Tonight, we're sitting down to dinner with Florence Pouya for Indian food at Gupshup. Florence is a 17-year-old women’s rights activist, student, and captain of the Afghanistan National Robotics Team. She grew up in Herat, Afghanistan, until the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and Florence and her robotics teammates evacuated their home country for Qatar. She has worked in robotics for six years and participated in many international competitions (FIRST Global Challenge, FIRST Tech Challenge, PCBe TheChange), Conferences (United Nations, UNAMA, UNICEF), & exhibitions (Doha Forum, Doha Debates). Forbes magazine chose her as one of the 30 under 30 scientists by Forbes and VOGUE named Florence as one of the 21 under 21 change makers. She is now spending the summer in New York City and preparing to study aerospace engineering at University of Iowa in the fall. 

Florence and Alexa talk about what we all lose out on when girls and women don't have access to education, what Florence misses about big family dinners, and how the diversity of New York city makes her feel right at home. Plus, her dreams of becoming an astronaut and seeing earth from space.

Florence Pouya: IG @FlorencePouya TW @FlorencePouya
Gupshup: @Gupshupnyc
Over Dinner Tonight: @overdinnertonight