Module 2: "Own Your Spotlight". Live launching tutorial session, 3 June 2026

Key Takeaways

Welcome everyone. I'm really excited to see all of you here. Um really happy to see both faces of people who have been here before and new faces joining us today. So welcome to all of you. And as you know this is a community of women academics and researchers. It's about learning and leading together. So while everyone is joining, let's start with you. And as always, please introduce yourself in the chat. Write your name, your institution, and your research area. And I can see people are already doing that. So keep on doing it. It's great. Um, very importantly from the beginning, if you want to listen in French, click the interpretation button at the bottom left of your screen and then select start. But first, let me introduce Monique, who will translate those instructions for you. >> Okay. Merci. Thank you so much, Monique. So, my name is Julia Buna. I'm a program advisor at the Nita Fellowship Center. It's an institution under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark and we manage the research funding for collaborative research projects between Danish research institutions and research institutions in low and middle inome countries that Denmark collaborates with. And I'm here today with my good colleague Naaka Odera from the Mavaso Institute um and who we are coordinating this initiative with learn and lead together under the more women in research community. But you'll hear more from her soon. Before officially opening today's session, I just want to share some good news uh with you. I've been feeling a bit happy today because in Denmark where I'm based, uh we didn't have a government for two months. We just got a government yesterday and today we got the lists of new ministers and for the first time in the history of Denmark we have more women ministers than men. So I think this is something that is uplifting uh and I feel especially happy about. So in the midst of all the dark news that we see so often we also get some good news. Uh but returning to this module, we are excited today to officially launch our second module, owning your spotlights. And as with our previous module uh get funded, the materials, recordings, and live sessions are completely freely accessible to everyone in the community. So first a quick reminder of why we are here. The more women in research initiative aims to strengthen and collaborate uh collaboration and network among women academics and pave the way for more women in research simply because we don't have enough uh women researchers on a global level and particularly in leadership positions. The community started in 2024 in Tanzania among mainly Danita supported researchers from African countries but it has since spread to Asia and Latin America and now it also includes Mavaso fellows and many others. So we are very happy about that different activities takes place under this umbrella um which is really about women academics learning and leading together and in this process lifting each other up and here in 2026 we are specifically looking at three key areas. So the first one is funding. Then we have this module starting now on communication and owning your spotlight and another one on mentorship. To tell us a little bit more about the owning your spotlight course, let's please welcome our other colleague from the Mavasu Institute Dilab. >> Thank you Julie. Hello everyone. Welcome to our second module launch under the more women in research, learn and lead together initiative, owning your spotlight. My name is Dorsilla Ugola and I am the fellowship program officer at the Mazo Institute. The objectives of the owning your spotlight module are as follows. to help researchers create multifunctional bios that summarize their research and career journeys. To equip researchers with practical skills for navigating media and social media engagement. To help researchers begin to build a public engagement plan and increase awareness of their digital footprint. And finally to provide real world insights into the journey of public engagement for re for a researcher. As with as with the previous module, get funded, the owning your spotlight module uses blended learning through self-paced downloadable PDF lessons. These are accessible on the MLEX platform. Um, and it has lessons one, two, and three, as well as live virtual sessions for storytelling, discussion, and peer learning. Um, specifically today's kickoff live event and lesson 4's closing storytelling event. Today's kickoff kickoff event is a live interactive session exploring the benefits of visibility for a woman researcher. It is an introduction to analyzing one's digital footprint and a tutorial on how to create a multiuse bio. Lesson one, creating your bio. This accompanies the kickoff live event in providing a stepbystep tutorial on how to create a multi-use bio. Lesson two, how to step into the spotlight. Tips on engaging journalists. This provides a stepby-step guide for researchers to practice for a media interview and tips on interacting with the media. And finally, lesson three, how to step into the spotlight. These are tips on social media engagement. It will provide an introductory guide for researchers on social media concepts and how to leverage LinkedIn. There are also additional resources that include um a spotlight checklist. This checklist um is a short checklist for a researcher to build a public engagement plan. And then we also have a safety online um resource. Um this resource provides tips on maintaining online safety as a woman researcher. We also have additional links. These are audiovisisual content spotlighting visibility for women researchers. Finally, the module will conclude on 15th July with another live session that will feature researchers at different points of their public engagement journeys, sharing personal experiences and practical lessons, including relatable fears, strategies to overcome them, and encouraging anecdotes. But first, before we get into today's tutorial session, we would like to hear from you on your previous experience in public engagement and what you anticipate in participating in this module. Elena will share a link to a survey and request that you take 5 minutes to fill it out. Now, I will give you a few minutes to fill in the survey. Okay, thank you so much to everyone who has filled in the survey. I will now hand it back to Julie. Over to you, Julie. >> Thank you so much for to Cila for that course overview. So one more thing before we start. We have some house rules. Um so the first is please keep speaker view enabled so you can see the spotlight lighted speakers. Kindly remain muted while speakers are presenting. This one is very important so we can hear what our guest speakers are saying. Um, you're welcome to keep your camera on so we can see each other and feel free to use the chat to ask any questions or share comments um throughout the session as well and we'll respond to it as best as possible. And then again, I will just repeat that if you want to listen in French, click the interpretation button at the bottom left of your screen and select start. So now let's welcome Nellyaka from the Mavaso Institute who will be leading the session today and beyond being a part of the team working behind the scenes on the more women in research learn and lead together initiative. Nellaka is also a seasoned communications expert and the communications lead at the Mavasu Institute with over 10 years of experience in communications. She specializes in digital communication and impact driven storytelling with an emphasis of platforming African women's stories. She believes that the best place person to tell one's story is themselves. And so through her work, she stresses the importance of people learning vital communication skills to enable them to speak for herself. And remember to be putting any questions in the chat as we go along. Welcome Naliaka. I'll hand over the word to you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Julia. And thank you so much uh to the whole team. And welcome again to all of our women researchers from around the world. It's so exciting whenever we see the chat with everybody's names and and uh countries and different disciplines. It's so fantastic to see that. Um, so as Dorsilla mentioned earlier, today is the launch of Owning Your Spotlight and we're going to be doing things a bit differently. Uh, it's all contingent on your engagement and your participation. So, please, uh, get involved where you can. Um, as Julia mentioned, please add some questions, comments, feelings, opinions in the chat. Um we'll also be using Mentoimeter a bit later on. So please uh get involved there as well and um feel free to to raise your hands in the different time periods for for questions um and share along the way as well. Um okay to to gently get us into this world of visibility, I'm going to ask everyone to open an internet browser either on your phone or you can open a new one on your on your computer. um a new tab. Um so, open an internet browser and go to Google. Google.com. I'm going to wait until I see a couple of thumbs up from people before I proceed. So, let me know if you have an internet browser up with Google, the search engine up. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, Liz, Elena, Margaret. Okay. So once you have Google up, type in your full professional name. So that means first name, last name, type it in. Okay. Now, you're going to do a very quick scan of the search results. So, you're going to look at page one and you're going to just scan through, read through the different um results that come up and then go to page two and scroll down and scan through them as well. So, does everyone have some search results coming in? I'd appreciate some new thumbs up to let me know if you're getting in new search results. Okay. So, you're scanning page one and you're scanning page two and you're getting to know yourself in a new way. Okay, >> please come again on that. Something just bypassed me. >> So, if you open google.com and you type in your full professional name and you and you click enter, scan the the search results from page one and on page two. Just have a look. Just look through, scroll down and look through to see what what comes up when you do that. All right. I hope that's a bit clear. Okay. So, now you have a basic understanding of how you're coming up on Google. I'm going to ask a series of questions one by one and they're yes or no questions. And so, um, Elena is also going to add to in the chat these questions one by one. You can also see them written and as I said they're yes or no. So the first question is does my profile come up on the first page. So that means do you does your profile come up on the first page of search results? Did you see yourself did you see your name a link to um uh either a social media profile or a website that you're on? Anything to do with you? Are you on page one of Google? Okay, I'm seeing lots of yeses. >> Seeing lots of yeses. Fantastic. Yes. Yay. Okay. All right. Now the second question is is what is available online about me about you relevant and accurate to me and to my career. So is what came up is it relevant and is it accurate to you and to your career? Yes