Hello everyone, my name is Daniella TCHANA, and I am the CEO of an EdTech startup specializing in distance scientific learning: BeSMART-Edu.
“It’s easier to achieve your goals when you’re the pilot of what you want to do”
Let’s talk about the goal of BeSMART-Edu: As an online preparatory class, it allows all categories of young people, regardless of their location, to prepare and be able to enter elite schools or colleges.
I created this startup to fight against inequalities within the educational system, which remains limited to certain profile categories. Very few young people, locally or regionally, access the major French scientific schools.
Our goal is to break this glass ceiling and give all these young people the same opportunities and high-level preparation so they can enter these prestigious schools.
My daily role in achieving this goal is to collaborate with the BeSMART-Edu team, the communication, innovation, pedagogy, and finally, technology teams, to ensure excellent service quality. As CEO, I lead the various aspects of the company and, among the courses we offer, I teach mathematics.
I chose scientific training for my company because it is neither centered on a country nor a continent, but rather universal. The language is the same on all continents and in all countries: in Africa, China, or the United States. Although created in France, our startup shines worldwide. We have students all over the world: in South Africa, Asia, North America, and other countries.
I chose scientific training for my company because it is neither centered on a country nor a continent, but rather universal. The language is the same on all continents and in all countries: Africa, China, or the United States. Although created in France, our startup succeeds in shining worldwide.
We have students all over the world: in South Africa, Asia, North America, and other countries.
Due to my scientific background, sciences are fundamental to me; most women are represented in them. It is in this spirit that the BeSMART-Edu team came up with the idea of encouraging young girls to take an interest in sciences by launching the Women’s Mathematics Olympiads in France.
The first season took place in 2020, during the pandemic, and was a real success. The winners were congratulated and encouraged by several ministers, such as the Minister of Digital Affairs, the Minister of Diversity and Gender Equality, and other personalities.
Several partners and major groups also supported and encouraged this event, including the L’Oréal Foundation, the Crédit Mutuel Arkéa Group, and several women’s institutions like Digital Ladies Allies.
The goal of these Olympiads is to motivate high school girls to engage in scientific fields and pursue higher education in them. We encourage them by highlighting scientific role models, showing them that girls can achieve scientific goals. During the first season, they had the opportunity to interact with the famous astronaut Claudie Haigneré, known for her career as a French astronaut and then as a minister. We also discovered through these exchanges that she was a former doctor. It was a real pleasure for the girls, as they were able to project themselves into her career and discover how she managed to balance professional and family life. They thus understood that there were no barriers to entering scientific fields.
We also offer scholarships to women who enroll in certain courses, and the goal is to encourage them to migrate and stay in the scientific field.
“With our work, we prove that we can do great things ”
Regarding my studies, I hold a scientific baccalaureate obtained in Cameroon. Thanks to a scholarship, I was able to pursue part of my higher education in France. Having always aimed high, I continued my scientific journey up to my PhD in mechanics and nanotechnologies.
I would say that my entire academic journey was difficult because I always felt that the educational system was not suited to me. The school format did not meet my expectations, which made my years of study very laborious.
As a woman, I have never really experienced negative experiences in my scientific career. In fact, at some point, when you reach a certain level in this field, you are rather respected as a woman because there are very few. During my PhD, there were two women in mechanics, and among our professors, there were only two. At this stage, we were not challenged, but encouraged and pushed, because the goal was to show that we had our place. I think that for young girls, the hardest part is getting there, and once you reach a certain level, you realize that with your work, you are appreciated and congratulated because you prove that you can create great things.
After this academic journey and having always been an entrepreneur since my early childhood, I decided to create BeSMART-Edu because I think I have always been called to provide solutions, to help, to find ways to make the world a better place. For me, it is easier to achieve these goals by being the pilot of what you want to undertake.
To create this company, I decided to resume business studies in finance, business management, management, and negotiation. This allowed me to avoid the mistakes I made with my first company, created at 17, which went bankrupt due to a lack of knowledge.
“It is important to take the time to live your passions, to have a certain balance in life”
In addition to my professional life, I have been passionate about fashion design since the age of 12 when I started studying fashion design and modeling. I also love baking. Moreover, I think it is essential to take the time to live your passions to find balance in life.
The advice I would give to young girls is to go for it and do what they want to do and not let anyone dictate their future or the work they will do tomorrow.
Let them do what they are passionate about and not be afraid to pursue their dreams, no matter what others say. For me, there is no profession reserved for one gender in particular and other professions for the other gender. If a job excites and motivates them, they should go for it!
Moreover, just because they don’t like a subject or a teacher wasn’t competent enough in high school doesn’t mean they should hate science. This is generally the case in mathematics because everyone says that to become an engineer, you have to be good at mathematics. NO! That’s not the case, because you can be in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and not be good at mathematics. After all, mathematics is just a tool for some fields.
There is also the fact that today, these professions are very well paid, and generally, when that’s the case, it’s men who are promoted in advertising, in management, and in positions.
Sometimes it’s also due to stereotypes in the media, and some girls get discouraged, explaining the rate of about 30% of women in scientific professions.
“It’s time to stop focusing on what the media portrays and to look for women working in the field that interests you, to interview them, to see what these women have accomplished, and thus to recognize what needs to be done!”
Thank you to SciGi for existing!
Written by Ornella S.
