such as the On-Call scientists by AAAS (https://oncallscientists.aaas.org/en) 4) freelancing to write articles on science and health care for biotech platforms 5) Self-initiate projects/missions close to your heart such as going to schools and talking about STEM.
Those passionate about science and the society could explore joining the STEM Advocacy Institute through https://www.stemadvocacy.org/about-us/join-us/
#science #career #STEM #volunteering #advocacy
Please enrich this article by sharing your volunteering experiences below in the comments section. Thank you!
Dr Lakshmi Ramachandran
Dr Lakshmi Ramachandran, PhD in Cell & Molecular Biology (SUNY Buffalo, USA), is an active proponent of female participation in science. She is presently co-leading the organising of Gender Summit Asia Pacific, Singapore, scheduled to take place on 27-28 August 2019 (https://gender-summit.com/gs16-ap). She is a keynote speaker, blogger, author and mother of two. Do check out her interesting sharings at her blog lakshmiramachandran.com
It is such a pleasure to welcome Puja Talesara, co-founder of Leadership Demystified, a podcast series on Linkedin, as a ‘Guest Influencer’ at Womenlines panel!
A leadership coach mentored by John Mattone (former executive coach to the late Steve Jobs ), HR expert, Podcaster and mother of 2 lovely kids, Puja Talesara has donned multiple hats with success. Puja will be sharing podcasts on her perspective on excellence which is garnered through her journey of playing different roles and learning through different life experiences. She has climbed the ladder of success facing those challenges which probably every woman has to face and she has come out with solutions with every challenge. So we invite you to discover your excellence following incredible tips shared by Puja Talesera. Who know those tips might do wonders for you!
Puja is an internationally certified leadership and workplace coach. She firmly believes inward excellence leads to outward excellence and impact. Puja has over a decade of rich and accomplished experience in HR. She dabbles her role as an OD consultant and Podcaster. She is the Co-founder of the Leadership Demystified, a LinkedIn based podcast series, which unravels the conundrum around leadership. Her series has reached viewership of around 200k within the span of six months. She was mentored and trained by John Mattone, ex-coach of Steve jobs and Rogers of PepsiCo. She is being interviewed by Global podcast channels and Millennial blogs to share her perspective.
In its 12th year in Singapore, Study in Europe presents a diverse array of study programmes on offer throughout Europe and highlights a range of scholarship options that facilitate studying in Europe for Singaporean students
The programmes on offer at European universities bring together students from all over the world. The intent is to assist students to foster closer networks not just with universities but also with the countries they choose to study in. Popular annual higher education fair aims to connect students in Singapore with European universities and provide them first hand and easy access to useful information about the wide variety of study options in Europe, details of the application processes, and the range of bond-free scholarships which they may apply for. The fair provides information about the many European universities where courses are conducted in English and where the option to work part-time while studying is available.
Barbara Plinkert
European Union Ambassador to Singapore
Visit https://studyineurope.sg/ for details!!
Woman love shopping and if they get a gift card which they can use to do online shopping for whatever thing they want, I am sure they are going to love it!
Amazon.com is there to help you to save your time shopping and searching for gifts. So you can buy a gift card, in fact, get it printed at home and can give to your friends. Amazon.com Gift Cards never expire and carry no fees. No returns and no refunds on gift cards. Redeemable towards millions of items store-wide atAmazon.com or certain affiliated websites.
Amazon.com is just like a marketplace which is virtual, where individuals can buy home-related products, electronics, books, movies, housewares and a variety of other products. Amazon allows users to purchase and print gift cards directly from its website. There are many people who will love buying their gift themselves online. Rather than picking out a gift for such friend, you can share Amazon Gift Card.
You can make your friend or anybody’s day special by gifting Amazon shopping gift card. If you want to purchase, please click
A new wave of free apps for women is making them technology friendly!
