Lifting As We Climb
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
A Year of EMPOWER, in Our Cohort’s Own Words
When you ask forty young women what a year of EMPOWER did for them, you get forty different answers. But read them all in a row, and a story starts to emerge - one that begins in the same place for almost every participant.
It begins with the feeling of being on the outside, looking in.
“I used to feel like I had to shrink myself to fit in here”
Being a young, ethnically diverse woman in Hong Kong comes with a quiet, constant kind of pressure. A pressure to prove. A pressure to translate. A pressure to apologise for the parts of yourself that don’t fit the mould.
Our Cohort #8 participants named it plainly.
For some, the barrier is language. ”Not being regarded as a strong candidate due to not being able to communicate in Cantonese fluently,” wrote Navjot. Mary put it this way: ”My main challenge has been with language barrier. As I did not grow up in Hong Kong, I didn’t get to pick up the language and need to put in more effort in learning it. This had been a major barrier in finding employment as more companies are requiring Chinese proficiency.”
For others, it is sitting in a room where no one quite looks like you. Narmeen described it: ”I sometimes felt overlooked in networking settings at my uni or had my ideas dismissed in mixed groups, especially since my major has more local students. There was also a lack of senior people who looked like me, which made it harder to imagine my own career path.”
Aqsa, a law student, named the more subtle kind of friction: ”There have also been subtle expectations around how I should dress, speak, and behave to be seen as ‘professional.’ While not always overt, these micro-inequalities made me second-guess myself and hesitate to speak up.”
And then there is the version of the story that doesn’t get told often enough — the doors that close before you even know they exist. As one participant who asked to remain anonymous shared:
As an ethnically diverse woman in Hong Kong, you will often feel like you’re already filtered out before you even start. The legal market, and many other industries, will look at your name, your ethnicity, or what languages you don’t speak, and make a decision about you.
This is the reality our cohort walked into this year. EMPOWER didn’t pretend any of it wasn’t there.
What EMPOWER actually did
What EMPOWER did was build a room. A room with the right people in it. And then it left the door open.
For Atteqa, the room was the whole point. ”EMPOWER empowered me simply by placing me in a room with talented, uplifting people. My biggest win was the consistent feeling of being seen and encouraged by the people around me. That environment alone pushed me to show up better every single session.”
Bryne explained why a room like this matters more than it might first appear: ”Building the foundation of my career aspirations as an only child with immigrant parents can be quite isolating at times. It’s difficult to find any sort of guidance from people with experience when you come from such a background. I would not be in the position I am now without the confidence I have instilled in me because of this program.”
And Harleen put words to the part that’s hardest to manufacture anywhere else: ”EMPOWER created a very inclusive and supportive environment where I felt comfortable, represented and encouraged to express myself.”
The programme didn’t stop at community. Cohort #8 leaned into the workshops, the coaching, the networking sessions — the deliberately practical stuff.
Aqsa found her voice through her coach: ”The mentorship sessions had the greatest impact on me. My coach helped me reframe setbacks as learning opportunities. Having a mentor who believed in my potential beyond grades was deeply empowering — it reminded me that being a good lawyer starts with believing in my own voice.”
The wins
The year produced real, measurable wins. Some of them you can put on a CV.
Aesha got a job. ”With the help from my mentor and the push and opportunities I received, I finally got a role that I’ve been eyeing ever since I started my studies.”
Suhani landed an internship at PwC. Lisa got a graduate job. Chioma picked up several internships through the EMPOWER network. Joyce connected with prominent professionals on LinkedIn and got pulled into special projects she wouldn’t have heard about otherwise. While Richelle secured lesson observations through her mentor and coach, and delivered the Vote of Thanks; a stretch she set for herself, and met.
But the wins our cohort kept coming back to weren’t only the visible ones.
Numrah described hers like this: ”I feel more confident and can reach out to more people now even when I just want to strike a conversation. Before, I would keep rethinking what to do and would hesitate to talk to new people. After talking to leaders every time, I can strike a convo with anyone.”
Aqsa counted her win in moments most people wouldn’t notice from the outside: ”I went from staying silent to actively contributing during workshops on ethics and negotiation. Another win was learning to set boundaries and manage stress — something I previously struggled with as a perfectionist law student.”
Dibya kept hers short. ”My biggest wins were a rise in confidence, self-compassion, and knowledge in my abilities.”
These are the wins that compound. They are also the wins you cannot fake your way into.
How they felt EMPOWERed
When we asked the cohort to describe their year in a single word, the answers clustered around a few clear themes:
Growth. Confidence. Eye-opening. Transformative. Unforgettable. Enriching. Community.
Syeda chose transformative, and explained why: ”My greatest achievement was developing the confidence to ask — to reach out for opportunities or internships without fearing that I might miss out. Learning to be upfront and assertive taught me that asking is not a weakness, but a strength that opens doors and fosters growth.”
Moira chose confidence. ”Coming to EMPOWER was one of the biggest ‘next steps’ I’ve taken so far. I feel a lot more confident in my abilities, skills and the strategies that I need to employ to navigate the workforce.”
And Fathima put it most plainly, in the line that captures what the whole year was for:
Honestly? I used to feel like I had to shrink myself to fit in here. Different name, different face, always proving I belonged. Then I joined EMPOWER. Finally, a space that didn’t make me explain myself.
What our cohort wants you to know
We could keep talking about EMPOWER. But we’d rather let our cohort do it.
To anyone reading this who is on the fence — who is wondering whether they’re “ready,” whether they’re “enough,” whether the timing is right — here is what the women who just walked the path want you to hear.
Atteqa:
Do it. Honestly, just do it. You’ll learn how to network, how to talk to people without overthinking, how to start invest and more. But the real win is the people. I’ve never been in a room full of women who uplift each other like that. In a city like Hong Kong, that kind of community is everything.
Aqsa:
Join even if you feel like you’re not ‘enough’ yet. I used to think I needed to have everything figured out — my grades, my career path, my confidence — before I deserved a space like this. But EMPOWER taught me that growth happens in the messiness, not after it.”
Eloise:
It might take you a lifetime to be able to meet that many incredible professionals from different industries, but joining EMPOWER would make it happen in a few months. And you never know — you may meet your first boss there.
Ninam:
It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It brings us closer as a community and at the same time enables us to support each other. It is a safe space you create with other ethnic women, and pass that down to other people too.
Suhani, more briefly: ”Please utilise all resources available. Opportunities are made, not given.”
What comes next
EMPOWER doesn’t pretend to fix the system. It won’t make bias disappear, and it won’t hand anyone a career. What it does is open the room, fill it with people who want you in it, and remind you that you don’t have to do the next part alone.
A year ago, the women in Cohort #8 were on the outside, looking in. This year, they are the ones holding the door open.
If that sounds like the kind of room you’ve been looking for, we’d love to meet you.
Express your interest in EMPOWER Cohort #9. Applications open soon.
Find out more about the program
Comments