Thanks, TechWomen!

Thanks to the TechWomen program for the recent Tweet quoting me:

Behind every successful woman is a tribe of women supporting her, like TechWomen

It is my honor to have helped design TechWomen – and to have been a TechWomen mentor and enthusiastic supporter since the program started:

TechWomen brings emerging women leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East together with their professional counterparts in the United States for a mentorship and exchange program. TechWomen provides participants access to networks, resources, and knowledge to empower them to reach their full potential.

During the five-week program, participants engage in project-based mentorships at leading companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, participate in professional development workshops and networking events, and travel to Washington, DC. for targeted meetings and special events to conclude the program.

Over the past seven years, more than 500 women from Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Yemen and Zimbabwe have participated in TechWomen.

TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). TechWomen, launched in 2011, supports the United States’ global commitment toward advancing the rights and participation of women and girls around the world by enabling them to reach their full potential in the tech industry.

TechWomen is managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE).
More: https://www.techwomen.org/

More about my company, Mentoring Standard: http://www.mentoringstandard.com/

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Coolest Office in San Jose

Thanks to San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo (and Ahmad Chapman, his Communications Specialist) who created the Great 408  community celebration program for San Jose which says about “77. Backyard Railroad Caboose” –

You can have your glass-walled high rises and ergonomic standing desks; Katy Dickinson has the coolest office in San Jose. That’s because it’s a 1916 Western Pacific steel framed wooden caboose in the backyard of the Willow Glen home she shares with her husband, John Plocher. The couple purchased the caboose in 2006 from the Golden Gate Railroad Museum in San Francisco after it lost its lease. It was in storage in San Jose for more than a year until it was moved to their backyard in May 2007. The couple has been restoring the caboose bit by bit for more than a decade. Be sure to check out Katy and John’s website for more photos and the history of the caboose.

The web page features the 2007 video by Sam Fineberg of WP668 moving into our backyard. WP668 is the office for my company, Mentoring Standard.

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Photos Copyright 2008-2017 by Katy Dickinson.

TechWomen Delegation to Egypt

 

I was honored to join the TechWomen Delegation to Egypt: my tenth TechWomen Delegation. TechWomen is an Initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. We had an inspiring and enjoyable trip.  I got back to the USA a few days ago and am still getting used to California’s time zone (but am enjoying our clean air!).

Some of us mentors arrived in Egypt early so that we could acclimatize and see the sights.  I was part of a group that toured Alexandria on 24 February, the day before the Delegation officially started.  We had three flat tires on the road but were able to visit the Citadel of Qaitbay, a 15th-century fortress on the Mediterranean sea coast on the eastern point of the Pharos Island. It was erected on the exact site of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Some of the lighthouse stones were used to build the fort.  We also saw the remarkable 2002 Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Library of Alexandria) and the Montaza Palace.

 

The first day of the Delegation, we had a short tour of Giza and Cairo. The Great Pyramid is another of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I was delighted to discover so many of us Mentors and Fellows from the inaugural 2011 class of TechWomen were part of the Delegation.  We also welcomed Fellows from Lebanon, Libya, South Africa, Palestine, Morocco, Jordan, and Kenya.  All three of the 2011 mentees who were hosted at my company were part of the Delegation: Sukaina Al-Nasrawi and Maha Akkari (Lebanon), and Reham Nasser (Egypt).  I was delighted to catch up with 2011 mentees Maysoun Ibrahim and Huda Alwahidi from Palestine, as well as Eman Ezzat, Ghada Bahig and others from Egypt. Sukaina and Maysoun and Reham have been on TechWomen Delegations before but I had not seen Maha for years.  The Delegation included mentees from all TechWomen years, although Lara Chikhani (from my Team Lebanon) was the only Fellow who came from 2017. I was very happy to see Sara Abdelhafez (Egypt) for the first time since she was hosted at my company in 2012 – and to meet her new son who came to our Farewell Dinner on a Nile river boat.

 
We were very busy during the Delegation, sometimes being on the bus as early at 7:30 am and getting back to our Cairo hotel in the Zamalek district at 10:30 pm.  Activities during which we interacted with hundreds of girls, women, entrepreneurs, and technologists included:

• Briefing from U.S. Embassy (Monday, Feb 26)
• The Power of Mentorship at the American Center (Monday, Feb 26)
• Meet & Greet with U.S. Embassy Colleagues (Monday, Feb 26)
• Workshops with Women in Tech and Entrepreneurship at the GrEEK Campus (Tuesday, Feb 27)
• Pitch Practice and Speed Geek Sessions at the GrEEK Campus (Tuesday, Feb 27)
• Girls in STEM Career Fair at Mentor Graphics (Tuesday, Feb 27)
• Networking Reception at the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center – TIEK (Wednesday, Feb 28)
• Discussions with Professionals in STEM at Vodafone (Wednesday, Feb 28)
• Hands-on STEM Activities at High School (Thursday, March 1)
• From Silicon Valley to the Nile: Soft Skills Workshops at the American University in Cairo – AUC (Thursday, March 1)
• Reception with U.S. Embassy at INJAZ (Thursday, March 1)
• Visit with Teenpreneurs at FabLab Egypt (Friday, March 2)
• Professional Development Sessions with Alwan wa Awtar – AWA – Youth at Montessori Mokattam (Friday, March 2)

We were delighted to visit many projects started and supported by TechWomen Fellows in Egypt. Cairo traffic is as bad as that of the Silicon Valley so we spent about 1-1/2 hours on the bus to get from event to event. We enjoyed the time to catch up with dear friends and learn more about each other.  Unfortunately, over half of the delegation came down with a respiratory illness and fever so we had to swap speaking slots quite a bit. On Monday, I gave a TED-style talk about mentoring then lead a panel discussing mentoring at the US Embassy’s American Center. Later, I helped Jill Finlayson teach girls to brainstorm and develop solutions to community problems, lead another discussion at AUC with Mohna Dhomse on how to Find a Mentor, joined a panel about life challenges, and gave two talks with Rekha Pai-Kamath on self-branding.  All of us in the Delegation participated in speed geek sessions at several venues.

The day after the Delegation ended, groups of us Mentors and Fellows were able to tour the amazing Egyptian Museum and get some shopping done in the old city of Cairo – with 2015 Fellow Doaa ElEraqy of Egypt as our patient guide and negotiator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Photos Copyright 2018 by Katy Dickinson, TechWomen, and Lara Chikhani.

Reading for Mentoring Month

Every day I am online looking for interesting news and articles from around the world, especially about mentoring. Most days, I post what I find on my Twitter account, with summaries of the most interesting posted in batches to Mentoring Standard on LinkedIn. In honor of January being America’s National Mentoring Month, here is a selection recent notable articles on mentoring to inspire you. Please nominate mentoring gems I have missed!

• Governor supports prisoner mentoring to reduce recidivism: “Brownback pitches prison mentoring to White House” – Kansas, USA
• How Not to run a mentoring program: “Teachers’ mentor program becomes unfunded mandate” – Connecticut, USA
• Forgiveness and mentoring – an effective response to violence: “Two teens attacked a Baltimore city councilwoman during a carjacking.” – Maryland USA
• Both boys and girls need mentors. Favoritism in mentoring will cause backlash: “MP starts boy-child mentoring initiative” – Nakuru County, Kenya
• Controversial mentoring program – only serves stars: “University of Sydney elite mentoring program a ‘waste of resources’, critics say” – Sydney, Australia
• Trust and respect basic to successful mentoring – especially when mentor and mentee are demographically different: “OPINION: There is power in inclusive mentoring” – Greenville, South Carolina
• A joy and privilege to mentor – specially for millennials “What millennials want in a mentor” – Cape Town, South Africa
• Veterans mentoring veterans – working to rebuild lives after prison: “Thanks for your service, please stay out of prison” – Ohio, USA
• Interesting: “Arab American National Museum to offer mentoring programs to Detroit immigrants, refugees” – Michigan, USA
• Good advice but leaves out a key step: Keep everyone safe by meeting in public places until you know you can trust each other (more on Mentoring Standard’s “Finding a Mentor”): “9 Tips To Land A Great Mentor: How To Ask A Stranger For Career Advice” – Washington, USA
• Senior mentoring in the Silicon Valley: This woman’s approach to mentoring in San Jose won a prize – California, USA
• Consider leader’s mentoring history as part of requirements for promotion in STEM: “Great mentoring is key for the next generation of scientists” USA
• In India mentoring, access to market, partnerships are key: “Start-ups need more mentoring than funding: John Chambers” – Hyderabad, India
• Sometimes a smaller experience gap may help in practical mentoring: “The smartest entrepreneurs aim low when picking a mentor” USA
• Interesting analysis about why on-site mentoring meetings can be better: “Think Twice About Meeting Your Mentor at Starbucks” USA
• False choice: need mentors and sponsors to succeed not one or other. Rarely can one person be both. “How to Turn a Mentor into a Sponsor” USA
• Program for mentoring children of fallen military or police: “New venture mentors, helps children of ‘fallen heroes’” USA
• Good advice on how mentees can help make the mentoring relationship most effective. “What Mentors Wish Their Mentees Knew” USA
• Mentoring success after a year: “How Your School Can Network Its Way to Increased Alumni Giving” – Pennsylvania, USA
• Women supporting women entrepreneurs: “Female VCs fight gender gap via ‘Office Hours’ mentoring program” – California, USA
• Fighting a life-threatening diagnosis with mentoring, strength, and a team: “Mentorship Can Be Life-Changing” USA
• Regular mentoring meetings and active support make the difference: “How to mentor other women, according to one of the most powerful women in NYC government” – New York, USA
• Task force on inclusion at Harvard supports more mentoring “Law School Establishes New Advising, Mentoring Programs” – Massachusetts, USA
• Mentoring teachers in music to improve academics: “The value of music mentoring for teachers” – Australia