or no? This is fantastic. More yeses, Lydia. No, unfortunately. Okay, Lydia, if you can take note of what didn't um work. What are the things that were not so accurate? Um and just write them down. We're going to sort of circle back to that a bit later. A little Sahara. Okay, some yeses. Great. Oh, I saw no and it went ri no. All right. Okay. And then the final question. Is there anything that has come up about me that I am uncomfortable with being publicly available or viewable? So, is there anything that came up on those first two pages that you are uncomfortable with being available on the internet? And you can look um for this question past pages one and two. You can you can keep searching looking into pages three and four. But this is good. We're mostly getting nos. Sylvia. Yes. Okay. So again, Sylvia, take note of of the things that are uncomfortable um that you're not so happy with being online. We'll circle back to them. If I don't um if I don't specifically uh mention the exact thing that you're concerned about, um please mention it again in the Q&A part so then we can actually specifically talk about that issue. Okay. So, this was just this was just a teaser of getting into a digital footprint. Um, in the interest of time, I'm going to circle back to the digital imprint and digital footprint uh in a in a little while, but I really want to make sure that we have time for our guest speaker. Um, so I'm going to move things around a little bit and just have our our guest speaker uh come in. Um, we're really excited to hear from to hear from Dr. Gifty um as she shares her personal experience on the context of owning your spotlight as a researcher. Uh Dr. Gifty Sunqua Sunqua Mills is a public health physician specialist and a programs director at Farm Access Ghana with over 18 years of experience in public health and health systems across Africa. So thank you so much for being here and joining us. Uh let's hear from you Dr. Gifty. Okay. Hi. Hi everyone. I hope you can hear me clearly. A thumbs up if you can hear me clearly. And if my slide is also showing in full slide mode. Okay, I I I guess we're good, right? So um I'm very excited to be here this morning or this afternoon depending on where in the world you are. I bring you greetings from Ghana where I am currently based um working with an organization called Pharmarmacaxis where we are into health system strengthening across Africa. I am a medical doctor and also I'm a health systems researcher and I'm very passionate about um women in research, women mentorship and because we we kind of face the same issues within very similar circles and um it's always important to share our realities. I mean you're working as a woman in this space. You do brilliant work. Sometimes it gets unnoticed because we are not taught to claim space. Sometimes we are in rooms where people talk over our voices. Our ideas are attributed to others and my expertise is questioned. It's happened to me. It may have happened to some of you. So, how do you handle all this without you being made to feel you're too much in your space very comfortably? And today I'm going to leave you with three V's. V V. So, if you don't remember anything at all, three things I'm going to leave you with today. versatility, visibility, and your voice. Now, visibility is a strategy, something that you have to be intentional about. We all just looked at our online presence and you saw your digital footprint. I'm sure you had a lot of mixed reactions, things you didn't even know about that people had posted. But your digital footprint is all about you and it's something that you need to own. It's not just about being found when somebody Googles you, but also how you are known, your reputation, how people refer you, how people recognize you. So, you need both. Being found, being known, you need both. And your digital footprint is something that you highly own. Now, I talk about the second V, which is versatility. You may be working across various program areas, across various research areas and you would find yourself in different rooms. This morning I was in a very interesting place and I was so happy to be there. I visited my primary school where I first attended primary school class one and I was so excited and as I introduced myself to the students there was an I mean they were just screaming because my main presentation was that look I was like you some decades ago sitting right here where you are sitting and I am here today a doctor. These are people that need hope that need inspiration. So immediately you know they could identify with who was standing in front of them. When I'm talking to founders who are interested in impact return on investment scalability my language is definitely different. I have to connect to them at a point that matters to them. Last week I was in the UL lead summit talking about gender with a group of very energetic youth. Entering the room I had to read their energies. I had to listen for their interest and whenever I'm going to talk anywhere I try to go early so that I can connect with people I can understand them I can read their energies and what appeals to them so that when I step in front of them you know they identify with me so today I'm sure you will learn it having different bios be it for academic for professional I mean for your social pages and all of that it's extremely important so I talked about two things visibility be intentional about it versatility. When you enter a room, speak the language of the room. And when you speak, you claim your space. You use your voice. Have your story at a personal level. It's not background noise. I do a lot of work and I have very intentional reasons for everything that I do. I work a lot in the space of chronic diseases, hypertension, diabetes. I don't do it um in an abstract space. I do it within the context of an environment where I live where hypertension and diabetes have become more like the new epidemic of the day. My mother lived with hypertension. Uh two years ago am I missed the hustle and bustle of stress and work. I checked my blood pressure one day and it was out of the roof. And I knew that this work I'm doing has very personal meaning for me, for my family, for myself, for the next generation. If I'm able to commit myself to it, use digital technology that everybody uses today to connect patients to doctors and improve how patients with chronic disease are cared for. So my story is very personal. We all want to be alive and healthy and what I'm doing has a way of contributing to it. So use your voice, know your why, talk about your why. Depending on the audience, craft your why in a way that they will understand. When I'm talking to patients, I speak in a different language. When I'm talking to patients relatives, when I'm talking to healthcare providers, doctors, I craft the language that I use. And sometimes, I mean, when you're talking in your spaces and you're interrupted, know that these things happen. Practice re-entry. Oh yes, as I was saying, claim your mic back gracefully but firm. After an engagement, post your slides, write your reflections. The conversation does not end when any session ends. So the mandate is on you not to shrink yourself, not to over apologize, not to think you overqualify, not to under value your findings, but own it. Learning in the to be in the room is not about being someone else, but it's about being your authentic self and letting yourself be known and seen. Now, when I was doing my PhD, I remember one meeting that I was in and as I was in this meeting, I was listening to other people talk about the the research that I was doing in Ghana. I was doing research on infection control and I I heard people who had only read about this topic. I mean they were talking about it, you know, voices over and above and I was quiet. I didn't say anything cuz I told myself I was listening to learn. But later my supervisor said one thing which I never forgot. He said to me, "Never be in a meeting and be so quiet that it's as if you were not there. No. And that is because what you bring from your lived experience is more authentic than what anybody else can read in a textbook. I have lived in Ghana. I have worked in the hospital. I have studied infection control in Ghana. How do I even go into a room where this topic is being discussed and I keep quiet because I think I want to listen to people. No, no, no, no, no. I made the decision from that day to be intentional, to be visible. I mean, whatever room I find myself in, I would engage whatever groups I I find myself talking to, I would prepare myself. I would go authentically and I would boldly share my story. I don't wait anymore. Another example is I I told you I'm passionate about women mentorship. I've been wanting to start a mentorship program for a long time. And last year I said to myself, well, I've had the intention for long enough now. I'm going to just start. I'm not waiting anymore. I didn't have all the perfect resources. I didn't have all the perfect funds. I didn't have all the perfect resource persons, but I started anyway. I I structured what I I knew I wanted to do. And when you start doing it, you realize that you even have more knowledge than you think you have. And you get help from places you didn't even think you would get help for. It took a lot of confidence taking inspiration but I started it and it was amazing. My first cohort I had over 50 pe people. My current cohort I have about 100 people. I could have been sitting down waiting but I no longer wait. Now I make the move. I use my voice. I am unapologetic about it. I don't ask for permission. I don't shrink to make others feel significant. But I use my full voice which is shaped by my research, shaped by my lived experience. So I've talked about three things. Visibility, versatility. Use your voice. I know there might be challenges. You know, you find yourself thinking am I ready? I mean sometimes we we do have imposter syndrome. Um internal voice questioning you. But please know that you are more than enough. your work that you have done, your live experience is more than enough to tell that story. Don't worry if people say I mean you you are you being assertive or aggressive. No, no, no, no. Stop trying to win on people's terms. Just be clear. And I I have believed that clarity is kindness. There may be b barriers, but everyone faces barriers. Um let's let's let's find that um community here in a place like this. Look out for each other and encourage each other >> and move on. My three key messages I leave with you. Be deliberate about being invisible. Be versatile. Speak many languages. Adapt to the room. Prepare to meet your audience. And always use your voice and claim your space. Thank you. I just have 10 minutes so I'm happy to take question things but um always excited to share from what I know. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh Dr. gifty. Others don't know that you're actually in the middle of quite a busy season and so we especially appreciate that you've made some time to come and share with everyone. Um I think that there's there's a couple uh questions. Uh one was about um how can I create my space online? Um and uh somebody uh Jennifer had Jennifer Nam Namuti had appreciated the three V's and said thank you Dr. Victi for those gifty for those um and yes so I wonder if you could I know you don't have a lot of time but maybe if you can briefly give um maybe two examples of how to create a space um online. Uh it is something that we're going to get into a bit later as well. Uh but maybe just just to hear from you a little bit. >> Absolutely. So it's important to be intentional. Decide where you want to create that space. Choose a platform. Is it LinkedIn where most of the people who are recipients of your work would be and be reading? Is it Facebook? Depending on your context and your community, who are you reaching out to? Young people, professionals. So choose your space. And in my case, I also started with what I know, what I am good at. So when I was re um researching um infection control, I would volunteer for interviews about infection control and they'll get posted online. I would write a short piece. It doesn't have to be something long and dramatic because people have a very short attention span. But go out of your way, write something, post it, be consistent, and use pictures because they tell a story. I engage an audience. I capture a brief moment. I use it in my post and that is how you start. Be unapologetic. Don't look for likes. Whether people like it or not, you are creating your digital footprint. So use the same principle. Be intentionally visible. Be versatile. Crafted to suit your audience and also keep using your voice. Keep being intentional about the space. Keep showing up. And that is how you build that footprint online. So yes, you can do it. And be confident in in yourself. Like I said, I never look for likes. Who is liking it? No, no, no, no, no, no. I just keep doing what I know best. And that is how you build. >> Wow. Thank you so much. Uh thank you so much Dr. Gifty for your time, for your words of wisdom and experience and encouragement um to everyone here. I know I can see that it has been well appreciated. Um, as I said, we're going to circle back to some of these topics as well, but I just want to give one more thank you to Dr. Gifty for for sharing her time. Um, really appreciate it. >> Thank you so much. Love you all. >> Thank you. Um, okay. So, now we'll go back a little bit um and go back to this concept of the digital footprint. So, Dr. Gifty actually mentioned it in her presentation. Um, your digital footprint and essentially it looks at what we were looking at when we Googled ourselves and googled our names. Um, the digital footprint is essentially how we exist online. It's every single way we mark the online world. Some ways we intentionally put ourselves out there. for example, if we're on social media platforms, um or if we have websites or blogs, um and other times other people are putting us on the on the internet. Maybe it's your uh your organization or your institute that's posted a profile about you or your image. Um maybe it's in a media interview that also has an online um version. Um or maybe it's even just a picture of you uh in a in a group photo of your friends. Um so we are not necessarily in control of everything that is out there about us. Um and that is the the intimidating part of the digital footprint. But the thing that we can do is as best as possible um do our part to ensure that what we what we have control over we are being intentional with as Dr. Gy said. So, when we look at that that Google um those Google search results and some people said they weren't so happy with what came up or some people said maybe um as it started to get into page two it was less about them. Um there were a couple people who were a little bit uncomfortable with some of the things that were listed there. we start to realize that it's very important um how we appear online. And in fact, many times the first thing that somebody a stranger could do in encountering us who might want to maybe work with us more or connect to us in some way um is Google us uh Google our name and see who we are. And so that's why it's especially important to see um how you come up so that you can actually start to curate uh what your online visibility is. Um, I think what I'd like to do is uh maybe if there's someone in the group who feels comfortable um to talk a little bit about their how their assessment, their Google assessment um you can either put something in the chat or put your hand up. Um looking at those questions of did you come up did your profile come up in the first two pages? Um was what came up was it relevant to you? was it accurate about your career? And three, were you comfortable or were you uncomfortable with um with what with what you found? So, if we could have a volunteer um either put your hand up or you can just um put your thoughts in the chat depending on what you're comfortable with. >> Chinga. Wow. Thank you. Thank you so much for volunteering. >> Thank you so much. I'm learning from what doc has just say her presentation that we should just talk. So I'm here to to just talk. Let me just put my camera on uh as well. Hi everyone. My name is Chinga uh Govati from Zimbabwe. I actually loved what what came up. You know it's it's been some time since I googled my name. Uh but I love what is coming up. it's resonating with my work and um maybe if I get to page five, six, but I didn't get there. Uh but even page two, page three, it's all about uh it's about my work and I'm comfortable uh with uh what's coming up. Uh the first thing is of course my LinkedIn profile that's talking about the work that I do the initiatives uh that uh I have started in Zimbabwe and uh it's all about um children women in the law which I love which is my my passion but the challenge for me now is really to to to continue you know writing so that we get to page 15 and it's not anything uh that I may not be uh comfortable able with. So, yes. Yes. Yes. I'm happy with what's coming up now. >> Thank you. And thank you again for being the first volunteer as well. Um I saw Jacqueline's hand go up second. So maybe Jacqueline and then after Jacqueline Merlin and then we'll move on to the next section. >> Yes. Thank you very much for the opportunity. I'm quite tired because I've been in so many engagements. And when we went through that uh checking what uh uh what we put out there, I realized because I think I'm getting to 28 years of work. And I'm realizing that there's very little out there about myself. And yet we contribute so much to reports and sometimes you're not, you know, sometimes people don't even recognize you. Recently I'm on a project and I was requested to to by my supervisor to um to prepare a a research protocol. And then when I looked looked at the document, I realized it was all the PIs and yet it was my hard work and I was so I felt so so bad because you know sometimes as a PhD student you keep you keep up awake you keep awake for so many hours doing certain things to support people including work and then you're not recognized. So my question was uh how do you deal with that kind of stuff? You've come up with a document actually you're the one who started it. People are just uh doing the final touches but then you're not recognized in the document and then now this has actually I was so lazy to go on to my LinkedIn. It is recently that I realized that oh my god you know you go apply a job here and people do really do a search on you. So now I was so lazy I you know you find you're so exhausted between home work school and you you don't even have time to go to the LinkedIn. So now there's something I deliberately put on my LinkedIn and when I actually tried this exercise, it was the first thing that came out and I was very excited. So what I'm getting from here, I mean people will not recognize you. You have to deliberately do it because I was like I've done so much. I have so many reports but I mean your name may not appear. So my question is how do you handle such an issue? Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh thank you so much Jacine for your for your thoughts and your questions. I'm sure you're not alone. Um I this sounds like something that many people will have experienced in terms one in terms of your seniority and that now when that translates to what's actually available online um you're finding some things lacking and then two in terms of being credited or uncredited for the work that you have done. Um one thing and this goes along with what I think Dr. gifty was also sharing about which is something that you yourself touched on is um is um uh tooting your own horn you know um being your own PR person uh sharing with people the works that you've done and so it's good that you're on LinkedIn LinkedIn has um a way of being able to share links to things you've done so you can actually share links to your papers and anything that you've been involved in I know some people who then go the next step and use um uh as a a blogging platform of some kind to have as um as a kind of online CV where they just continually add their own works a bit like a portfolio of the works that they've done. And so when you have things online, it it adds to your digital footprint. And so your digital footprint gets louder the more you populate um either your social media platforms or creating um your own platforms or websites depending on how much time you have. So really the answer is to keep going as you're as you started with LinkedIn. You're correct that um that posting there can can feed into your Google search. And so if you continue to post and you can backdate, you can go back to some other works that you've done in the past and edit your profile and add them um to that um as well. Um uh a quick one from from Merlin. Um, thank you. I was just going to say I was very pleased with uh my Google search. Um, it was only at like page seven that I started seeing people with similar names start to crop up at the at the bottom. But a thing that stood out to me the most was it was all like outdated information and it felt like you know the the the dip uh came when when I settled or started my PhD. So I don't have much of like a career. Um and I think I'm a different person than I was before. I'm now more self-critical, self-doubting. I'm now also very um unsure of what to share what and also the world has changed since you know uh people are more brutal online there's a lot more issues going on in the world so trying to place yourself as a scientist a researcher a person existing as a woman as a black woman as an African in the is in the current climate after like a hiatus because of your work of PhD and stuff is is something very daunting and scary. But yeah, that's the reflection I wanted to share. >> Thanks so much, Melan. That's um that's so true. And again, I think it's something that many if not all of us can relate to. Um especially just the feeling of the questioning feeling of am I should I share this? Should I not share this? how much am I how much am I supposed to be getting into things? And then also I think what comes with a type of um uh maybe not feeling so valid in what you are sharing. Um I think it's all very normal and it actually brings me to my next um to the next activity because I'd like to hear from everybody in the best way that we can. Um and so we have a mentometer link that Elena is going to add to the chat. Um, and on mentter