2016 Zimbabwe

Thanks to fellow TechWomen Mentor, Anar Simpson, for sending this picture just now of some of us in the 2016 delegation to Zimbabwe, at the Meikles Hotel in Harare. What an inspiring trip that was!

TechWomen Team Sierra Leone

Fourah Bay College (University of Sierra Leone) in Freetown, 2017

I am honored to be one of the 2020 TechWomen Impact Coaches for Sierra Leone, working again with fellow Mentor, Mercedes Soria. We mentors just finished our second online training meeting with IIE. I have visited Sierra Leone twice, once in 2017 with Families Without Borders and then again in 2019 as part of the TechWomen Delegation, for which I gave the Networking Keynote address. I am happy to be working with Salwa Campbell as our Sierra Leone Peer Advisor for the five Emerging Leaders from Salone.

I was the Process Architect for TechWomen 2010-2011 and have been a TechWomen mentor and part of eleven international delegations since 2011. TechWomen is an exchange program of the US Department of State – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. This life changing program is very dear to me and I am looking forward to helping the 2020 Team Sierra Leone develop a project that will help their community.

Tools I mentioned on today’s training call, for teams working at a distance: Google Groups – email distribution and archive, WhatsApp – quick messages and meeting reminders, Facebook – personal updates and contacts, LinkedIn – professional updates and contacts, Skype or Zoom – to communicate verbally, Google Drive – to share and communicate in writing. Send a WhatsApp message to the whole team 2 hours in advance of a team meeting so they don’t have to remember US time zones, Daylight Savings, etc. Mentors have to keep up with country events by reading BBC News, Al Jazeera, New York Times. 

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Help with Zoom

EfM at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Saratoga, California

Education for Ministry is holding an online training this week for its mentors, trainers, and other seminar leaders, many of whom are starting their annual terms this month. We have over 165 already signed up!

Cynthia C. Hargis, Diocesan Relations and EfM Online Coordinator, University of the South – School of Theology – Education for Ministry, asked Cheri Winter (EfM Coordinator and Mentor, Diocese of Colorado), and me (EfM Coordinator and Mentor, Diocese of El Camino Real) to give this session on how to use Zoom for EfM seminars. Our training materials are linked here, both for those who will attend the session and for others who may find them helpful:

• Zoom Technical Tips: EfM Zoom Tips 14 Sep 2020 (by Katy Dickinson)
• Creating an Online Environment of Hospitality: Zoom Practices for EfM Mentors 09 2020 (by Cheri Winter)
• EfM Event Evaluation form: PDF format – Zoom Practices for EfM Evaluation, Doc Format – Zoom Practices for EfM Evaluation (by Cindy Hargis)

We welcome any additional suggestions you may offer. Here are questions and answers from the live chat during the event – the start to an FAQ: Questions from Zoom Practices for EfM, 18 Sep 2020

The recording of the event is on Zoom Practices for EfM 9-18-20. All of the material from the event is also linked to EfM – Resources for Mentors – Webinar: Zoom Practices for EfM Mentors.

To learn more about EfM, watch this two minute video: https://vimeo.com/450619912

We opened with this prayer, by the Rev. Aaron Klinefelter of St. Jude’s Episcopal Church (Cupertino, California):

If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Images Copyright 2019-2020 by Katy Dickinson.

Updated 24 Sep 2020

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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