TechWomen 2016 Fellows – Next Steps

The 90 TechWomen 2016 Fellows returned to their 19 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. After a very busy month in the San Francisco Bay Area and a week in Washington DC, they have been been reconnecting with home and family. Some of us mentors in the Silicon Valley have continued working remotely with our mentees since we last saw them in Washington DC.  Two groups with whom I have actively continued to work are Team Tunisia (the development group of six from Tunis, plus three TechWomen mentors), and the TechWomen 2016 Fellows who have become Certified Mentors with my company, Mentoring Standard.

Team Tunisia has met remotely twice already and is busily developing plans, branding, and social media for WAKTECH. WAKTECH will developing a software application plus community system to improve public transport in Tunis. Our team won one of the TechWomen Pitch Day seed grants last month and we are  now looking for additional sources of funding and support. While we were in Washington DC, Team Tunisia was able to meet His Excellency Fayçal Gouia, Tunisia’s Ambassador to the United States. We brought along our TechWomen trophy to show him!

12 TechWomen 2016 Fellows have completed the submissions required to become Certified Mentors after returning home.  They have demonstrated that they hold the following three qualities:

1. Significant Mentoring History.
2. Good Reputation.
3. Respectable Professional Experience.

Congratulations and welcome to:

Engy Abdalla	Architect & Interior Designer, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Alexandria, Egypt
Yousra Anwar Abdelhady	Independent Trainer, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Alexandria, Egypt
Chioma Hannah Ezedi	Programmer, Abububakar Tafawa Balewa University, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Bauchi, Nigeria
Yelena Filipchik	Sales Intelligence Manager, PepsiCo, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Almaty, Kazakhstan
Habsatou Nadia	Project Engineer, Cameroon Telecommunication, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Yaounde, Cameroon
Kitio Tsamo Arielle	Founder: WIT, Computer Science Lecturer Assistant: University of Yaounde 1, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Yaounde, Cameroon
Diana Hasan Nassar	Product Manager: souq.com, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Amman, Jordan
Estelle Ndedi-Nzalli	Computer Sciences Engineer, Information Technology Department, Ingenieris, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Yaounde, Cameroon
Dr. Francisca Onaolapo Oladipo	Professor, Federal University Lokoja, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Lokoja, Kogi State, Nigeria
Gulshnar Salpykova	IT Specialist, Transtelecom JSC, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Astana, Kazakhstan
Yomna Emad Saleh	Business & Innovation Consultant: Innovety, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Cairo, Egypt
Nazira Sheraly	CEO, Agroholding Jashyl Charba, TechWomen 2016 Fellow	Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic

I am very proud of all of them!  More information about each of these remarkable mentors is on Mentoring Standard’s Honor Roll.

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Images Copyright 2016 by Katy Dickinson

69 Certified Mentors – a Different Normality

Eileen Brewer Director, Security Appliance Team, Symantec Mountain View, California USA

As of today, Mentoring Standard has certified 69 mentors from 16 countries in Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and America. When I read down the Honor Roll, I am proud and honored to be working with such remarkable men and women.  I see in this developing community a shared commonality of excellence and generosity.  Since the first mentor was certified in August 2015,  69 have met the standard to be honored as Regular Mentors, and three have in addition been recognized as Advanced Mentors: Eileen Brewer (USA), Naira Ayrapetyan (Turkmenistan), and Dr. Kenza Khomsi (Morocco).   Mentoring Standard certifies mentors from around the world who can prove they hold within themselves the following 3 qualities:

• Significant Mentoring History.
• Good Reputation.
• Respectable Professional Experience.

Naira Ayrapetyan Senior Maintenance Engineer, Petronas Carigali Turkmenistan, TechWomen 2015 Fellow Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Every day’s news is full of a fractured, fighting, frightening world.  Yet, in the Honor Roll is a different normality: successful professionals from a vast diversity of demographics, profession, and geography who are not only learning and growing themselves but have spent years helping other people to achieve their goals and grow their careers.  Many of the Certified Mentors have been participants in the US State Department’s TechWomen program, or in the Sun Microsystems Engineering mentoring program called SEED, or they are friends or relations of mentors who were.  Half of the Certified Mentors are also TechWomen Fellows: 2011-2015 mentees of STEM leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area.  That is, these are women who came to the USA to be mentees but had already been mentors themselves for many years.