Time is a precious commodity for every woman in present times. Professional woman, working from home woman, home manager. whatever category she belongs to, she is getting mindful of how and where she is putting her time. So here is the list of free smartphone apps for the woman of today, which can really transform her life amazingly-
1.Wunderlist (for your time management skills)
Wunderlist is a to-do listing app for me:).The thing that I like the most about Wunderlist is that it is dead simple. Whether you’re planning a holiday, sharing a shopping list with a partner or managing multiple work projects, Wunderlist helps you tick off all your personal and professional to-dos. It gives you the freedom to create a bunch of list groupings and under these grouping, you can make tasks also. Your tasks can have a due date, reminder, a note, or a star too.
2.Colorfy (for your creative side)
Coloring therapy for adults now on your mobile. The secret against anxiety. Let the colors fill your mind in a relaxing painting experience. Elected as one of the “Best Apps of the Year” by Google – ” Most Beautiful” category, Colorfy is the free addicting coloring book for adults on Android. Start coloring books now. Enjoy the pictures of the mandala, floral, animals and patterns. Feel like a kid again!
3. Omvana (for a calmer you)
Omvana is a beautiful meditation app created by personal growth company Mindvalley. A mobile and web-based meditation app aim at helping users to achieve various outcomes, such as reducing distress and enhancing well-being. Users as per their needs can choose any track from a large collection of (free) relaxation audios, yoga music, mindfulness meditation tracks, and narrated lessons and guides by different speakers (e.g., Bob Proctor, Laura Silva, and Martin Luther King, Jr.). According to cofounder Vishen Lakhiani, about 50,000 people around the world meditate to their popular “6 Phase Meditation” every morning, which is recommended for intermediate practitioners.
4. Evernote (for you as a multitasker)
Evernote is the super notepad that allows you to keep text, voice, and photo notes accessible from any desktop or device. The free app allows you to take photos, store pictures, write notes, and record voice memos. Evernote helps you remember everything from your daily life to other important tasks. You can sync it with your computer and add a favourite photo or recipe in it.
5. 7 Min Work Out (for a healthy you)
If you cannot squeeze out time for the gym here is an app which can help you do work out at you home. The app guides user to do certain exercises for 30 sec at a time with a ten sec break in between. It is supposed to be high intensity and thus you can maximize your results with all efforts from home. If you follow the workout and push yourself as hard as you can, the developers of the app claim that the programme is equivalent to an hour-long workout.
Charu Mehrotra
Promoting excellence in women!
International Youth Leadership & Innovation Forum (IYLIF 2018) is the not-to-miss event for every student, parent and teacher this year. This is your chance to influence the future of education.
Do education systems do a good job of making children future ready? How will you prepare today’s students for a future where marks will have less priority, where man and machine will work together?
What are the challenges and aspirations of Gen Z’s? Hear it from them, teachers, industry experts and thought leaders. International Youth Ambassadors, educators, experts and parents from various cities around the world are coming together to discuss today’s students and their future at IYLIF 2018. Be a part of it. Are you a student, parent, teacher or a person interested in the future of education and youth development? We are giving you a complimentary seat. Get it at www.iylif2018.eventbrite.com. Breakfast, lunch and refreshments provided.’
International Youth Ambassadors, experts and educators from 10 countries spoke at IYLIF 2017. It was organised at Lifelong Learning Institute, Singapore.
Gen Z is the truly digital generation. In that generation, many of the challenges are universal. In this forum, you will go beyond the borders of nations, cultures and systems to interact with global youth, share ideas, collaborate on them and get inspired to make a difference. For details on IYLIF, visit www.iylif.com/iylif2018.
Day 1 – 23 Sep 2018: IYLIF 2018 Annual Conference
Join a distinguished panel of speakers and International Youth Ambassadors to learn, share and discuss. This is your chance to make an influence in the future of education and youth
Day 2 – 24 Sep 2018: IYLIF 2018 Annual Workshop series for Students
Day 2 – 24 Sep 2018: IYLIF 2018 Annual Workshop series for Teachers
Workshops for teachers on 24 Sep 2018
1. How to implement a growth mindset in the classroom so that you can make a difference
2. Storytelling in senior classrooms
Workshops for students on 24 Sep 2018
1. Growth Mindset Workshop
2. Design Thinking Workshop
3. Values and value games to use in classrooms
Get inspired, motivated, provoked and empowered
Pre-registration is a must. Register now at www.iylif2018.eventbrite.com
“Love & Respect Transformation Centre is committed and dedicated to providing long-term quality education, mentorship and platform for people to accelerate their success in life, career and goals.”
