Hemanshi Galaiya

Bold Question: What if we raise the aspirations and life chances of young adults through STEM and leadership education to help them realise their full potential?

Path to Metis: Hemanshi is an energetic and bubbly exceptional young African who truly embodies the spirit of entrepreneurship, social innovation and building communities.

Her academic success and trailblazing ambitions were awarded a scholarship to pursue a degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sheffield where she contributed to engineering outreach and widening participation. Over the years, she got involved in several campaigns that prioritised gender equality, promoted enhancement of quality of education and provided mentoring for young adults, including roles such as being an International Engineering Ambassador, a STEM champion and the President of the Women in Engineering (WiE) Student Society.

Through these opportunities, she discovered her passion for working with young adults and empowering them to develop holistically. Throughout her presidential tenure, she put emphasis on volunteering and outreach through socials, industrial visits, school-based STEM clubs, panel events and mentoring schemes which cumulatively resulted in the society winning the National Academic Society in the UK.

The impact of successful academic and industrial collaboration was first highlighted to her through WiE. Moreover, the lack of such a model in the Kenyan education system explained the lowered confidence and aspirations of young Kenyans to pursue these fields.

At the university, she joined the Sheffield Engineering Leadership Academy (SELA), a program through which she headed various projects, co-developed an enterprise and engineering education session for young students and engaged in academic research. SELA expanded on her leadership aptitude and inspired her to promote all-rounded education, especially soft skill development in young adults. Her sustained commitment to personal, professional and academic promise resulted in a special departmental prize upon graduation (Sarjant Award) and a nomination for the Chancellor’s Medal at university.

Moreover, her dedication to education, youth and women empowerment, STEM championing and contributions to the local community and the world at large was recognized through a global ‘25 Under 25 Young Achiever’ award (CSW 2018) and being shortlisted for a prestigious engineering award at the Sheffield’s Inspirational Women Awards 2020.

Upon graduation, she decided to return to Kenya and give back to her community through Young Stripes as her eventual vision is to educate, empower and incubate young adults to their full potential. She aspires to create more skilled, experienced and industrially-connected young adults with both technical and leadership capabilities so that they can access a wider pool of careers and develop an enterprising and innovation inclined mindset that serves the local community and world at large.

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