we want to get there's no right answer, there's no wrong answer. It's really just your opinion and your feelings. Um, if you can answer these two questions with one word or um or even like two or three maximum. Um and the questions are what benefits could come from public engagement for researchers uh in your opinion and the second is um how does public engagement make you feel? So what benefits could come from public engagement for researchers and how does public engagement make you feel? And I think I'd really encourage us to share honestly. Sometimes we're in a space like this and we can feel a bit tempted to um just share the sort of like the rose tinted view of things, but the point of community is so that we can share um in truth um how we really feel. So um if you can just click on that link that Elena has shared and um and uh give your answers to the questions with one word or maybe two. Um the first question is what benefits come from uh public engagement for researchers and the second is how does public engagement make you feel? So yeah, take your time clicking on the link and maybe it, you know, maybe it's a bit of more reflection than something that you can answer easily. That's okay. Um, yeah. So that first question, what benefits come from public engagement for researchers? Uh, Jesse says she's only guessing the last question, not the first. Um, if you try it again, Jesse, I'm seeing others able to answer. Unless Elena, you have another solution for her. Ah, sorted now. Perfect. Okay. um what benefits come from public engagement from research for researchers. So I've seen um new career opportunities, knowledge transfer, um visibility seems to be coming through a lot including increasing v visibility. Collaboration is a really important thing that I think a lot of people don't consider, but that in the same vein of networking and opportunities, a lot of positive things come as offshoots of visibility. People basically reach out to you more when you have uh larger um larger visibility. Um feedback, confidence. I like confidence. I think um as much as it can feel nerve-wracking to then get into the space of public engagement, it's um ironically something that can actually give you confidence as you build that skill more and more. And really, it is a skill. So, it's something that you can only build on. It's not necessarily something that from day one you're able to do um perfectly. Um so yeah I think it's normal to feel a bit nervous um as you build towards it. Um growth yeah deriving meaning new career opportunities sharing and collaboration knowledge transfer. I see in the chat also um visibility collaborations networking visibility and operations for collaboration. Yeah. And so then now the second question of how does public engagement make you feel. Yeah. Okay. Vulnerable, anxious. So the bigger the words are, it means that more than one person has shared that. Um it means that a few people are feeling that vulnerable, anxious, valued, scared, afraid to mess up, nervous, awkward, and too loud. You know, there's something about a woman being too loud. There's something about that training that we're not supposed to be too loud. Afraid to mess up. Yeah, someone said confidence. Impactful. In the chat, Rose has said involvement, criticism. Yeah. Um, fear of Oh, I lost fear. Uh, uncomfortable. Excited. Yeah, sometime it's not always necessarily all negative. Sometimes you can feel positive things about it, too. Sometimes you can feel both positive things and negative things at the same time. I just want these um words to keep to keep appearing and if you can as I speak if you can just spend the time looking through these different words and um feel and acknowledge that that's everybody in this room are feeling versions of this and and actually they're versions kind of of the same type of thing. Um, a lot of them, especially when you look at things like anxious, nervous, scared, um, vulnerable, Jennifer, heard. Yeah. So there's a there's a concept here that I think uh when we look at visibility and when we look at public engagement, we look at it from the lens of um of a more western culture that looks at visibility and the importance of visibility as something that helps the individual, something that helps the individual grow or connect or uh network or all of that. But I I like to push back on that idea and I like to think instead of the community like the community that we've started here. When we had our community session um a little over a month ago, one of the things that kept that kept coming up were people who were saying that they were maybe the first in their family to pursue um a PhD. Um some people saying that they felt quite um isolated in doing it. Some people said that they felt quite um scared um intimidated and some people said that that was their motivation to keep going in times when they felt like they'd wanted to to quit was the idea of being an example. I remember one lady shared that shared that being an example to the people to the girls where she was from was something that motivated her to continue going. And so when I think about the importance of visibility, I think instead about that. I think about the people who came before us, our mothers and our grandmothers and our great-grandmothers and all of these opportunities that our generation have. um that previous generations didn't have. And then I think about the future. I think about um our daughters and our nieces and all the girls that will come ahead who will look back at our generation and maybe step on our shoulders a little bit to get even further than where we're getting now. And that to me is the power of visibility. Yes, it's it's good um and useful for an individual's career, but it's most impactful in my opinion. It's most impactful to the community, to the sisterhood of the people alongside us and to the people who've come before us and the people who are ahead of us. None of that happens without somebody seeing, oh, that person has done this thing that means I can do that thing. you know whatever that thing is that's how that's how growth happens in community you know so I think to shift perspective from the self and to shift perspective from the idea that this spotlight is shining just on you and this spotlight is um is just like lighting up all of the flaws and the inadequacies and the insecurities Um maybe instead we can we can say that there is a spotlight shining um on each of us. And what matters is that we keep the light there so that if somebody else is in the dark and is looking for a way and is looking for an example or a light, they can see us in the spotlight and they can use that as their example and that we can inspire each other and support each other. And so that's why it's important really to own your spotlight is is yes for the self, yes for the career, but especially for us, for each of us to be able to see, as Julia started, right? Celebrating that there's more women in the Danish government. That's the spotlight. That's what we mean. looking at that and then getting encouragement, right, and getting excited because we see something out there that's possible and then it makes us think maybe I can do that, too. So, I'm hoping that that has in some way shifted some thoughts about public engagement and about the importance of what we're doing here. That it's more than just um it's more than just bigging ourselves up and as Dr. Gifty said as it's more than just um counting our followers on social media. All right. So I'd like to take us back to mentometer and um now um I'd like us to reflect on two more questions and the questions here are why does my research matter to me and the second question is why does my research matter to the world. So if you can click on the link again and then answer those questions in one word or two you know short phrases. Why does my research matter to me and why does my research matter to the world? In other words, why do I do what I do? And the second question why does what I do matter? So just click on the link and start to start to reflect on those two questions. Why does my research matter to me? And why does my research matter to the world? And try not to get too caught up in the perfect answer or or you know or really spend too long thinking about it. Go with what pings first in your head or on your heart. The first thing that comes to mind. Why does my research matter to me? To make a difference. Make a difference. To make a change, my legacy, passion, climate solution, developing my career. It's my footprint. In the chats, Rose says, "Unlocking potential, supporting community, curiosity, growth, promotion, self- fulfillment. It's interesting because it means that the words passion, impact, promotion are ones that are shared by a number of people. growth, affirmation that quite a few people are feeling like that's the reason why my my research matters to me. Jacqueline says, "My research reflects my own um the power of original ideas, empowering women to be better." Okay. And then the second question of why does my research matter to the world? Let's look at the answers for that. Rose says, "Co-creation with God. Why does my research matter to the world?" Ena says helping the community. The impact solving a real problem change water supply security learnings new knowledge to make a change. Uncharted waters. Interesting. Cost-effective solutions. Improvement to make a change. Illumination. Impact. That means that impact is something that's coming through a lot. Developing solutions. It will help others. Change. Change is also coming through. in the chat. Jacquine says, "Making the vulnerable feel like they are important." Rose says, "Lessen human pain." Ena said, "Help the community." Yeah, I'll say a voice for the unheard, forgotten, and invisible. to change practices, to change the narrative, disease surveillance, managing waste, learnings, saving lives, influencing um policy, transformation. So now those are the big words that are coming through impact and change and transformation. Okay, I'd love to um hear from people in the room if I could hear a a quick summation of answering those two questions in sort of like a a let's say in one sentence if you could say one sentence. Um, so I would suggest saying, you know, my research matters to me because and my research matters to the world because, so if I could just get some hands up, some volunteers, um, and people in the chat as well. Um, my research matters to me because and my research matters to the world because Do we have any brave volunteers? Amina, I love it. Yes, Amina. Go ahead. >> Well, you can see me, right? >> Yes. matters to me to have my professional capacity and as well it matters to the world because it will help to develop or solve real world problems. That's all. Thank you and thank you for volunteering and being the first person to volunteer. I always feel like that person is like an extra extra hero because it's so not easy to be the first person to volunteer. >> Okay. Is there is there anyone else? Any volunteers? Why does my research matter to me? My why does my research matter to the world? >> Quinn, please. Uh thank you. Um I do a lot of research on indigenous language systems and knowledge and so for me first it is very personal before it becomes academic because a lot of times the indigenous languages that I'm researching on is all I grew up hearing be it my mother tongue or the mother tongue of my neighbor. So in just doing that research uh then uh it really does matter because of the stories relationships and the way of knowing that no English word can hold the way that research holds and how it speaks in an African context. And so when you ask about why it matters to the world, I think uh our indigenous languages just like English, Swili, French and the other languages, our indigenous languages are dying and it hurts so pain uh so deeply that uh in the next um few years if we don't enrich the African database we will not have our local languages. And so it begs the question of whether our great grandchildren or our children will even have a language to relate to at the first place. So currently I'm doing work on cancer patients in uh western Kenya. And so through that then my corpus work my health communication research my natural language processing advocacy is reaching the the the globe and so we are able to get the funding and they able to know about us and the challenges that we experience. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you Quinn. Um, and I'll I'll uh I'll challenge you also to find a way to to to bring that it's tough, but to bring that all together into one uh one or maybe two sentences of why why you're doing what you're doing because there's a lot there. But it I think it Yeah, I'll challenge you to to to maybe think a bit about how you can bring that together. Um but Jacqueline, let's hear from you. >> Yes, mine also is almost similar to the previous speaker. I'm dealing with uh uh indigenous food safety practices in diary. So mine is uh you know the desire to preserve the African heritage because wherever you go you need to preserve that is your identity. So I've seen milk. It's a sense of identity for the pastorists. And why am I doing it for the community? It's that uh there's a lot that is going on among the pastoralist communities. And this is their the the milk and the milk products. The way they do it, they pass on that information from one generation to another. it's not documented and they need to document it and preserve their heritage. But then at the same time they find that they are excluded from the markets. Uh there are there's a lot of politics when it there's a lot of food politics. So you find they are excluded because people think that they are backward and yet they have a lot to offer and we car we carry our traditions wherever we go. So for me it's a way of amplifying their voices and ensuring that they can they can use their products to get as a source of livelihood as as opposed to being just for subsistence because the world has changed and you have to use whatever you have to get ahead. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you Jacine. Thanks for sharing. Um I also want to share Ruth in the chat has said my research matters to me uh because it is mandatory uh requirement for graduation. It matters to the world because it's going to transform lives. Uh Quinn has also added she says in a sentence when our indigenous languages are absent from AI medicine and education. Um, oh, I a couple of hands have dropped, but um, let's go with Eleanor. If you had your hand up, uh, and I didn't call on you, please just put it up again. Uh, but for now, Eleanor, >> thank you very much for the opportunity. My research matters to me and possibly to subsaharan Africa because it catalyzes sustainability in managing high education resources based on datadriven and investment decisions that are taken. >> Yes, I love I love how you were able to round that out and summarize it, bring it all together. Thank you, Eleanor. You're welcome. >> Let's hear from Salamato. >> Hello everyone. Yes, my research is on nutrition, food and food security usually on minority groups or pastoralist and it matters to me a lot because usually minority groups or pastoralists have a lot of challenges on nutrition health but are usually at times taken out during interventions or ignored because of their minority nature. So I think it matters to me a lot when I'm trying to do research especially nutrition based on evidence of challenges of health that we have reported from those pastoralist group I'm in Ghana. Thank you. >> Thank you Salamu. Um is there anyone else who'd uh wanted to speak? um Astriani. >> See, my research is in um plastic waste management and I think my research matters to me because it enables me to use science and technology to address real world environmental problems and create positive impacts for society. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And then >> hi everyone again. Uh so I am currently uh well research matters to me. uh just generally because uh it unpacks uh certain things that you would not have thought of. So for instance I'm currently finalizing two researches. The first one is on in fact maybe my first publishable researches. The first one is on intergenerational responsibility on climate justice. The second one is on uh women's participation especially those in rural areas in environmental governance. So they matter to me in terms of rethinking how we engage as Africans and how we can actually engage using indigenous means. >> Thank you. Uh thanks for that participation. So, I'd like us all to just um to continue to um reflect on those two questions. Why does my research matter to me? And why does my research matter to the world? And the importance of these questions is they provide a bit of an anchor, an understanding of why am I doing what I'm doing? What sets me apart from um the person next to me? Um, when Julia read my uh my bio, she mentioned that um I think I believe that uh the best people to tell our stories are ourselves. And um so because of that, my my aim is to help uh people tell their own stories. Um so it really is just about what is the thing what is your motivation in doing the work you do and then looking at what is the impact that you are either hoping for the work you do to have or that the work you do is already having um in your in your community um in your field um or on a even larger scale than that to um to come back to the context of um of of ourselves and that um to acknowledge the the we that we come from and the importance of owning our spotlight from that perspective of um us coming from the many and not it being a focus on the eye. Um, I really wanted to show you this video um from a scholar uh and a Moto fellow who I think is is a brilliant poet um and she's also all the many things as as each of you are. Um so as well as being a PhD candidate and the 2021 uh Moazo fellow, Sarah Koshin is a gender specialist with extensive experience in gender equality and women's empowerment research, gender responsive policy design and women led humanitarian and development initiatives across the Horn of Africa and the Somali diaspora. She is also the founder and director of the Somali Gender Hub, an institution that stands as a pioneering center for groundbreaking research on women and gender related issues within Somalia. So, Elena, if you could just play that video. >> Okay. This I'm a Somali woman. >> I am a Somali woman. I am the sister of the mutire. I am the aunt of the potato seller at the local market. I am the daughter of the local sheh. I am the injured of the revolution, the protester, the jailed, the detained. I am the tortured, um the exiled, the kidnapped, the raped. I am the veiled, the nonveiled. I am a beautiful soul. I am a Somali woman. My skin is of ebony and ivory. I am young by a spirit and old by experience. I am the pregnant, the wife, the single mother, the widow, the good and to forcing me into marriage as the compensation payment for another clan's peace settlement. I am a Somali woman yet. Yet I am not a victim. I'm a leader. Not a woman leader, but a leader who happens to be a woman. I clean up the streets of my nation. I rise up the past, the present, and the future generations. I brought the I brought the Nobel Peace Prize to Somalia. I am a Somali woman. I speak out for my son at school. I speak up for my daughter in the Madrasa. I pray for my ancestors and for my older son in jail, for my mother in the hospital. I speak out for our artists whom they came bombing in theaters and on the streets. I am a Somali woman. I speak out for my mind. I am the pulse of the people. I live in the city, in the town, in the rural areas, in the suburbs, in the mountains, along the borders. I am info and every corner where there is life and sound. I am a Somali woman. I am synonymous to strength and victory. I celebrate sisterhood. I celebrate womanhood. I boost the economy. I advance the technology. I give life to the community. Do I deserve to be equal to you? Yes, I do. because I am a woman, a Somali woman. >> Yes, indeed. >> Thank you. Thank you, Elena. The the reason why that video and that poem um really speaks to me is because it touches on this thing that we've been talking about, which is the community aspect of it. It's this idea that um as women, we come as many. Uh although we might be individuals in whichever spaces that we are, sometimes um we go into spaces and we are the only woman um or the only uh person of of color who's doing what we're doing. Um but even so, we know that as we come in, we come in with this community um of of people and with the people who come for us and those who go ahead of us. Um, so now I' I'd like to switch gears a little bit and um get into uh a tutorial, have you have something tangible to leave this session with. Um although I hope that the reflection has also given you um a good base as well to start thinking about public engagement with. Um but uh beyond that I want to get into uh just a second There we go. There. Okay. Can you see me? Can you see my screen? Almost there. Let me just try and make it Oh, just a second. Sorry. And one second. Okay. All right. So, let's get into creating a bio. So, first of all, I'm going to ask if you can um either pull out a pen and paper, uh or you know, only if you like to do it old school traditionally, or if you can pull up a word document, um or something that you can just take notes in, uh and and do some writing on or some people prefer to do work on their phone, so you can pull up the notes um application on your phone, but just something so that you can start to write something down. Um, so if you could just give me some thumbs up when you have some writing utensils or something that you can start taking notes with. Okay. All right. Let me start. So, uh, what is a bio? So a bio or a biography is a means of introducing oneself. Uh Dr. Gifty had mentioned it in her in her presentation as well. It's a short written biographical summary of your career, education, and passions. A good public bio provides a description of yourself to audiences who may not be familiar with you or your work. Good bios can help you attract new audiences, funders, partners, followers online so that you can contribute to and influence discourse in your field. They can be used for speaking engagements, for presentations, and on social media platforms like LinkedIn. So your bio should be unique to you. And what does that mean? Unique to you means that um though you