When Dr. Zahra Nazari arrived in Canada from Afghanistan in May 2022, she was packing ambition.
A postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta, she had been eager to help immigrant and marginalized women in the field of technology, but unsure how to go about it.
WISE Planet presenters at the 2024 Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology (CCWESTT) conference in Victoria.
Nazari's supervisor had heard about a University of Calgary program called WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) Planet and introduced her to founder Dr. Laleh Behjat, PhD, a professor in the Schulich School of Engineering.
WISE Planet strives to empower women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Nazari, PhD, says these goals aligned well with her own fledgling initiative, Women in Tech Afghanistan, which she established only months after coming to Canada.
"Our goals were exactly the same," Nazari says of her meeting with Behjat. "She invited me to join."
For Nazari, who joined WISE for its 2023 cohort, the training represented a wonderful one-year opportunity, as well as exposure to the tools and expertise to make change happen.
Program helps form students into future leaders
"The goal is to have participants view themselves as the type of leader that we need in the future," says program manager Jennifer van Zelm, BSc'04, MSc'06. "We bring in mentorship and networking and professional development to give them more confidence behind that vision of themselves."
With online and in-person options, WISE Planet features four learning modules; personal leadership, culture and systems, designing for disruptions, and sustainability.
"It's more of an experience than a program," says van Zelm, adding that WISE Planet is suited for early to mid-career professionals, including those in the academic world.
Nazari already possessed passion and determination, but WISE Planet helped her develop other assets.
"When I started, I didn't know, for example, how to connect with people, how to talk about my goals, how to network, how to explain my goals and defend my ideas, but they taught us," she says. "It was a positive experience. Very helpful and a good opportunity, especially for women in a situation like mine."
Funding and industry partners support underrepresented group participation
In July 2020, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) provided startup funding for WISE Planet. The program has since attracted corporate sponsors. And, for candidates nominated by these industry and university partners, there are no program fees.
Additional funding would allow free access for all successful applicants, including graduate students and employees of smaller (non-sponsor) companies. "It's important that they don't incur any costs," says van Zelm. "That's foundational to the idea of supporting underrepresented groups."
UCalgary Giving Day is the ideal time to donate to WISE Planet, which is one of the Schulich School's featured funds for the April 2-16 fundraising blitz.
One member of WISE Planet's 2024 cohort calls the program's knowledge and perspective exchange inspiring and enriching.
"It was incredibly exciting to me," says Dr. Shabnam Vatanpour, PhD, a statistician in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM). "The collaborative environment, especially the workshops and the connection with like-minded participants, was the highlight.
"Everyone looking to drive change and develop their leadership skills would benefit greatly."
Cohort diversity creates variety in project impact and learning
Participants come from across Canada and, because of the diversity of people and their situations, WISE Planet's programming is flexible, says van Zelm.
"We have people who go out into the field for a while; we have people who call in from home with a newborn baby on their lap; we have professors who have different teaching schedules semester to semester," she says.
Her involvement with WISE Planet has informed Nazari's own undertaking took shape; through Women in Tech Afghanistan, which promotes diversity and digital-skills training, she has now engaged with more than 2,000 women, with plans to grow this number. "They didn't know how to start," she says. "They didn't know how to learn digital skills, new skills, how to enter the job market."
Vatanpour also has a project underway Advancing Equity in Health Research and hopes to bridge a critical gap by developing a structured framework that provides guidance to integrate EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) values into the research process. This too has been impacted by her involvement in WISE Planet.
"We see impact on many different fronts," says Behjat.
Some WISE Planet participants have found themselves in better positions to earn promotions. And organizations themselves are being transformed by their employees' insight and experience. One company, for instance, doubled the time for paid maternity leave, says Behjat.
"Part of it is being empowered; part of it is having knowledge," says Behjat. "This is the impact that we wanted to have."
WISE Planet is an example of many programs supported by Giving Day. And gifts this year have the chance to go twice as far, with eligible donations matched dollar for dollar, up to $2,500 per gift, per fund, while matching funds last. Visit the Giving Day website for more information and to donate to WISE Planet.
