(Photo: Mentorship program participants attending a lab session at IIT Delhi)

New Delhi: The laboratories and lecture halls of IIT Delhi didn’t just buzz with their usual academic chatter; they belonged to 120 ambitious young high school girls from classes 9 to 12, from schools across the Delhi-NCR region, for the Manasvi: STEM Mentorship Program for High School Girls.

Manasvi is a flagship initiative by the office of Academic Outreach and New Initiatives at IIT Delhi to inspire young girls to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The 5th cohort had 120 girls as part of Manasvi, and what differentiated this cohort from the previous ones was that all the girls were from government schools from Delhi-NCR.

The inaugural session of the 5th batch of the program began with a welcome address by Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT Delhi. In his address, he highlighted the objective of the program, which is to improve female representation in STEM careers, and how IIT Delhi has taken initiatives towards this.

Prof. Rangan Banerjee encouraged the girls, saying, “Women can do anything and do it well. So, all the traditional things, whether it is making steel, working with cement, constructing buildings, working on artificial intelligence, going to space, making rockets, or looking at healthcare and the latest developments in AI, you name it…. There is a whole world of opportunities out there for you, so do not ever think that there is something
you cannot do.”

He added, “The way we have structured this program is to give you an idea of what it means to do engineering and science. That idea is structured in a way where you have some of our alumni, who have different career paths, talking to you; some lectures on different domains; and some hands-on activities in the labs so that you can decide for yourself what it is that you want to do. We at IIT Delhi would like to support you in your
journey.”

Each day of the 5th batch began with an informal session, followed by an academic/leadership session by a faculty member of IIT Delhi or a senior woman leader in STEM. The afternoons were dedicated to experiential learning with activities by the makerspace team, where the girls learned to work with electric circuits and built their own solar lamps.

The final day also had a lab session at the Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology, IIT Delhi, where molecular biology experiments were conducted in a fun and engaging manner.

The keynote session by Surabhi Yadav, Founder & CEO, SajheSapne, set the tone for the girls to open up through her session titled "Career Ki Pahelwani," followed by a subsequent session by another woman leader and alumna, Anu Meena, Founder & CEO, Kind Fertility.

The makerspace sessions in the afternoons were headed by Prof. Jay Dhariwal with support from his team.

                       
                (Photo: Manasvis working on electronic circuits during a hands-on session by the Makerspace team)

The academic sessions, designed to arouse curiosity for STEM among the young girls, were conducted by IIT Delhi faculty members Prof. Svetha Venkatachari, Prof. Maya Ramanath, and Prof. Sushma Santapuri, while Prof. Preeti Srivastava, along with her team of students, organised a lab session for the girls.

There were sessions by the women leaders Asha Duggi and team and a special session by the STEMtheGap team, including Abhilasha Sinha and Sri Harini Kuppa, headed by Prof. Ravinder Kaur, titled “Dream Bigger: Exploring Your Place in STEM.”

The summer phase ended with a special session by Squadron Leader Neha Devi, a woman in uniform, who shared her story of grit, resilience, and perseverance.

While sharing her STEM Mentorship Program experience, Mansi Panherka, a class 11 student at KV Sector-12, Delhi, said, “…Learnt about civil and mechanical engineering, their contribution to society, and the importance of female participation in STEM fields. The session also made STEM subjects feel more interesting and encouraged me to think beyond stereotypes with more confidence.

Meenakshi Pandey, a class 9 student from KV Gole Market, Delhi, said, “We participated in hands-on activities there (in the lab), which I thoroughly enjoyed. First, we performed agarose gel electrophoresis, where manually loading the samples into the wells was a truly amazing experience. Next, we did another activity to extract DNA from a banana. Finally, we conducted an emulsion index assay, where we mixed biosurfactants into oil and observed the resulting emulsion layer.”

She added, “The session with Squadron Leader Neha Devi was incredibly amazing and inspirational. Learning how she started her journey and reached this successful position deeply inspired me. It made me realize that I too can achieve something great in life, starting right now."

Manasvis learned academic lessons in a non-academic fashion during the summer phase. After the summer phase, they will be constantly engaged throughout the year through various initiatives at IIT Delhi, mainly through the monthly STS-Spins lectures. The winter phase of the program is scheduled for January 2027 for the same cohort.

The program is partially sponsored by the Bharti Airtel Foundation, consecutively for the second edition.

                             
                                                       (Photo: Manasvis during an informal session with IIT Delhi students)

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