Category Archives: Mentoring & Other Business

September 22, 2012 · 11:24 pm

TechWomen Tours

Yesterday was a very full day for the 42 TechWomen visiting California from the Middle East and North Africa. Audrey Van Belleghem (NetApp Director, Strategic Programs) invited a group of us to tour the NetApp Sunnyvale campus – seeing the data center and sharing lunch. Then, a group of TechWomen went to visit the Stanford University campus, while others started driving south to visit Disneyland, Hollywood, and Universal Studios for the weekend.

Last night, two dozen mentors, mentees, and Anita Borg Institute program staff gathered at the Muslim Community Association in Santa Clara. I worked with the MCA Outreach group to set up this event. MCA generously hosted the dinner and welcomed the TechWomen into their community. Three of the TechWomen (two mentors and a mentee) had gone to the same Engineering school in Alexandria, Egypt, and had fun catching up with each other over dinner.

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Filed under Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Geeks, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen

September 20, 2012 · 12:15 am

TechWomen at Work and Play

Our second week of the TechWomen mentoring program here in the Silicon Valley has been one of both work and play. My mentee and I are deep in discussions about her project during the day. Tonight, a group of us went with our Huawei co-workers to a San Jose Earthquakes soccer game.

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Tagged as Huawei, Mentoring, TechWomen

September 16, 2012 · 11:48 pm

TechWomen Dinner at Home

The Huawei TechWomen mentors and mentees gathered in my home for a potluck dinner tonight. My husband made a halal chicken curry with rice as the entree. There were women from at least seven countries around our table: China, Egypt, India, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, and the USA. The guests had fun visiting my office in WP668, our backyard caboose. The food was interesting, plentiful, and delicious. My mother and husband joined the party. What a delightful group of new friends!

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Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business

Tagged as China, Egypt, Eleanor, Huawei, John, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen, WP668

September 14, 2012 · 8:53 pm

TechWomen at LinkedIn

The TechWomen mentees were at LinkedIn today for a workshop on professional social networking, followed by a reception to which the mentors were also invited. I have never been to the LinkedIn campus in Mountain View before, although I certainly know the area since it is so close to Sun Microsystems’ old campus. The first week for the MENA women visiting the Silicon Valley seems to have gone well. The mentors learn as much talking with each other as the mentees do.

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Tagged as Geeks, Mentoring, Middle East, Sun Microsystems, technical women, TechWomen

September 11, 2012 · 10:44 pm

TechWomen at Huawei

We are having a good first week with the three TechWomen mentees hosted by Huawei in Santa Clara, California. We are still sorting out offices and equipment and accesses and orientation and starting work on our projects. Tonight, John and Paul and I went to a sushi dinner with two TechWomen and then on a tour of the San Jose TechShop where we have a family membership. We visited the textile area, wood shop (including my favorite Powermatic lathe), metal shop, laser room, and other technical and tool delights.

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Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Geeks, Huawei, John, Mentoring, Middle East, Paul, technical women, TechWomen

September 6, 2012 · 10:57 pm

TechWomen 2012 Orientation

Today was when the TechWomen 2012 mentors and mentees (“Emerging Leaders”) all met for the first time – at the orientation event hosted by Oracle in Redwood City, California. It was an exhilarating day – both catching up with returning 2011 mentors and meeting the three mentees who will be hosted by Huawei in Santa Clara this month. I have been working with the U.S. State Department’s TechWomen program since 2010 and am so very pleased it is going well in its second year. As both a Professional Mentor and the manager of the TechWomen program overall for Huawei, I am looking forward to working with our mentees, one each from Lebanon, Egypt, and Morocco.

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Filed under Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Geeks, Huawei, Mentoring, Middle East, TechWomen

August 7, 2012 · 10:23 pm

TechWomen Mentor Training

TechWomen mentor training was today, hosted by Walmart in San Bruno, California. About TechWomen:

Harnessing the power of business, technology and innovation, TechWomen brings emerging women leaders in technology sectors from the Middle East and North Africa together with their American counterparts for a professional mentorship and exchange program at leading companies in the United States.

Pairing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of “smart power diplomacy” with “21^st Century Statecraft,” TechWomen works to empower women and girls through technology. It connects and supports the next generation of women in technology sectors by providing them the access and opportunity needed to pursue careers in technology.

TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). … partnering with the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) to implement this initiative.

This is the second year for TechWomen, with Silicon Valley companies hosting women from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine, and Yemen. I was the Process Architect for TechWomen from 2010-2011. Today, I gave a short talk on the Best and Worst Practices in Mentoring. I am proud to be a Professional Mentor myself this year. Each mentee has both a Professional and a Cultural mentor assigned to her. Huawei hosted three mentees last year in Santa Clara (two from Lebanon and one from Egypt) and will host three more this year (one each from Egypt, Lebanon, and Morocco). We are very much looking forward to meeting them in September!