Zuha Ajlan, Neuroscientist (Med), Founder of Shadow a Scientist

‘ It started with sitting in the wrong lecture hall. As a third year BSc student at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), I wasn’t aware of how vast the careers in STEM were. When asked what I could do with my degree, I didn’t know. But accidentally sitting in the wrong lecture hall (and being too awkward to get up and leave) opened the doors of what was possible. There was a showcase of different department’s research and careers offered and I was floored. It frustrated me that neither the senior students and teaching assistants nor internet searches told me how interdisciplinary STEM was, what careers I could go into, and that you are not restricted by your majors. I vowed to mentor students once I was a postgraduate student so they don’t struggle like I did. I did just that during Honours (2020) and my first year of Masters (2021). What started as 18 first year biological students assigned to my group for Introduction to Life Sciences, turned into young individuals who I guided throughout their university careers, giving them tips and advice on navigating university, work-life balance and exploring careers and interests. These 18 students turned into 30 mentees which highlighted the necessity of mentorship to young students in STEM. However, it wasn’t until 2022, during my tenure as the Vice President of the Wits Students’ Pathology Society that I launched Shadow A Scientist as an initiative to provide undergraduate Biological Sciences and Biomedical students at the University of the Witwatersrand exposure to different careers in STEM. In our first year, we had reached over 400 students and partnered with 15 departments! We reached over 700 students and partnered with 21 different departments in our second year and had students from across South Africa reaching out to attend our events!. So in 2024, Shadow A Scientist became a registered nonprofit organization in South Africa and is fiscally sponsored by The Hack Foundation in the United States of America. We have reached over 2000 students across the country, started our first chapter at Northwest University (Potchestroom campus) and an international chapter in Kenya! ’