We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anika Dontu. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anika below.

Alright, Anika thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s go back in time to when you were an intern or apprentice – what’s an interesting story you can share from that stage of your career?

At the beginning of my junior year of high school, I became the Co-Executive Director of Girls for Med. During the beginning of my time in this role I worked under the guidance of the current Director of the Girls for Med to learn the ins and outs of the organization. During this time I gradually took on more responsibilities within the organization to where I am leading it today.

Girls for Med is an organization that since its founding has been entirely based online. While this has allowed us to reach a wider audience, it has also made it difficult in regards to communication. I had to learn how to keep tabs on everything to ensure that we could finish our projects by our deadlines. Doing this in a virtual setting required effective communication and coordination. With members spread across different time zones, it was crucial to always be in communication with each other. I took on the role of facilitating this collaboration, providing guidance to the various boards.

Despite the difficulties, the experience of leading Girls for Med was incredibly rewarding. It allowed me to witness firsthand the impact we were making in the lives of aspiring young women in the medical field. Seeing the growth and achievements of the organization, such as successful coordination of boards and the expansion of our reach, filled me with pride.

Anika, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Anika Dontu, the Co-Executive Director of Girls for Med, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering young women in their pursuit of careers in the medical field. My journey with Girls for Med began during my sophomore year of high school when I joined this incredible organization in an effort to pursue my own medical passions.

At Girls for Med, we are committed to providing a wide range of resources and opportunities to encourage and support young women interested in medicine. Our organization hosts workshops, competitions, guest speakers, and summer programs, all designed to foster a love for the medical field and empower girls on their journey to pursue medicine.

What sets Girls for Med apart from other organizations is our strong emphasis on diversity. We firmly believe in the importance of inclusivity and strive to support minority groups of girls who aspire to become medical professionals. By organizing fundraising initiatives, we aim to provide financial assistance and ensure that aspiring medical professionals from underrepresented backgrounds have equal access to programs and opportunities.

Girl for Med does this by providing accessible opportunities, including summer camps, competitions, and webinars, all of which are completely free. We believe that accessibility should never be a barrier to pursuing dreams. Whether our participants are interested in practicing medicine as a doctor, becoming a biomedical engineer, or pursuing a career in research, we provide a platform for them to explore and connect with professionals in their areas of interest.

One of our proudest achievements is our ability to reach out to numerous girls across the world. Through our programs and initiatives, we have been able to inspire and empower young women from diverse backgrounds and different countries to consider the medical field as a viable and rewarding career path.

Girls for Medicine strives to break down barriers, foster diversity, and create a supportive community where all girls can thrive in the medical field.

Any advice for managing a team?

Managing a team and maintaining a high moral is vital in order to keep a project moving forward. The most important thing one can do to achieve this is to foster an environment of communication within a team, especially if one is working online and has a big team, which is the case of Girls for Med. In order to collaborate on a project everyone has to be on the same page for it to run as smoothly as possible. Another aspect of managing a team is creating a clear goal and focusing on it. Girls for Med mission is to help girls interested in medicine pursue that passion. In order to accomplish that it was important for us to create a clear agenda of how we were going to accomplish our goals to help further our mission. Lastly, in order to maintain high morale within a team I believe it is important to always be inclusive of your team members ideas, give recognition where it is deserved, and create a healthy work-life balance. When leading a team I always strive to maintain composure and stability because the job of a leader is to help manage the team and keep our organization moving forward.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Girls for Med has been based online since its founding. Being online as a result has been one of our most effective strategies for growing our organizations participants and members. Because our program is based online anyone from around the world can join our team, which currently includes people across the United States and some from different countries. Running our organization in a virtual landscape has allowed us to also reach out to more people to spread our mission of helping young women pursue a career in medicine. One of our biggest events is our annual Mock Doc Competition that gathers tons of participants globally. Additionally, all our programs, competitions, and events are completely free making our services accessible to anyone who wants to attend. Girls for Med’s goal is to reach out to as many girls as possible to help them pursue their medical passions and making our services accessible has always been the best way to make spreading our message to as many people as possible a reality.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://girlsformed.weebly.com/
• Instagram: girlsformed
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/girls-for-medicine/