LOVE & RESPECT Transformation Centre programs instil the values and business ethics within your business and organisation through its people. With the training programs led by Murshidah Said on Human Behaviour and Relationships, your team will learn to attract Abundance, Wealth and Happiness.
MURSHIDAH SAID is an independent speaker and adviser on personal and corporate transformation. A graduate of the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and Sociology in 1993, Murshidah runs successful businesses for more than 18 years expanding throughout Asia.
She is also a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner and a certified life coach recognised by the American Board of NLP, NBPES and NLP University (USA). She is also trained in the areas of Accelerated Learning and whole being learning to achieve better education for participants. She is a Certified Advanced Law of Attraction Practitioner.
The One Help One Model also contributes to the mindset and skillset change of people from marginalised groups like refugees, low-income, single mothers and the homeless in Malaysia to overcome poverty.
Visit www.spreadloveandrespect.com for more details!
‘The Code of The Extraordinary Mind’ is an incredible book which in nutshell gives you step by step guidance for achieving success in life, which author has derived based on lives of the world’s most successful people he interviewed 200+ hours.
The author, Vishen Lakhiani, is the Founder and CEO of Mindvalley, a 200-person-strong company specializing in learning experience design and the digital education revolution. Lakhiani found that the human brain, like computer software, can be hacked. These laws were assimilated from his personal experiences, as well as insights from successful people like Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Arianna Huffington.
In the book, Vishen explains 10 Unconventional Laws to redefine your life & succeed on your own terms. Here are the power quotes from the book which can redefine you –
- “The important thing is to realize is that no matter what these beliefs are, they become true because we act and think in accordance with them. But while your beliefs make you, your beliefs are not you. You can use conscious engineering to swap out old beliefs, swap in new ones, and take on understandings of the world that might serve you better.”
- “I firmly believe that we can bring health on this planet for the planet and the humans on it if we started educating the whole person with all their fundamental potentials and capacities and skills and stopped this fragmented, partial, broken system that we have now.”- Ken Wilber academic writer to Vishen.
- “The power to choose what we want to believe and what we want to disbelieve is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves.”
- “Instead of taking pills or engaging in healthy unhealthy habits to suppress our feelings, we can install systems to be free of them. What’s inspiring is how popular these new systems are proving to be- and how fast and powerful the transformations are. I call these systems transcendent practices. They include exercise on gratitude, meditation, compassion, bliss, and other practices that take you beyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experiences.”
- “I used to wake up and the first thing I would do check my smartphone. Now I don’t do that. And just taking this time- sometimes it can be literally a minute to just looking ahead at my day and fill myself with gratitude for the blessings in life and set my intention for the day- it immediately takes away the urgency that we bring into our lives that create such unnecessary stress.” Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post sharing with Vishen.
- “Extraordinary minds are able to bend reality. They have bold and exciting visions for the future, yet their happiness is not tied to these visions. They are happy in the now. This balance allows them to move towards their visions at a much faster rate while having a lot of fun along the way. To outsiders, they seem “lucky”.
- “It turns out that our brains are literally hardwired to perform at their best not when they are negative or even neutral, but when they are positive. Yet in today’s world, we ironically sacrifice happiness for success only to lower our brain’s success rates.
I loved the definition by Vishen- “Most spiritual people in the world today are those who are doing things to push the race forward. To be extraordinary is to be connected to this spiritual aspect for you and to feel it move you to create, change, invent and rattle the world. Extraordinary minds do not need to seek validation from outside opinion or through the attainment of goals. Instead, they are truly at peace with themselves and the world around them. They live fearlessly-immune to criticism or praise and fueled by their own inner happiness and self-love.”
Charu Mehrotra
Promoting excellence in women!