USP student Carina Lim Yu Shan (Industrial Design + NOC + USP, Class of 2020) formed a team with her NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) friends to compete in the McKinsey Digital Menopause Challenge in Stockholm, Sweden. Despite facing a strong competition from more than 800 female participants, her team impressed the judges and emerged as champions at the challenge.

Held from 7-8 September 2019, the challenge was part of Stockholm Tech Festival, Europe’s largest hackathon for women. The challenge tackled the problems and social stigmas often faced by women going through menopause. Teams had to work on one of the twelve different challenges presented by various Stockholm companies in only 24 hours. Carina and her team were tasked to develop an innovative product, service or campaign that could aid women going through menopause. The team developed a Business-to-Business (B2B) service solution that conducted experiential learning workshops targeted at both men and women in the workplace, in hopes of creating awareness and normalising conversations about menopause.

Currently in Stockholm for her one-year NOC internship programme, Carina shares with us her experience participating in her very first all-female hackathon and how being in USP has helped her for the challenge. “I joined this challenge due to the lack of discourse surrounding such issues in Singapore. Admittedly, I was initially unaware of what menopause actually entailed and how it could affect women in the workplace. As Singapore prepares itself for an aging population with an older workforce, the topic of retaining our talent has been widely discussed. Personally, this experience has given me perspective into a potential area we may have overlooked, and could provide more support for. How can we ensure the psychological safety and well-being of our working citizens who are experiencing such changes in their bodies? How can we create an inclusive working environment for them? Being in USP has taught me the importance of looking at problems from a multi-disciplinary perspective, and I believe that this approach enabled a more holistic solution in navigating these questions. We explored workplace policies, investigated scientific symptoms, as well as the more intimate and sensitive nuances of menopause.”

She is grateful to have been a part of this platform that shed light on important issues that are often neglected or dismissed, and hope that these solutions will be a step forward towards a more equitable and inclusive future. We applaud her courageous spirit and critical thought to the issues presented. Great work, Carina, we are proud of you!