Women’s History Month is the annual, month-long celebration of women from all over the world, highlighting their achievements and excellence. Southwestern University proudly celebrates its exceptional women faculty and kicked off the first week of the month by featuring Dr. Debika Sihi as the star of The Cove’s latest Fireside Chat on March 5th. Dr. Sihi shared her personal experiences, interests, and even prepared a reflective, heartwarming activity for all who attended from 4-5pm. 

Dr. Sihi is a Professor of Business at Southwestern University.  She earned her PhD in Marketing at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas (UT) at Austin and holds a BBA and a Master’s in Professional Accounting from the McCombs School as well. She teaches many business courses such as Foundations of Business, Digital Marketing, and a capstone course focusing on innovations in business. She has worked as a professor at Southwestern University since 2013 and has since become one of SU’s most beloved professors and a beacon of inspiration to all of her students. Bringing compassion, creativity, and kindness to the classroom, Dr. Sihi empowers all of her nuggets—the term of endearment that she crowns for all of her students—vowing to leave no nugget behind.  

Dr. Sihi adores animals, and is an avid supporter of Emancipet, which is an Austin-based animal welfare organization dedicated to making veterinary care affordable and accessible to everyone. She shares a story from her childhood about a class pet named Cookie, a guinea pig that she adored and how she stood up to a school bully who would mess with it. During Field Day at her school, she sprayed the bully with the water hose as an act of vengeance. Though this resulted in her having to apologize to him, the bully eventually admitted his wrongdoings, and young Dr. Sihi learned a valuable lesson about people and how harmful actions are often a projection of internal pain. 

Her love of animals shows in her stories as well as the incorporation of animals in her group activity. In the Cove, long tables were set up in a “U” shape, bringing people together for the fun activity that Dr. Sihi planned for the evening. Colored pencils and sticker sheets of hobbies, interests, superheroes, job professions, and animals were piled together with worksheets for everyone to grab. Dr. Sihi shared an empowering message that everyone is a superhero, and encouraged participants to create their own superhero. Readers can participate in this activity too! The activity was organized in four sections:

Name: Name your superhero. Are they fictitious, or does someone come to mind?

Part 1: Origin Story Where did your superhero come from? What is a defining challenge that shaped them? What drives them to act?

Part 2: Missions & Learning  What major mission did they face and what skills or knowledge did they gain?

Part 3: Super Crew Who supports your superhero on missions and adventures?

For Dr. Sihi, her Super Crew is her parents, husband, and friends, and she emphasized how family, friends, and classmates all make up someone’s Super Crew. Through this activity, Dr. Sihi organized the fireside chat so that she could not only share a little about herself, but also offer students a moment to reflect on the positives and recognize the superheroes in their lives as well as within themselves. The fireside chat wrapped up with students sharing their superheroes, and Dr. Sihi expressed her gratitude for her students and that the connections she makes every day with them are what she loves about her career. As we move throughout the world, Dr. Sihi teaches us to lead with warmth and compassion for all, and the importance of cultivating your support group and making meaningful connections long after college.