Category Archives: Mentoring Standard

TechWomen Jordan Delegation at the Dead Sea

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The TechWomen Delegation to Jordan is entering its final day. We have enjoyed visits to the Princess Rahma Bint Al Hasan School (Shmiesani, Amman) and the Latin Patriarchate School (Madaba), the Oasis 500 technical incubator, and a reception at the Zain Innovation Campus with US Ambassador to Jordan, the Honorable Alice G. Wells.

We have also seen Mount Nebo, the Shrine of the Beheading of John the Baptist, and the Madaba Mosaic Map in the early Byzantine church of Saint George at Madaba. The Delegation moved today from Amman to the Dead Sea for the two-day TechWomen unconference supporting problem solving and planning by this remarkable community of technical leaders from 21 countries.

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Images Copyright 2016 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen Delegation to Jordan Started

Katy Dickinson and Afnan Ali, TechWomen Amman Jordan 2016

The TechWomen 2016 Delegation to Jordan started this week. Several dozen mentors and Fellows from the 2011-2015 cohorts are joining together to learn from each other and this remarkable place. TechWomen is an Initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs managed by the Institute of International Education in San Francisco. We are traveling with both State Department and IIE staff.

Amman has been cold and rainy but we have already toured the city, learned to cook our own Maqluba (rice, chicken, and vegetables cooked upside down) at the Beit Sitti cooking school, been addressed by the remarkable and wise (first woman) US Ambassador to Jordan, the Honorable Alice G. Wells, visited 2013 Fellow Hanan Kader’s HelloWorldKids coding academy for young children in the impressive and large King Hussein Business Park “the Silicon Valley of Jordan”, and visited the Eureka Tech Academy, run by 2011 Fellow Afnan Ali.

I was a member of the 2013 Jordan Delegation as well: much has changed here but  despite its challenging neighbors, Jordan’s friendly people, impressive Roman-era ruins, delicious food, and commitment to technology and entrepreneurship remain.

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Images Copyright 2016 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen Alumnae Council Events

TechWomen Alumnae Council Workshop

The first Mentor Professional Enrichment activity offered by the TechWomen Alumnae Council in 2016 was held last week: a “Leadership Presence Fundamentals” workshop.  The event was generously hosted at Cisco in San Jose by Council Co-Chair Cindy Cooley and presented by The Leadership Style Center. 15 San Francisco Bay Area mentors plus two IIE-SF staff attended the all-day workshop.

The other Council Co-Chair, Audrey Simpson, and I are now planning the next event: a diverse panel discussing mentoring best practices in corporations, non-profits, open source and other environments. This panel will be hosted by Ericsson, in March 2016 to honor International Women’s Day.

I am the TechWomen Alumnae Council Mentor Professional Enrichment Officer this year and am enjoying putting these events together.  One of the Council goals is to develop events that both San Francisco Bay Area based mentors, and the TechWomen Fellows can enjoy remotely in their 21 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.  A challenge!

TechWomen Alumnae Council Workshop

TechWomen Alumnae Council Workshop

TechWomen Alumnae Council Workshop

TechWomen Alumnae Council Workshop

Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen Photo Exhibit, Delegations to Jordan and Zimbabwe

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This week will be the first TechWomen photography show: TechWomen: Impact through Imagery at White Walls SF (in San Francisco, California):

Since 2011, TechWomen has been empowering women to be change agents – exposing more women and children to STEM and leading efforts to address social and economic challenges. Last year, TechWomen awarded $15,000 in seed grants to support six action plans. Donations from TechWomen: Impact through Imagery will fund 2016 seed grants.  Bring your friends for an opportunity to share what TechWomen is about: Thursday, January 21 at 6:30 PM

Next month, I am looking forward to joining the TechWomen mentoring program Delegations to Jordan and Zimbabwe, with a visit to Israel and Palestine in between. I am delighted that my daughter Jessica can join me in Israel and Palestine.  These will be my 7th and 8th delegation trips, and my third trip to the Middle East with Jessica. We look forward to visiting STEM programs for girls and women – like the Injaz program we visited in Jordan in 2013, pictured here:

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Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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69 Certified Mentors – a Different Normality

Eileen Brewer 2015 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 2015 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?

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

A page from the Honor Roll

Mentoring Standard Honor Roll 2015

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Mentor Certification – First Cohort

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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!

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TechWomen 2015 Winding Down

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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!

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Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson

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