Inside the Girls Step Up! Program: Neonika Kumar's Story

Hi! My name is Neonika, and I am currently a tenth-grade student at Carleton North High School. I was born in India, where I lived for the first seven years of my life. After that, my family and I moved to Singapore, where I attended an Indian International school that used English as its primary language. Four years later, we moved to Malaysia, and after another five years, we shifted to Canada.

While attending schools in Singapore and Malaysia, I noticed that they lacked proper guidance and support for students who were unsure of what to do after graduation. The schools primarily focused on grades and did not offer programs that encouraged goal achievement, skills development, mental health programs, or guidance support. This made the process of attending and shifting schools quite challenging for me.

After coming to Canada, and attending different schools, and especially this Step Up program, I liked the idea. The idea of exploring different fields that would match my skill set. The idea of learning more about myself, getting to know things about myself, which I’ve never known before.

I established connections with, from a lot of different places. The girls accompanying me in this program were also very well-mannered and knowledgeable. They would ask many questions (which others couldn’t because maybe they were too shy to ask), clear many assumptions, and were very friendly too.

In this program, there were a total of 8 presentations and the most efficient for me were about technology and creative thinking. For many careers, creativity is a must. Creativeness is like a burst of ideas, even when inspired by someone or independent. Being creative means using our imagination and cleverness to make something different and special. Now, technology and creativity when combined can make extraordinary things, like coding, virtual reality, and even digital art, and in many different other things.

In conclusion, I really loved being in this program as it helped me improve, and get new ideas for what I want to do in the future.