“If you don’t see it, you can’t be it,” believes Asha Clementi, finalist in the Under 25 Rising Star category at the recently announced 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australian Awards 2022.
Clementi is the founder and CEO of Girls Run the World, a program that works to empower young women to connect with the diplomatic community. Headquartered in Canberra, it works with embassies across the capital city to facilitate exposure for women of 18-25 years to the humdrum of embassy life through engagement programs.
Clementi is among the four Australians of Indian origin who have been named among the 40 most influential Asian-Australians of 2022, judged across the fields of arts and culture, public sector, sport, science and medicine, community and advocacy, corporate, education, entrepreneurship, legal and professions, and media.
The awards are an initiative of the Australian National University Centre for Asian-Australian Leadership, Asialink at the University of Melbourne and Johnson Partners. They recognise the brightest and most ambitious Asian-Australian talent in the country.
“I am still digesting this good news. It’s unfortunate I couldn’t be physically present for the awards, but just to be counted among such high achievers is a very big deal for me,” she says.
Clementi founded The Girls Leadership Network in 2017 along with her mother Ritu and a handful of founding volunteers to provide leadership workshops for young girls. Girls Run the World emerged quickly as an off-shoot, primarily out of Clementi’s own inclination to international relations and the desire to work in an international embassy.
Clementi was born in the United States of America, but moved to Canberra with her family in 2012, after spending a few early years in Singapore. Speaking to Indian Link while travelling through Europe on a holiday, Clementi reminisces about how it all started. “When I was younger, I wished to grow up to work for an employer who would pay for my world travels,” she laughs, while noting that with an upcoming Master’s degree in international relations, she is now certainly looking ahead at a career in this domain.
Reflecting on the recognition of her work, Clementi asserts that it is important for people from different ethnic backgrounds to be in positions of power. “The demography of people that we are working to empower – young women, including those from diverse minority groups, adds a whole new perspective to the corridors of diplomacy, and allows embassies to broaden their view,” she says.
The participants themselves enjoy a day discussing humanitarian issues, meeting with ambassadors, planning agendas for business delegations, or running the social media for the embassy.
“It is equally heartening to be able to touch the lives of young women from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities and even different parts of the country every year, who are able to catapult from this program into rewarding careers with the government, or start their own entrepreneurial journey or land prestigious internships for further learning,” she says.
Given the international reach of the program, Clementi is delighted by the shot-in-the-arm that the 40 Under 40 Asian Australians listing will prove provide for gender equality and women’s empowerment. “I hope this recognition will mean engagement with more international embassies who would be willing to open their doors for young women,” she says.
The response has been great so far, with approximately 45 embassies already empanelled, and more than 180 young girls having benefited from the programs already.