know you and another person may be in a similar field, your bios will still look different because your experience, your career, your passions are different from the next person. So it should be unique to who you are. Um it should also be representative. Representative means it covers broadly um what you do and who you are. It should be clear and concise. Um, so not too long- winded, not too complicated, pretty um, pretty easy for someone to understand. Um, and in this example, I like a lot to think of, um, a relative, maybe a mother or a sibling, um, or a cousin, an auntie, who could sit down, who could read your bio, or you could explain to somebody, um, what you do and they would understand it. And this person is not someone who would be in your field at all. They would just be able to understand exactly what you're saying because you've made it so clear and concise. And then it's authentic. Authentic means that it's honest. It's true of of who you are and of what you've done. And then finally, adaptable. And adaptable is really important because then you have something that if you create something today, it could be something that you end up pulling out different parts and putting on different platforms. So, for example, if you create a six sentence paragraph today, that could be something where in its entirety you could send the next time you're doing a speaking um a speaking presentation, but you could also pull out the first three sentences to use as your LinkedIn bio. Um, and so something that you can actually sort of pull apart and play with is really useful. So, your bio should avoid incomplete sentences and this refers to like what I was saying about it being clear and concise. Just make it as as um as understandable as possible. Um it should avoid complex language. So, complex language also includes things like jargon. Jargon is uh niche um or hyperspecific terminology that is relevant only to specific fields. So each of us have jargon that we use in our in our fields of work or research and generally a bio should should not have any of that. It should be something that as I said the next person who is not at all in your field should be able to understand it very easily. And this is also going to be true for a language that's not even necessarily jargon but just kind of really complicated and hard to understand. You know hard words, long words. If you can use simpler things, then use simpler things. If you can say something in five words, um instead of 10, say it in five words. Um your bio should also incl um avoid irrelevant facts. So that means anything that's that doesn't really pertain to your career, your professional journey, anything that is um just a bit of a personal addition. uh it doesn't need to include that again because you're trying to be as concise as possible and understanding that most people don't want to or are not going to be able to read a long body of text. So you need to make sure that you're giving them something that is really um important. It makes sense. It's a good sum summation of who you are, what you do. Um and your bio should also avoid switching languages. So, while it is very relevant um sometimes for some people to have bios in different languages, um you could have a bio that is in your um in in um in English and then a bio that is also in French or a bio that is in a language in which you're working in. Um every bio should just use one language throughout that specific bio. So, your bio should include accurate and updated information. And this is something that um always tricks me trips me up is I forget to check in and update my bio. And so I would recommend every year or two years to just look back at what you've done and just update it so that when you need it um quickly for for anything, you can actually just quickly use it and you don't have to do the work every time of updating um this this paragraph. Um and then also accurate as well. So making sure that you are again being authentic and truthful with with who you are. Concise language as I said if you can say something in five words say it in five words. Um don't be overly long. Sometimes people think that being overly long is actually a good thing. It's not necessarily when it comes to communication because communication is all about making sure that your message lands with somebody and it's not necessarily about sounding like you know many many words. Um consistent tone and so Dr. Gy mentioned in her presentation the idea of tone of when you're using your voice knowing who you are speaking to. So this is what tone is. tone is referring to the fact that sometimes how we speak to um our friends over the weekend is not the same way that we're going to speak to um a group of colleagues, you know, on a Monday morning. And so we need to make sure that we're using a tone that makes sense for our bio and then it's consistent throughout. So it's not that every once in a while you then drop into a way of speaking that's much much more casual than you started the paragraph being. And then a bio is highlights and not a summary. So this means that you're not trying to say everything that you have ever done. It's literally an a top level view at what you've done. So you don't have to include every stage of your career or academia. It's it's so much more important to focus on what you are doing today and maybe if there's something that's relevant, you can touch on one thing that happened in the past rather than trying to touch on everything that happened in the past and also talk about where you are today. So it's highlights, not a summary. And then finally, your bio should include a personal manifesto or a motto. So this is a little thing that I am passionate about having people include a manifesto and a mo or a motto and I know that sounds super intimidating when you say to someone what's your manifesto or what's your motto um that feels very in uh intimidating but the good news is that exercise that we were doing earlier where you were trying to understand why does my research matter to me and why does my research matter to the world covers this that is your motto the reason why you do what you do is that you've already come up with the answer there why uh why your research matters to you and to the world that's your motto and the importance as I said of having a motto or a manifesto or whatever word you want to use for it the importance of it is to set you apart when other people are coming across your bios they see something that's a bit different and it also already informs somebody um exactly what you're coming to the table with and where you are situating your work and your and your career. So as I said in writing your manifesto or your motto you look at these two questions that we've looked at already. Why does my research matter to me? Why does my research matter to the world? So already you've come up with it in uh in one word or two words and then you shared either um in the group or you or you shared on the chat. Now it's something that's a little bit more written. So I'm going to ask you to either with your pen and your paper or on your Google doc or your word doc or on your phone if you can write one or two sentences answering these questions. Why does my research matter to me? Why does my research matter to the world? And essentially the answers are already there. You've already written this, but this is just to make sure that this is complete sentences. So, one or two complete sentences, max two complete sentences that answer these questions. If you can get it in one sentence, that's a bonus point. But um the best way to do this is to just consider the words that you'd already come up with and then some of the things that were already coming up as you were putting those words together and um and answer and answer it in that way. And what I'd also encourage you to do is to be specific to yourself, to be as specific to yourself as possible. So try not to be vague or general. try to be um as personal as you can about this um without it being too too vulnerable but but something that is really unique to you. Um so as I said for me the importance of people telling their own stories um is personal that is that is that's a that's a personal belief that I have that I've had for many years and I've been able to create my career based on that concept alone. And so then the things that I do with that belief are therefore also personal. um giving people skills, teaching skills of communication are deeply personal to me. And so if you could just try as much as possible to just center that personal aspect um and move a little bit away from the vague the vague answers of it. Okay. So do you have your sentences down? Maybe you can give some thumbs up. Okay. So, here is the here is uh I call it like the bones of a good bio, the framework of a good bio. So, this doesn't mean that you can only use this structure to write a bio. You can absolutely use whichever structure you feel most comfortable with, but this structure is something to help you if you're looking for a way to frame yourself and to just structure your your ideas and your words all in one thing. This is a paragraph template for you. So, a well constructed bio includes um sentences one and two being summaries of your research focus, your education, and your profession. And then sentences three and four are your interests, your awards, your passions. Sentences five and six are your manifesto, your motto. So the good news about five and six is you've just written those two. You've just written your manifesto. So you can have that down. So now sentences one and two should be among the easiest for you to do. It's what we do every time we start these sessions, right? You say your name, you say the institution you're you're from, you say what your research focus is. So you already have that down as one sentence, sometimes two sentences. So you can put that down as well. So now you're left with this middle bit, sentences three and four. So sentences three and four, I say your interests, your awards, your passions. So this doesn't mean that you have to explicitly list all of your interests, all of your awards, and all of your passions. This is more to say what are the things about your from your career that um are a little bit different that that um that identify you as just a little bit different from your from the next person. So, do you have specific interests or have your interests manifested in an interesting way? Um, have you been awarded in your career or were you awarded um academically for something significant? Um, are there passions that have guided your your work in ways that maybe someone might not expect or maybe in ways that someone might expect? Um, so these bleed into the last part, which is your manifesto, your motto. Um, it's not something to be too stressed about. It's not something that that is a very specific concept. It's just sort of a bit of like a a filler joiner to get joiner to get you from who you are in a sort of dry professional way to you're ending on a punch of like this is how I'm changing the world. And so how do we how do we transition from that section into your manifesto, your motto? So just to highlight what comes into a good bio, it's your name and professional or academic title. Um within that