Empowering and Inspiring Women Globally-From Victim to Warrior, Shelli de Silva 04/25 by DiannaBelleRose | Women Podcasts.

    Shelli de Silva, Sri Lankan born, is from a middle class family of four. Her parents are currently in Sri Lanka and her only sibling is her dearly loved brother who lives in Indiana. From her very young days she was very opinionated and wouldn’t allow anyone tell her what she couldn’t do. Shelli had her first dream (one of many) when she was 12 years old. It was to come to the United States, her imaginary ‘home’. 10 years and 10,000 miles later, she made her imagination a reality by making her way to Arizona, to pursue her higher education in Mechanical Engineering. 

Despite being a victim of domestic violence for 3 years and of Rape, she graduated with her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees both in Mechanical Engineering. She then moved to Indiana when she landed her dream job as a Machine Integration Engineer with the world’s leading Diesel Engine Manufacturer. Within six months she launched and delivered a six sigma project, which was once, labeled impossible. Soon she was presenting new concepts at Global Conferences to Global Leaders of the company. Her fast paced career took another toll when she found herself laid off in a global layoff after one and a half years in to her corporate career. She fought through struggle after struggle, those of which us immigrants are well aware of and decided that she was finally going to live her life’s true purpose. A total of 26 interview with Apple and Google for just 2 positions, making it to the last rounds and not being offered a job, made her open her eyes. That’s when she answered her wakeup call and realized that she was meant to do so much more than just work for a company! She packed her life in her car, 5 days, 2700 miles and after endless driving by herself, came to San Francisco CA. She had no job, no family, no friends and no place to stay in San Francisco, but she claims she had ALL of her gut!.Today she stands tall writing a book called ‘Victim to Warrior’ and being involved in uplifting other’s lives through her blog ‘victimtowarrior.com‘. She also plans on opening her own clothing line down the road to support her cause. Always full of fresh ideas, Shelli claims that this is only the beginning of her work in inspiring, uplifting and empowering others!