The Elgin, Illinois-based Judson University announces the unveiling of the official multimedia gallery from the Oct. 12 World Leaders Forum (WLF) Inspirational Series featuring its special guest and presenter Dr. Shawna Pandya. Pandya is a Canadian physician surgeon, citizen scientist, and astronaut candidate.
ELGIN, Ill., Nov. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Elgin, Illinois-based Judson University announces the unveiling of the official multimedia gallery from the Oct. 12 World Leaders Forum (WLF) Inspirational Series featuring its special guest and presenter Dr. Shawna Pandya. Pandya is a Canadian physician surgeon, citizen scientist, and astronaut candidate.
Pandya also joined several panelists to discuss the past, present, and future of women in the STEAM fields— science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Those panelists were:
- Jacqueline Ruiz, host of the Oct. 12 WLF Inspirational Series presentation, entrepreneur, author, and Latina pilot
- Alicia Ponce, architect, founder, and Design Principal of APMonarch
- Tammera Holmes, CEO of AeroStar Avion Institute NFP + AeroStar Consulting Corporation
- Erin Miller, pilot, and granddaughter of a female Airforce service pilot
Visitors to the webpage will hear highlights of Pandya's presentation as she fondly shared her participation in many scientific scenarios that took her to different places and spaces. During her career, Pandya wore an extra-vehicular activity space suit in a simulated gravity environment with the Canadian Space Agency in 2019; participated in an emergency spacecraft crash landing scenario; advised companies to build the world's first rotating artificial partial gravity space station and resided and working in a neutral buoyancy laboratory to understand what it would be like simulating a spacewalk and using a drill underwater.
Pandya took these experiences to illustrate seven key lessons she learned while living in austere environments. To show the meaning of resilience, she recalled one training situation which was a simulated abort descent into water. In her spacesuit, Pandya had to unlatch her harness from her parachute, deploy her flotation units, swim to her raft, and climb the ladder. In this instance, she thought she pulled tightly the seals of her suit but didn't, and it cause her to take in much water. She completed her task, but not the way she wanted.
"It just goes to show you that success isn't always pretty, and success isn't always perfect," she said. And looking back at the scenario, what got me through that day in my success was resilience. And it's so easy to think of resilience, this mental fortitude, grit, stick-to-it-tiveness, this ability to bounce back when things aren't going well. And it's so easy to think that it's something we're born with. We think it's an innate trait when, in reality resilience is something we can learn."
Pandya also explained how to see the relationship between leadership and teamwork. She envisions the concept of leadership as a brick wall supported by mortar.
"If we think about a brick wall and we take away the mortar, where's the strength in that wall?" she said. "Without the mortar, that brick wall would fall down. There's no connection, there's no strength to that wall. And, so, leadership is the same. Our duty as leaders is to find those gaps within our team and build connections and bridges so that we have the strength to stand together."
Proceeds from this event funded leadership, entrepreneurship, diversity, and RISE program scholarships for the university's students. For more information, visit http://www.JudsonU.edu.
About Judson University
Located in Elgin, Illinois, since 1963, Judson University offers a Christian, liberal arts, and sciences education through its Bachelor of Arts degrees for more than 60 majors, minors, graduate programs, and online, as well as certification and accelerated adult degree programs. For more information, visit http://www.JudsonU.edu.
Media Contact
Marie Lazzara, JJR Marketing, 630-400-3361, [email protected], https://jjrmarketing.com/
SOURCE Judson University
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