Building an Innovation Ecosystem

When Ananya Asthana was in the 8th grade, the time eventually arrived for the students at her school, University of Chicago Lab Schools, to plan their schedules for the following year. With high school would come a lot of changes—a new lunch period, more responsibilities, and the opportunity to take “accelerated track” classes. As her peers started considering whether they felt qualified to take these more advanced courses, specifically in the accelerated math track, Asthana noticed something: even though she and her female friends had the same grades as their male counterparts (if not better), they were more hesitant to opt into the accelerated math track. “This was the first time I realized that girls can be technically qualified, in fact, significantly more qualified than men,” Asthana recalled in an interview with The Women’s Network Magazine, “but the decision-driver for them to not take up opportunities that could be great for them in STEM is the community issue.” Asthana was one of the only girls to sign up.

According to research from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), there is no disparity in academic performance between boys and girls in STEM subjects like math. Yet girls, such as those in Asthana’s middle school, are less likely to take more advanced courses in STEM as those options become available in higher grades. This trend grows more concerning as the number of girls in STEM classes continues to decrease throughout the path to higher education. The AAUW’s research shows that although one-third of males in their first year of college will take on a STEM major, only 15% of first-year females planned to enroll in majors relating to the STEM field. The lack of female camaraderie challenged Asthana, as the high school freshman struggled to bond with her male peers in the accelerated math class. She started talking to other girls her age at different schools in Chicago about her problem and realized that many of them were going through a similar experience. Asthana, seeing a need for change, got to work and created Women in Stem (WiSTEM), an organization dedicated to building programs and opportunities that “tackle both the attitudes surrounding women in STEM and also the limited opportunities available in high school, especially for girls,” in Asthana’s words.

So, Asthana got to work and focused the rest of her high school career on growing and scaling WiSTEM. The then-high schooler participated in the Global Youth Ambassador Program between her freshman and sophomore year of high school and searched for girls who might be interested in helping her build the club. Once Asthana had established a meaningful network, she sent emails and texts to potential speakers and members in order to expand her organization to other high schools. She learned how to pitch WiSTEM to investors, how to utilize her network and find mentors, and even took a summer class at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business before her senior year of high school. Then, just before the pandemic hit in March 2020, Asthana won third place (and $10,000) at the University of Chicago College New Venture Challenge accelerator program. By the time Asthana left the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools to join Yale University’s class of 2024, WiSTEM had launched 80 chapters with over 2000 members and hosted over 200 events. The high school club had transformed into a legitimate non-profit organization, all before Asthana’s first year of college.

While Asthana was eager to move on to the next phase of her life, she realized just how difficult leaving behind high school passions can be, especially one that was as all-consuming as WiSTEM. The current college sophomore remembers feeling “a little unfulfilled” as she entered her first year of college and took on a lesser role in the organization. “In high school, I’d have breaking news every day. I’d have a meeting and it would be super amazing, and I’d be super fired up about it,” Ashtana explained, referring to the constant demand of WiSTEM, “and then in my freshman year of college, I didn’t have something that was giving me that level of energy.” She hoped to find an experience that would drive and fulfill her in the ways that WiSTEM had, with only WiSTEM as a reference for such an experience.

Contending with this, Asthana took the skills she learned from leading WiSTEM and applied them to new roles in her college career. Currently, Asthana is a Venture Capital analyst intern at Decibel Partners and the co-chair at Yale’s Center for Innovative Thinking. She also leads their incubator, which she described as Yale’s equivalent of the College New Venture Challenge she had participated in at the University of Chicago. According to Asthana, the innovation center is like her “new startup” and has helped her feel more fulfilled as she starts to move on from WiSTEM. Asthana explained, “I think so much of what I did as a founder of WiSTEM is propelling the work I’m doing here and building an innovation ecosystem that matches what I had in high school.”

While Asthana has grown more comfortable in her new college environment through student organizations and passion projects, she—like many members of The Women’s Network—has struggled with the realities that come with starting college during a pandemic. She identified Zoom fatigue and untenable working hours as two unique challenges in this age of doing everything online. It can be difficult to know when to come to a hard stop when so much of what needs to be done is easily accessible online, and she has often found herself still working at all hours of the night. Asthana has had to learn how to prioritize herself and de-emphasize the culture that perpetuates such unhealthy habits. “It’s okay if something doesn’t go super great for you,” the college student reflected. “In the long run, having grace with yourself, and being really honest about your feedback for yourself, is going to be way better than not doing well on a Zoom proctored exam and then beating yourself up about extra three weeks later.”

Despite the difficulties that come with online learning, Asthana has found ways to cope and adapt by filling her days with people, classes, and projects that inspire her. While she no longer has a G-cal filled with WiSTEM events, the young entrepreneur has begun to discover some of the next great things headed her way. As she reflected on choosing to create some distance between herself and WiSTEM in order to move forward to a new phase of life, Asthana shared, “I saw myself sort of as someone that didn’t want to be married to one idea for the rest of my life... and more so someone who has a lot of good ideas in life.” Her tremendous high school accomplishments do not define her, but Asthana continues to draw from the experiences that have shaped her to look at the world and make an impact. “In the long run, having grace with yourself, and being really honest about your feedback for yourself, is way better.”