About Women's Empowerment, Freedom, and Space with Aisha Bowe

On Wednesday, the US Embassy in Cairo hosted a round table with an influential female icon Aisha Bowe who is the first African/American woman to go to space as part of Blue Origin trips to space. 

Bowe had an open talk with the participants about her dreams, goals, and journey. She had a warm and inspiring talk that represented every girl around the world.

She asserted that she loves to share special moments with girls, and likes to invite girls to share their dreams and moments with her. 

About her memories as a student of sciences and mathematics, She recalled: "I thought that I would be happy when I graduated from college and started working and I realized that It wasn't exactly what I wanted there were elements of being in my job that I really liked and there were elements that I didn't enjoy so much and that not enjoying is important."

Bowe continued: "You can really determine the next best direction for you by listening to those challenging moments, so you're not afraid of change. I don't fear it because change means growth if you were not made uncomfortable by life you may not have had the opportunity to grow if I was not uncomfortable with the lack of achievement early on I Probably would not have set my sights on going to university and striving to do something greater, so I welcome I welcome the change. I welcome the discomfort that comes with the change.

Regarding her method to achieve her goals, she highlighted: "Every year, I literally make a list and I decide what it is that I want to be that year this year I'm going to be an astronaut last year I doubled down on being a CEO and a business owner and before then I wanted to be more in the community. I wanted to be more altruistic. And so I really kind of thought How do I? Create a life where I have a maximum set of options How do I create a life where I project this persona that allows other people to continue to learn and to explore."

Next, she discussed her feelings about her trip to space. She said: "I feel so many things I'm excited. I'm honored. I recognize that all the things that I thought went wrong actually went right and I feel lucky to be able to bring my story and my journey to meet the moment Because I feel like it was meant to be looking back."

"I Didn't set out to be an aerospace engineer, I set out to live a life that I loved, and more importantly, I did not want to live with my parents forever. I wanted to be able to move out. I wanted to be able to take care of myself I want to be able to have freedom over my life and my choices. That was really the goal."

She continued: "I was a little scared about that But I always saw myself maybe supporting somebody who went into space. I never really saw myself being in actual space. Today, we're watching private citizens Transform the world and what I really like about the metaphor is not only billionaires but people like myself we have the opportunity to do things that previously would have been inconceivable."

 "You do not have to know what you want to do from an early age to be successful you do not have to be perfect, but you must be confident and you must be persistent and You must move with purpose and that people can and really do inspire the world."

After that, Bowe evaluated the current stand of women in her company. She highlighted: "Now, there are so many spaces for women to occupy. So, I think that there is a role for women in all parts of the process because I often find women are in the role of caregivers in the family."

"The women in my company came to me and said here are things that they don't know yet that they're gonna need to know and what might be great is if you found a way to Extend the leave and the time that they have off because they're gonna learn a lot of things about their role."

Next, she talked about her impressive and inspiring story with one of the girls she inspired, Claire. 

Bowe narrated: "I will never forget having the opportunity to Go to the Blue Origin facility in Kent, Washington There's a great story here and I'm going to try to abbreviate it mentorship of women and young girls. It matters the images and the representation they turn into productive and successful people."

"When I was at NASA, I went to an air show. I was on a speaking engagement and I happened to meet a 13-year-old girl named Claire. Claire came up to me and she said I think I want to be an aerospace engineer one day. I said, okay Well, here's my card If you ever want to come to work and see what I do send me a note a couple of weeks later I got a note from a very cute email. It was like puggydog9.

It was Claire and she said I what I like to come to work with you For a day. She came to work. She had her binder. She had NASA stickers. She was excited. She had all of her questions and I remember that day thinking to myself I don't see myself as a role model, but I definitely want to be a support system for you So anytime you think maybe you want to come back we're having seminars. We're having guests NASA hosts a lot of things call me. I'll invite you in that turned into me mentoring her. 

She eventually became a NASA intern. She went to college. She studied aerospace engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I wrote one of the letters of recommendation for her. I supported her in pursuing scholarships. She graduated and I got a chance to lecture to her senior aerospace class before she graduated. I get to be the cool mentor sometimes And today Claire works on the rocket engines at Blue Origin."

After that, she continued her talk, pointing out how to influence people, and how she found her way to business. 

Bowe described: "People are setting up entities that are global and transforming the world, but it's a journey and we're all going on it together. And so for me, it's like, okay, how can I get out there and broadcast the things that I've been able to do that I find are helpful to me? And then how can I learn from the rest of the world? And how can I also be inspired by the world? You know, my entire life was changed by the first speaking tour that I went on."

"And it's part of the reason why whenever the State Department calls me, I will always go. Even if it means a tight schedule, I will go. I was in South Africa and I was in Johannesburg. I was out of school and one of the students. We're trying to catch up. We're trying to understand."

Bowe resumed: "In order for the world to learn. I founded a second company around that entire principle and I was able to in the United States reach a milestone of raising nearly $2 million in venture capital, which isn't something that many, very many minority women have done in the United States because she gave me direction. She challenged me to figure it out. So someone who may not have thought that they would be part of my life story. She inspired me to elevate my game and in return, my message to everybody who's at the Alumni Ties Conference today was, I need you to do what you're doing, but do it bigger. Just something that I want to touch on."

"I think that it's important to encourage girls and really all people. I think eventually the word STEM will go away. Almost everything that we do now involves software, hardware, devices, and computers. What we're really talking about is having technology literacy and being able to reason."

Regarding how women motivate themselves, she had a free and warm talk about that. Bowe said: "I think that mental health, for me, it's a practice. So every day I carve time. For me, it's the morning. So between like 6:00 and roughly 7.30 in the morning, I'm an early bird person. I understand that. It could be an afternoon or an evening, but I try to have an hour of time every day that I dedicate to myself that is not necessarily exercise. I like exercise. 

If you can do it in the hour, definitely do it in the hour. But what I do in that time is I allow myself to think, I allow myself to prioritize, I allow myself to meditate, and I also make time to pray. Those are like, that's kind of like my magic mix."