This is validation of the research presented in the Lifetime Value of Mentoring 2013 project: “…patterns from key [mentoring] programs show that successful mentees will go on to become mentors and many mentors serve over and over – in a variety of programs. Mentors also become Mentees as needed. Thus, disconnected programs may be informally in the same network because of having participants in common.”  I am still working on the first Mentoring Standard data report on the 2015 cohort of Certified Mentors.

Mentor Certification documents and celebrates your past and ongoing mentoring accomplishments – it does not require you to join a new mentoring program or take additional training. Ever consider becoming a Certified Mentor yourself?

Dr. Kenza Khomsi Meteorologist Engineer, Direction de la Météorologie Nationale, TechWomen 2015 Fellow Casablanca, Morocco

A page from the Honor Roll…

Mentor Certification – First Cohort

The interest in Mentor Certification by Mentoring Standard continues strong. We have already certified eight Regular-level mentors this month.  There are twenty-eight on the Honor Roll (and more in the queue).  I am working with the first applicant for Advanced-level Certified Mentor now.  Doing well for just four months into this program!

Many of Certified Mentors have been participants in the TechWomen initiative of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, or were in SEED (Sun Microsystems’ Engineering Enrichment and Development), two of the mentoring programs I have helped to design and create since 2001.  Countries where Certified Mentors live include: Cameroon, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, South Africa, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and of course the USA.

I am putting together the first Mentoring Standard data report on the initial cohort of Certified Mentors now. One of the patterns I am tracking is in what formal mentoring programs they have participated. In addition to TechWomen and SEED, I have seen several each in Technovation, and Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. As we get beyond the initial group, additional programs will be referenced – not all focused on women or STEM.

Mentor Certification documents and celebrates your past and ongoing mentoring accomplishments – it does not require you to join a new mentoring program or take additional training. If you are interested in following up for yourself, read: Get Certified.

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Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson – with thanks to Kathy Jenks!

TechWomen 2015 Winding Down

We are enjoying the last bittersweet days with our dear 98 TechWomen mentors from 19 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. TechWomen participants enjoyed the Volunteer Day (tilling the soil at Veggielution in San Jose), and Community Celebration in San Francisco (hosted by Automattic), including seed grant awards presented to the six winners of the 22 October TechWomen Pitch Night presentations (hosted by Google):

1. Team Nigeria’s “STEM in a Box” – this education project was also voted “Audience Favorite”
2. Palestine’s “STEM Fem” – project to connect technical women to jobs
3. Jordan’s “She Can Do It!” – focus on workforce training
4. Egypt’s “She is Back” – project to re-employ women returning to workplace
5. Kyrgyzstan’s “We Care” – project to improve healthcare
6. Sierra Leone’s “Big Sisters” – to help orphans left by Ebola epidemic (collaborating with Families Without Borders

Today was the first of our visits to the US State Department – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in Washington DC. Tomorrow is our most formal dress day, featuring lunch in the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room.

During this term, Mentoring Standard has not only provided training for both TechWomen mentors and mentees but we have also been helping program participants to become Certified Mentors. My company’s Honor Roll of Certified Mentors is growing quickly! Several of the TechWomen Emerging Leaders are now working hard to finish their submissions before they return to their home countries. Busy days!

Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson

TechWomen Country Introductions

The 98 TechWomen Emerging Leaders introduced themselves to us today at the Juniper Networks Aspiration Dome in Sunnyvale, California. Each of the 19 country groups had about five minutes to show a video, dance, sing their national anthem or perform a skit to tell us about their traditions and life. Most wore their national dress. They are all so beautiful and talented! We were welcomed by our staunch champion at the US State Department – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Sheila Casey, were moved by a talk by Mitchell Baker (Executive Chairwoman, Mozilla), and even heard a video poem about women by Bulelwa Basse, the South African poet whom we met earlier this year. The day ended with our beloved IIE staff performing a medley of American dances as a gift in return.

Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson

First Day with TechWomen 2015 Emerging Leaders – South Bay

99 TechWomen Emerging Leaders have arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 19 countries. I am one of the Cultural Mentors working with the South Bay contingent. Erin Keeley and I spent time after their orientation today – giving a tour of the CalTrain and VTA Light Rail Stations, going to lunch, and going to the market to stock the kitchens in their apartments. Hanging out with amazingly smart and capable technical women from Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe is such a delight!

Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson

Organizing TechWomen Mentors, South Bay Activities

The TechWomen mentoring program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is looking forward to welcoming 99 Emerging Leaders from 19 countries to the Silicon Valley next month.  I am honored to be the Lead for the Cultural Mentors – South Bay – Arts & Culture group, working with experienced TechWomen mentors Megan Dean Farah, Lori Kahn, Rochelle Kopp, and Shannon McElyea. Arezoo Miot (TechWomen Director) and Jillian Scott (TechWomen Program Manager) of IIE – San Francisco lead the South Bay Cultural Mentors’ orientation meeting yesterday, generously hosted by Flipboard in Palo Alto.

Our Arts & Culture team will work with about fifty of the ELs who are staying in Mountain View – coming to us from Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe. The ELs are still in the process of being matched with their Professional Mentors and companies. 91 companies in the San Francisco Bay Area have hosted ELs since 2011.  They arrive at the end of September and will be in the US for about six weeks.

Our team will be considering events and activities throughout the Bay Area.  However, since we all live in the South Bay, we have been collaborating to create a list of options closer to home – to reduce transportation management and traffic time. Here is our list so far – for discussion.  We will only pick a small number of these for the whole South Bay EL group to enjoy!

• 17 Mile Drive (Carmel)
• Art Silicon Valley/San Francisco
• Big Basin Redwoods State Park (Santa Cruz)
• California Missions Trail – 6 in SF Bay Area:
  San Juan Bautista, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara de Asis, San Jose,
  San Francisco de Asis Mission Dolores, San Rafael Arcangel
• Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose
• Chinese Cultural Garden – Overfelt Gardens Park (San Jose)
• Computer History Museum – Friday Night (Mountain View)
• Congregation Beth David Simchat Torah Celebrations (Saratoga)
• Creative Convergence Silicon Valley
• de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University
• Dragon Theater (Redwood City)
• Draeger’s Cooking School (Menlo Park)
• Gilroy Gardens – theme park (Gilroy)
• Great America – amusement park (Santa Clara)
• Habitat for Humanity – volunteer to build a house
• Hakone gardens, Saratoga
• Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival
• Happy Hollow (San Jose)
• Harker School – high school homecoming game (San Jose)
• Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park (Santa Cruz Mountains)
• History San Jose
• Japanese American Museum of San Jose
• Lick Observatory tour (Mount Hamilton – San Jose)
• Monterey Baq Aquarium day trip
• Muslim Community Center tour (Santa Clara)
• Petroglyph ceramic lounge, and Glow candle making – crafts (Willow Glen – San Jose)
• Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium (San Jose)
• San Francisco 49ers – football game (Santa Clara)
• San Jose Animal Care Center – animal shelter (San Jose)
• San Jose City Hall – tour
• San Jose Earthquakes – soccer game (San Jose)
• San Jose Municipal Rose Garden
• San Jose State Spartans – football game (San Jose)
• San Jose Taiko Public Workshop
• San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles
• San Jose State University – campus tour
• San Juan Bautista – city and mission tour
• Santa Clara University – campus tour
• Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk – amusement park on beach
• Santa Maria Urban Ministry – volunteer at a community food distribution warehouse
• Silicon Valley Ballet (San Jose)
• Silicon Valley Lines model train club operations night (San Jose)
• Silicon Valley Symphony – California Theater (San Jose)
• Stanford University – campus tour (Stanford / Palo Alto)
• Sunset Gardens kitchen and garden tour (Menlo Park)
• TechShop San Jose – tour fabrication and prototyping studio
• The Tech Museum of Innovation (San Jose)
• Theaterworks (Mountain View)
• University of California at Santa Cruz – campus tour
• Westwind Drive-in movie night at Capitol (San Jose)
• Winchester Mystery House (San Jose)

Pictures Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson