Written by Melody Alvarez
On Wednesday, March 17th Gitanjali Rao, a 15-year-old American inventor named Time’s Magazine First kid of the year, spoke to meet MAST@FIU and FIU students alike through a zoom call to answer our burning questions. Throughout the zoom meeting, we went through various topics such as her Life Experience, Getting Started, Overcoming Obstacles, Time Management, and Technology & Access.
She spoke about her current life experience, such as how her parents give her plenty of freedom in her choices, solving problems, encountering people, etc.
When speaking about her parents, you can tell that they both show plenty of respect and adoration towards each other. As she stated, “I was raised where if I wanted to drop out, I could leave… I was able to find my passion because my parents allowed me to explore many things.”
Getting Started:
As the first step is always the hardest to take, let’s find out how Gitanjali Rao walks into her first steps as well as her suggestions for getting started:
How do you take the first critical step for solving a problem?
She would find problems in need of solutions by using technology and watching the news. Feeling unable to rest and inspired to find a solution, she would do what she considers “Simple problems for simple solutions”. Meaning she would try out different small experiments to get an idea for a better solution for the big problem.
Although getting past that first time is one of the most important things, motivation is another key factor.
How do we motivate our generation to work on creating a solution for things that impact our community?
She encouraged students to get rid of self-doubt, which destroys the will to fix problems. Her second tip was to get involved in something through their own ways. The third was to gain support from those around them and mentors and organizations around the world to help out.
How do you think we can encourage more women and underrepresented minorities into STEM?
Gitanjali Rao believes that Role models could show minorities that STEM fields and education aren’t as scary as it appears and stretches into many different jobs.
Overcoming Obstacles:
Gitanjali Rao is only 15 years old, but she was just 11 years old when she started. So how did Gitanjali Rao manage to get her voice out while still being a kid and attempt to solve problems that didn’t always directly affect her?
Your ideas may not be taken seriously as a kid. What kept you motivated to get the message out?
“My biggest thing was to commit to it basically to have a message of hope is more powerful than whining about it. The gap between age and ability will always be there.”
Time Management:
Considering how Gitanjali Rao has accomplished so much in her 15 years of life, it is a wonder how she manages to make all of this impact which what appears to be such little time as she also attends school.
How do you manage time?
“Time management is something I am not an expert at and will never be an expert.” Although she may not be an expert at this, her methods include writing a to-do list to keep track, keeping committed to one thing at a time, and keeping her classes based on her interests.
Technology & Access:
In the current technological age of Nanotechnology and Big Data applications, what do you think are the most critical educational challenges today to prepare successful scientists and inventors of tomorrow?
“… change the way of how we go into learning by not thinking about the grade but the application of the knowledge into solving problems. The biggest change in education is through adopting to the newer technology and make it easier to learn and accessible.”
Have you ever collaborated with STEM professionals, and do you struggle with any gaps in knowledge between you and any expert in STEM that you work with?
She explained that it isn’t only the student who learns when it comes to mentorship; the mentor may learn from the student. When encountering professionals/experts in a field, she advises taking advantage of their knowledge, as they are providing their time to share and help with your ideas and learn new things.
Though we were sad to see her go after only an hour, she has undoubtedly left an influential impact on our lives and understanding of the world. Before leaving, she promoted her book “A Young Innovator’s Guide to STEM” to help with problem-solving for almost any problem in life.