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Postcast Interview

I very much enjoyed being interviewed by Akshay Birla for his “Life of the Mind” podcast last month. He just published the interview as “Episode 19 | Katy Dickinson on Technology, Mentoring, and Religion”.

Katy Dickinson has been around the tech-block. Hired by Eric Schmidt at Sun Microsystems, she literally wrote the book on the software development lifecycle that Sun used for release of almost 10,000 releases. She is a technologist, entrepreneur, mentor, and writer.

In our conversation Katy talks about her work as a technologist on creating processes:
A process has to not assume that you have world-class people working on it. A process assumes that that not everybody — while they are good-intentioned and competent — [is] perfect. You have to have a system that allows for lack of perfection but can work if you have the best that there is.

and the futility of only having excellent coders:
A good coder is a wonderful thing to have but you have to create something that the customer wants and feels comfortable with. Good coding and user experience are sometimes at odds.

But we spend the most of our conversation talking about mentoring programs that deliver high return-on-investment, and the intersection of religion and technology.

On the importance of example and networking provided by the Grace Hopper Celebration:
While they may be the only women in the room – which has certainly been my experience in 30+ years in the Silicon Valley – there are a lot of rooms.

Listening to your own recorded voice is always surprising – it sounds so different from the inside!

Happy New Year!

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Honoring STEM Mentoring

At the 37th Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real annual convention last weekend, I was honored by Bishop Mary Grey-Reeves with a second Simple Servant Award for my work since 2010 with the TechWomen mentoring program of the US Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The award certificate reads:

Simple Servant Award
Presented on November 3, 2017 to
Katy Dickinson
The Diocese of El Camino Real honors you. May God bless you for your
faithful ministry mentoring women in Africa and the Middle East in STEM
professions, and for your contribution to the creation of a “virtuous cycle” of
knowledge and wisdom sharing in the world of technology.

It has been an honor and pleasure to work with TechWomen and my mentees from Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Watching this program thrive and touch so many lives is a great delight. Since I worked in 2010-2011 as the TechWomen Process Architect, I have been a volunteer with this life-changing program as a mentor, working with groups of STEM leaders who travel to the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley to be hosted by 122 science and technology companies and organizations for a month (and then continue a mentoring relationship once they have returned to their home country).

Beginning with the first cohort of 37 from 6 countries in 2011, there have been 518 TechWomen Fellows from 22 countries and 698 mentors. I have formally been assigned to mentor 14 women in Lebanon, Algeria, Gaza-Palestine, Jordan, and Tunisia – and have worked with many more who have asked me to be their mentor. I have also participated in nine formal TechWomen Delegations with the State Department, to: Jordan (twice), Kyrgyzstan, Morocco (twice), Rwanda, South Africa, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe, as well as making informal trips with TechWomen mentors to visit our mentees in Lebanon, Gaza-Palestine, and Sierra Leone.  Learning from my sister mentors as well as from my mentees is part of the joy and value of this excellent program for Citizen Diplomats.

Want to make a different in STEM? Please consider joining TechWomen as a mentor yourself!

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Photo Copyright 2017 by the Diocese of El Camino Real, Elrond Lawrence.

Creating a Pitch for Lebanon

As a TechWomen Impact Coach for 2017 Team Lebanon, I am honored to serve for my seventh year in this remarkable mentoring program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).  Our team includes five Emerging Leaders from Lebanon (Lara Chikhani, Layal Jebran, Maya Itani, Rana El Chemaitelly, and Rasha Sukkarieh), plus three experienced mentors from the Silicon Valley: Mercedes Soria (Knightscope), Fatema Kothari (Verizon, and the Internet Society) and me.  We have been working hard for weeks at three TechWomen workshops plus twice a week remote meetings to develop our pitch for presentation this Friday.  Team Lebanon’s project is called “Ask an Expert” – a social enterprise to benefit senior citizens and refugees.  Wish us luck!

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Images Copyright 2017 by Katy Dickinson