Roehampton PhD student delivers TEDx talk about female empowerment
- Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Tabitha Sindani, PhD student from the Roehampton Business School was invited to give a TEDx talk at Ruhr University in May, where the theme was to "embrace the unexpected".
Roehampton Business School student Tabitha is currently researching on gender, policy and rural female entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. She is on a mission is to empower women and girls to defy the culturally embedded status quo about their role and place in society by embracing the unexpected twists and turns that life brings and using them as springboards into success.
Titled “How unemployment became the ruby in my life” Tabitha talked about three key lessons that she had learnt throughout her career:
1) Value and identity are intrinsic
Tabitha explained that often our job becomes part of our identity, but our personality, skills and value cannot be taken away in times of unemployment.
2) Opportunity can be right where you are
Tabitha was the top female student to graduate from her University in Kenya and wanted to share her passion for education by crafting a mentorship programme to empower girls in her community. This in turn allowed Tabitha to gain valuable leadership skills, which opened doors to future employment opportunities, including gaining the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders in the USA, working for African Union Commission in Ethiopia, and being selected as a Commonwealth Scholar at Newcastle University Business School.
3) Greater joy lies in the service serving others
Tabitha used the powerful example of her mother, who has become an advocate for education, together with her father by being guardians for hundreds of orphans and children in her community in Kenya. Tabitha emphasised that there is always greater joy in serving others.
In the conclusion of the TEDx talk, Tabitha summarised that equipped with these three life lessons, we can learn to embrace the unexpected and tackle any uncertainty or challenging times that might lie ahead. Tabitha’s TEDx talk is available to view here.