is also your your your research focus, your manifesto or your motto and your most recent work or research project. This is really important actually because so often um people forget to say that the thing that they are currently working on is maybe the most important part of all of this. And so be sure to include your most recent um work or re or research project. You can be a little bit more specific than just your research focus in this way. Um, so I'm just going to give you time to put together this paragraph and what I'll do is I'll go back to the previous slide to help you take in the bones of this. Um, does anyone have any questions on this on this sort of um framework or is anyone struggling a little bit to put their paragraph together? You can put your hand up or um share in the chat. Mariam has said please elaborate a bit on the manifesto. What is manifesto in this sense from Amina? So um how I use manifesto uh or a motto is really one's um purpose one's purpose in the work that they do. What is the reason that you do the work you do? And so that's why those two questions of um why does my research matter to me and why does my research matter to the world, the answers to those questions are actually your your motto um are actually your manifesto. And so in this way um we're using it to mean the um the the impetus the the reason why you do the work you do the thing that is your fuel or your motivation. Um and that fuel or motivation is specific to you. It's not going to be that everybody um for example in uh education as Ruth is um is going to feel the exact same thing or be motivated by the exact same thing. Um everybody um has a different motivation and a different reason as to why we do the work that we do. And so that's what I mean by um manifesto. It's this idea of why why does it matter to you and and what's the what's the what's the what's the intended impact um to the world? Hope that clears it up. Dia, I might have missed it. Is a bio written in first or third person? You didn't miss it. I forgot to talk about that. So, a bio can actually be written either in the first person or the third person. What I suggest for this exercise is to do it in the third person so that it can be as adaptable as possible. There are some formats, there are some places that will require a bio um that is written in the third person. For example, if you have a speaking engagement, often those bios are written um and requested in the third person. So that is um Nalyaka Odara is etc etc etc. Um however there are some spaces um and some platforms that it makes more sense to have a firsterson bio. Um an example of that is um for example you can do that on LinkedIn although I see on LinkedIn people use both use either um you can do that on LinkedIn you can do that on um a a blogging platform of your own or on different social media platforms um where you can then say I am a communication specialist etc etc so in general it's about your audience your intended audience where is this bio supposed to sit That's the thing that will then dictate whether it should be in the third person or the first person. Uh generally the third person is seen as more formal and the first person is seen as slightly more informal. Um but again that really is dependent on on the exact platform. So for this specific bio, I would encourage you to write it in the third person because it's just easier to adapt and pull things out later on as you use it. Any more questions? Okay. So, how how is it how is it going? Are we are we building our paragraphs here? Are we do we have something to work with? Okay. So, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to um I'm just going to stop sharing so that I can uh come back in the room and and hear from you guys. Um, have we been able to write some bios? And do we have any volunteers of people who'd want to read their bios? Additionally, Annabelle, thank you. I saw that hand immediately. That's great. However, one second. Additionally, we have a little bit of a test which is that we're going to put a timer and it's going to be a 45 second timer just to make it a little bit more interesting. And so the goal is to share your bio within those uh 45 seconds. So um Oh, Annabelle, you put your hand down, but I really feel like you should try and just put your hand up again and see. Uhhuh. My hand up was was indicating that we've not yet. So I think I needed two or so minutes to finish up. Two two or three minutes to finish up. Okay. Does anyone feel ready yet or would you like a little bit more time? We can also take a little bit more time. Maybe we can take like three minutes and then have a pop a few volunteers. Okay, I know I said three minutes, but it's been two and so I want to go ahead. Oh, exciting. Okay, Augusta, go ahead. Thank you for volunteering. And then after Augusta, Monica, lovely. So, Anna's going to put a counter, a timer. Let's see. There we go. Okay. Augusta. >> Yes. So, Augusta Augusta Esa Champon is a PhD candidate from the University of Ghana and a translator. She's interested in corpus based translation studies. Her research seeks to help the world understand legal translation in Africa. >> Yeah, you got it in like what time was that? 20 seconds I think. Well done. That was fantastic. Thank you so much and thank you again for being volunteer number one. Much appreciated. Um okay, Monica, go ahead. And uh Elena will put that timer on now. Go. >> Monica is a public health and in researcher focusing on environmental and molecular determinants of non-communicable diseases. Her research focuses on looking at how diet, climate, and other stressors shape non-communicable disease risk. Monica has a strong interest in machine learning and food systems methods and identifying modifiable dietary and environmental drivers of risk. Hair research is personal first to understand the reasons for her health condition and it matters to the world because it gives a clear understanding about their health and what they can control and what is beyond them. Thank you. I love that ending music. Thank you so much Monica. Well done. You made it exactly in that 45 second window. Well done. Do we have any other volunteers? >> Yeah, I don't know. And I'm not sure who's speaking. Sorry. Oh, she's gone. But okay. Uh, we have Dr. Dr. Gino, please. And Elena's putting the counter. Are you ready, Dr. Jim? >> Oh, she's gone. >> Okay. Elena here. >> Ah, okay. Yeah. Elen A is my name. I'm a lecturer at University of Professor Sakura and a Ph a PhD candidate in University of Ghana Business School. My research work is about big data management and analytics practices in higher education institutions. Basically an exploratory study to see how data generation activities can enable the driven decision making. So my research matters to me and possibly to s a sahara Africa because it catalyzes the sustainability in managing high education resources based on datadriven and investment decisions and therefore I'm considering areas like using variable accessories to help health care delivery services and also looking at telecomuting activities that will help them. a lot of data to consider how organizations and other enterprises will consider datadriven decision making by adopting big data analytics activities. Thank you. >> Thank you. You you got it out there. Thank you. One thing I will uh I will caution you about is mixing. I believe I could be wrong but I believe you started in the third person and then ended in the first person. That's just because of answering that question of why does my research matter to me? And so when you're putting something then together in the third person, you can then say, you know, her research matters because, etc., etc. Um, and then I I was hearing a a little bit of jargon. I would say some of that was some jargon. some of that was was language that's used uh in your space and that um those of us who are not from your field may not fully understand. So if you can find a bit simpler ways to explain um the work you do uh you may it may even help you to then cut down on the on the um on the length but thank you thank you so much for for participating. >> Thank you so much for the feedback. >> Thank you. And then I see a couple in the chat. Um, uh, oh, Dr. Celia, do you want to do you want to share out loud or should I read it? Dr. Celia, should I I'll read it. Okay. Um, so Dr. Celia MJ Matianga is a distinguished researcher, pharmacist, mentor, and lecturer. She has an extensive academic background holding a PhD and masters in clinical pharmarmacology and a bachelor of pharmacy on honors. Additionally, she has uh enhanced her expertise through global accredititation including grants and leadership certifications. Dr. Matianga has significantly contributed to research by securing awards and fellowships such as the L'Oreal UNESCO for women in science award, the NI NIH Fogerty International Center grant and the Moza Fellowship. She has shared her knowledge in over 20 publications and at local and international conferences where she's presented on clinical pharmarmacology, HIV research and pharmacy practice. She's the founder of Research 101 Consultancy, a social initiative that mentors ethical leaders for transformative change. Her values are integrity, resilience, and learning. Matianga is dedicated to impacting people's lives through transformative change. Okay. Um I I think that I think that's good. I especially like how you um and I think maybe if people uh look at this example of her last sentence where she says she's dedicated to impacting people's lives through transformative change. Uh sometimes when we put together the motto it doesn't have to be so explicitly saying you know um her research matters because she is impacting people's lives through transformative you know um so instead she's gotten right to saying um exactly what her motto is. why she's doing what she's doing. Um, I would say on the other hand though that it's it's slightly long and maybe it's it's bordering a little bit more on summary. Um, I would also bring your sec third to last sentence of the she is the founder of research 101 consultancy. I would bring it up towards the beginning because it's a title. It's what you do. Um, and so I like to have the title and the the core of like what the person does right at the beginning so that in case someone does drop off, they don't miss that information. Um, so that's what I would say about that. And then I'll also read um Dr. Jar's uh uh bio here. Um, and then unfortunately just because of time this this will have to be the last bio um before we close. Um so doc uh Janal Khalib is an academic professional um researcher and consultant dedicated to advancing medical education and health workforce development affiliated with the University of Hyesa. Her work sits at the critical intersection of transdisciplinary qualitative research one health and the impacts of climate change on health systems. Thank you. I think that was that's that's very that's very succinct. That's very concise. I like that. Um I think maybe you can add a little bit about your passions or your interests in this that can then flesh it out to be a little bit more like um uh a little bit more like uh I don't know personable. Um but I think it's a it's a good start and I like the concise language. It's very clear. Um, so I know that um we're running quite close to time. Um, so I don't want us to go for too long. Um, I'm going to actually welcome back Julia while you ask any final final questions. Um, I see Mariam has asked generally how long should it be? Um, so I would say six sentences is a is your sweet spot. Um, of course, sentences have the have the have a way of either being super long or super short. So, I would say six sentences knowing that you're not going for very very long sentences. Um, uh, yeah, I think when you reach a point where you realize that you have, you know, quite a number of commas and ands and the sentence keeps going, then you might need to start shortening your sentences down. Um, I also had seen earlier a couple questions about the creating their space online. How do I create my space online? Someone had a Facebook link that came up when they Googled and the info was not accurate. Um, someone just asked about how to increase their profile um online. Uh, someone had information on Google that was her name but not her. Um, and then somebody else shared that they have a same name as a celebrity and so there's a photo of them instead. So all of these are to do with like um how you appear publicly online. And essentially the long and the short of it is the more you add to the digital space, the more you can um the more you can drown out things that are not relevant to you. Um, and so the easiest way to go about um addressing this is is doing things like posting more regularly, um, linking to things more regularly, um, and um, continually doing the the Google um, analysis to see where you are with um, with that. Um, yeah, that's that that's really the easiest way to do that. In terms of when um the Facebook link that came up was not mine, I I think it would be about checking to see your Facebook privacy settings just to make sure that um everything is on board with with how you've how you've registered for Facebook and how you've set up your profile. And if so, then it's probably a case of similar names. Um and so it would be um again just sort of uh trying to ensure that you are um using different um platforms more frequently so that there's the more information there is out there um the more accurate the the Google the digital footprint will be essentially that's the long and short of it. Um there's just two quick things that I need to mention. Um I hope you'll give us 10 more minutes of your time. Sorry, as we go over um but the two quick things that I want to mention are um as you go through this module and as you look into the different resources that Elena had shared um in the chat um and that are available on the Moazo and learning exchange um platform. you will find um as Dorsilla had mentioned a couple of additional resources. One of them is a spotlight checklist. And this spotlight checklist is something that's going to help you figure out very simply what your plan of action is for public engagement. Um and so the biggest piece of advice I would have which is something that Dr. Gy had also mentioned right at the beginning is choose one thing. Um, don't try to do everything. Uh, because that's the fastest way for you to feel like it's not, you know, it's it's overwhelming. There's so much to do, you can't quite get a handle of it. So, choose one thing. If it's about making your LinkedIn profile robust, as Merlin had mentioned at the beginning, then you can really focus on that. Some people have uh picked up things like blogging um and you can really focus on that. Some people are really intent on on working with media more and getting opeds out there more. So you can start to build um ways in doing that, reaching out um to uh plat platforms and spaces that publish works from uh scientists like the conversation or nature um to see how you can connect with them. also doing things like connecting to your institutions's um press offices um especially for the many people who are who are connected to universities. Many universities around the world have press offices that are looking to um to share about the work that comes out of their universities. So you can connect with them and and forge your research to them and see what conversations you can have there. But essentially choose one thing and then build on that one thing. Um and the final thing that I would want to share today is um is a bit of a um uh a check about safety. I think as much as we're talking about being visible more, being out there more, we know that as women um women face uh are more likely to experience harassment online than men. Um they experience cyber bullying um and doxing, online harassment, image abuse, trolling, deep fakes. Um there's quite a few issues that that as women we have to contend with. And so it is important as much as we encourage um women and women researchers to get out there and it's important for people to know um about the work that you are doing, it's also important for you to stay safe online. And so staying safe online means um being mindful about what you post and about where you post it. Um it means having strong security passwords. Um it means staying sec using secure uh private internet connections. Um and it means uh being careful about what links you click on. It also means when you post um being careful not to post things like you know your addresses or information about your loved ones um or information that's just quite private and personal and you wouldn't necessarily want to get out there. A rule of thumb that I give is if you think about the internet like um people you encounter just people in the public let's say you're at a marketplace you know people in in in on the internet are just like everybody in a marketplace and unless you know them well you would be careful with what information you share. So use that same similar type thinking when you're when you're on um when you're on the um when you're on the internet and when you're sharing and when you're increasing your visibility. So you'll find some more tips um in those resources as to how to be safe online. Um but I would say our biggest resource is is each other and is our community. So um in the spirit of community and sisterhood, if you do see somebody um who you know a woman who has posted something that they may not know that they have posted something that is um that has the potential to be used or misused. Um you can just message them on the side and let them know um you know um that that maybe they might want to revisit what they what they've posted or um edit what they've posted or even delete what they've posted. So let's um let's support each other in all the ways both in encouraging each other as we post more and increase our visibility and also um help make these spaces more safe and larger and wider spaces more safe in how we share and support with each other. Um so with that I do know Jacine you've had your hand up but unfortunately we don't quite have time for it. So maybe if I could ask if you could just write it in the chat um and then um if you're in the WhatsApp group um we'll try and uh address it there. Um for now I'd like to welcome back Union to to close out the session. Um uh again I would ask if everyone can just if they have more questions please feel free to to write them in the WhatsApp and um I'll try to address them where possible. Thank you. >> Thank you so much Neliaak. Uh thank you for this really engaging session and I feel like so many useful and concrete tips and recommendations and reflections has been shared and thank you to all of you for really participating and sharing um and um and daring to speak in front of everyone. I think that has been really great and that's also what makes these online events really um working well. Um, I just want to alert you to the WhatsApp group and Elena just posted a Q QR code in the chat. So, you can scan that in order to to join the WhatsApp group which is I don't remember how many members we have right now. Maybe you can write that as well, Elena. But it's a big network, a big community by now. Um, and you can continue sharing in that. So, please continue to share with each other and support each other as you write your bios uh and start to engage more with visibility really using these um concrete tools that you learned today. And as we mentioned, the owning your spotlight course materials are now live in the links that Elena will share in the chat as well and in the WhatsApp group. Uh and as we also said, we'll have our closing live session to this module of owning your spotlight. Uh which is a storytelling session and it will take place online on the 15th of July. Um and I think Elena is also posting a link in the chat where you can already register by now. Um and we'll of course send that out again. The recording of this meeting will be shared with everyone uh including the YouTube playlist link where you can see all the previous recording sessions. And I think that's almost it. So um now we're saying goodbye. We're looking very much forward to seeing you again and really hope that you'll engage with all the material which is freely available online. And then just lastly before we let you go uh and to remind us why we are here today and how we can learn and lead together, we will close by watching a video that explains uh the origin of this initiative. So thank you everyone. All around the world women are having the WhatsApp link >> but less than the QR code but the linkers are women. In Africa of the 97 top ranked universities only 21% have women as chancellors while only 26% have women as registers. Something needs to be done. We need to start a conversation on how to bring more women into research. There is no country in the world that has reached gender parity yet. When we do not have enough women in research, we miss out on the opportunity for having women reflect the challenges that exist. >> When we miss women in research, we are missing perspectives of women in health, perspectives of women in education, how women think about technology. And that is important to note because without these perspectives it means we are missing out on interventions on solutions that actually impact half of the population of the world. 50 women researchers across Africa gathered in Arouchia in March this year. The discussion among these women resulted in creating a manifesto and what a better place than to start by sharing it here with the 300 youth who are meeting with the UL lead summit discussing the future of education in Africa and why it matters. Where I'd like us to begin is breaking the glass ceiling. >> Speak up no matter what it takes. And here maybe we need to know that even when we are talking about glass ceiling that's not the only challenge women face they also suffer from sticky floors. So while you're struggling to heat up there also those who are struggling to keep you down. So we have to navigate both the glass ceiling and sticky floors. >> When we don't include women in research and the academia we are missing the talents and the innovations that women have. Let's all commit to being the ambassadors and spread this word. Download the manifesto, read it, and share it within your network so that we are all part of the solution into getting more women into academia and research. We need you.