Cameroon Reunification Monument and Statue, Yaoundé, February 2024
I was honored to be part of the February – March 2024 TechWomen Delegation to Cameroon. TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. I helped design this mentoring program in 2010-2011, so it is very important to me. I have been on over a dozen delegations since 2012 but this was my first trip to Cameroon. Seena Shankar (Marvell Director) and I traveled to Cameroon together by way of Istanbul. We had enough time for a brief tour of that remarkable city before meeting up with the rest of the TechWomen mentors, Fellows, and TechGirls in the capital of Yaoundé, Cameroon. During our Cameroon week in Yaoundé and Douala, we gave presentations and met many dozens of inspiring STEM women and girls.
My favorite day was when the delegation gave presentations and joined community discussions about environmental sustainability. I gave a lightning talk on Community Waste Management. While trash and air pollution were very apparent, it was also clear that Cameroon is actively working to resolve these difficult problems. I was delighted to be able to visit the Tassah Academy founded by my long-term TechWomen colleague, Janet Bih. She and I have collaborated since she joined TechWomen in 2013 but unfortunately, while I was visiting her school in Cameroon, Janet was in the USA defending her doctoral dissertation at the University of Maryland.
It was a joy to travel with and learn from the TechWomen mentors and Fellows. I am very grateful for the remarkably generous hospitality of the Fellows in Cameroon, particularly Germaine Ashu, who did everything she could to help me get a visa to Nigeria. Our delegation traveled with one particularly determined TechGirl, Britney Moukoko, whom I am glad to write has continued our conversations since my return home.
Since I was in Central Africa for this delegation, I made a side trip to visit the TechWomen Fellows in Nigeria. My complex route to see everyone was, San Francisco – Istanbul – Yaoundé – Douala – Lomé, Togo – Douala – Istanbul – San Francisco. Quite a trip!
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This term at the Berkeley School of Theology, I have focused on developing the Hebrew Bible section of my Doctor of Ministry (DMin) project. My project is to revise the Transforming Literature of the Bible (TLB) material I have used in Santa Clara County jail classes since 2018. TLB was originally created by the Rev. Canon William Barnwell. Read the complete project proposal here. I have been rewriting the 2018 material to support inmates in three particularly-underserved and vulnerable groups: those whose primary language is Spanish, and/or have mental health challenges, and/or have reading comprehension difficulties. Making materials more accessible may help to encourage their faith walk, sustain their difficult journey, and discourage recidivism after release. To make the written material more engaging, I added public domain images, some of which are featured here. I turned in a mature draft of the 127 pages completed so far to my DMin committee last week. (I edited down the 2018 TLB which had 256 pages on the Hebrew Bible.) While I am waiting for committee comments, I am starting work on the Christian Testament section.
The Hebrew Bible section includes information about the class setting and very positive student feedback from the first two surveys. An except about that:
“The first class to use the updated Transforming Literature of the Bible – Book One, Hebrew Bible materials started in August 2023 with sixteen potential students and ended with five who were graduated on 6 December 2023. All students were male inmates in a minimum-security protective custody dorm of Santa Clara County Jail, in California. Jail students leaving class because of release or transfer to prison, or another facility are normal patterns. Population churn is part of what makes jail-based education and faith-based pastoral care challenging. The Prison Policy Initiative wrote in their annual analysis ‘Mass Incarceration: the Whole Pie 2023.’”
“Prisons are facilities under state or federal control where people who have been convicted (usually of felonies) go to serve their sentences. Jails are city- or county-run facilities where a majority of people locked up are there awaiting trial (in other words, still legally innocent), many because they can’t afford to post bail… In 2021, about 421,000 people entered prison gates, but people went to jail almost 7 million times… At least 1 in 4 people who go to jail will be arrested again within the same year — often those dealing with poverty, mental illness, and substance use disorders, whose problems only worsen with incarceration.”[1]
“Each week, Katy Dickinson wrote the TLB chapter for the following week and distributed it in paper form to the class. Homework was to read the next week’s Bible and TLB reading assignments. Class feedback and responses were used to update TLB material as the class progressed. TLB homework often included literary selections to complement and extend topics raised in the scripture reading.”
“The TLB was available in both English and Spanish. The Spanish was an uncorrected machine translation in Microsoft Word of the English version. Four students read both Spanish and English versions and one read only in English. Class discussions and reading aloud alternated between English and Spanish (and sometimes Spanglish). An example of the benefits of a class presented in two languages was a discussion we had about how the English word righteous translated into Spanish as justicia. The common translation of justicia is the English word justice. The class had several discussions of what it meant that righteousness could be equated with justice.”
Henry Ossawa Tanner, Study for Moses and the Burning Bush, oil painting on canvas, 1937, in Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Gift of Jesse O. Tanner, https://www.si.edu/object/study-moses-and-burning-bush:saam_1983.95.207B.Joseph Turner Keiley, Zitkála-Šá, photographic portrait, 1898, in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, https://www.si.edu/object/zitkala-sa:npg_NPG.2006.10.David and Goliath, 16th century Flemish tapestry woven in Milan, in National Cathedral, Washington D.C. – St. Mary’s Chapel, Photo by Katy Dickinson, 22 October 2023.Edmonia Lewis, Hagar, 1875, sculpture – carved marble stone, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Object number 1983.95.178, https://www.si.edu/object/hagar:saam_1983.95.178.
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Supporters of the Stepping Stones Gathering got together yesterday to write Christmas Cards for prisoners. Stepping Stones was started in 2018 to support jail and prison inmates, and those in reentry and recovery. Sending written holiday greetings and letters of support to prisoners has been part of this ministry since it started. Prisoners have told us each year how important it is to get cards. Since many inmates are not in communication with outside friends and family, our cards may be the only ones arriving. Some prisoners keep their cards and re-read the encouraging messages for weeks or months.
Cards are donated and must meet jail and prison requirements: no foil or glitter, regular postal size, no scents or images on envelopes. (Also, no “Home for the Holidays” messages – because most of the prisoners will not be home.) St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church hosted the card writing (we met in one of the rooms of St. Andrew’s School), provided coffee and tea, and is buying the stamps. Stepping Stones volunteers donated sweets or sandwiches to the party.
I put together a list of 122 inmates and people in reentry with whom Stepping Stones has been in contact, verifying prisoner addresses against Santa Clara County and California location websites. We regretfully do not have addresses 32 of those who have been released or sent to another carceral facility but we hope to locate them for next year.
Yesterday, diligent Stepping Stones card writers completed 263 cards. Each of the 90 men and women for whom we have an address will be sent at least one card, and many will get more than one. I am mailing 65 at a time so as not to overwhelm the jail mail distribution system. Cards with glitter or gold foil or decorated envelopes have been donated to a San Jose program that supports people in reentry and recovery.
Images Copyright (c) 2023. Thanks to Thierry Doyen for the group photo! If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home).
TechWomen Team Palestine, Seed Grant and Pitch win, 16 October 2023
As a TechWomen Professional Mentor and country Impact Coach for many years, I have been honored and impressed with TechWomen’s Team Palestine 2023. Each year, every one of the 100+ women in 22 country teams invited by the U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs from the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia works hard to create a project that will improve their home when they return from working and learning in America. Team Palestine has worked especially hard under the horrific circumstances of their homeland being at war, starting two weeks into their six week program. Their compassion, dedication, and intelligent leadership has inspired the entire TechWomen community. Working with my sister mentors, we coached the team in developing a project to support STEM education among primary school students in Palestine. On 16 October in San Francisco, they gave their three minute pitch, and on 20 October, Team Palestine was one of five teams that won an award and seed funding! I am so proud that Team Palestine will help children at home learn science, technology, engineering, and math as part of recovering from the trauma of war.
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Clausen House is a registered charitable institution that provides housing, wellness programs, and advocacy for developmentally disabled adults in Oakland and the surrounding San Francisco East Bay area. As a member of the Board of Directors, I am supporting Clausen House staff working on the annual Art Show, including holding several art creation sessions with clients. I brought in art history books for clients to look through. It was interesting to see two create portraits of Nefertiti, and another be inspired by the Paleolithic era Venus of Lespugue. Please plan to attend the Art Show on 20 October 2023 to view and purchase these and other delightful creations.
Images Copyright (c) 2023 Katy Dickinson. If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home).
Yesterday, my sister TechWomen Impact Coaches for 2023 Team Palestine and I had a lovely conversation starting to plan for the arrival of our new mentees. Looking forward to learning from Shagufta Ahmed and Nancy Hendrickson! The 104 TechWomen mentees from 21 countries arrive in San Francisco soon and we are very excited to meet them.
I am thinking of my dear friends and colleagues among the Palestine TechWomen Fellows of cohorts-past, and asking them to support the incoming team. I am also thinking of my journeys in Palestine and hoping that I will learn as much during the next six weeks. My first trip to Palestine was in 1979 after I was graduated from U.C. Berkeley, my second was in 2006 to create a Sun Microsystems mentoring program between technical groups in St. Petersburg (Russia) and Hertzliya (Israel), and the third was an (unofficial) delegation of five TechWomen mentors to Gaza City in 2016, as guests of Mercy Corps and Gaza Sky Geeks. I very much look forward to traveling there again.
I was honored to be the 2010-2011 Process Architect for the U.S. State Department – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ TechWomen mentoring program and am very proud to continue my service as a citizen diplomat. In 2022, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expanded TechWomen (based in the San Francisco Bay Area 2010-2022) to include a cohort in Chicago. My daughter, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, is a mentor for 2023’s Team Nigeria, based in Chicago. Jessica was one of the mentors who went with me to Palestine in 2016 and she has been an Impact Coach for Team Palestine in prior TechWomen years.
About TechWomen: “TechWomen empowers, connects and supports the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East by providing them the access and opportunity needed to advance their careers, pursue their dreams, and inspire women and girls in their communities. Through mentorship and exchange, TechWomen strengthens participants’ professional capacity, increases mutual understanding between key networks of professionals, and expands girls’ interest in STEM careers by exposing them to female role models.” There are 1,153 TechWomen Emerging Leaders and Fellows in 22 Countries. More than 150 companies have hosted TechWomen Emerging Leaders.
Katy standing in the Dead Sea 2006Gaza City Vase 2016TechWomen arrive in Gaza, Feb 2016Gaza Sky Geeks with TechWomen 2016Katy Dickinson and TechWomen presenting, Gaza City 2016Selfies with Eileen Brewer at Gaza City harbor, Feb 2016
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Temporary Kitchenette in John Plocher’s Office, 8 September 2023
After 26 years in our home, we are updating our kitchen. Our Spanish Mission style house was built around 1931 in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood (Silicon Valley, California). We think the kitchen was last remodeled after the big Loma Prieta 1989 earthquake. The kitchen is large but the layout is fixed by four doors (to John’s office, the laundry room, the basement, and the dining room).
We are keeping the original cabinets because they are solid oak and, while after so many years the finish is trashed, they are good quality, fit well, and are in the right places. We are replacing the pulls, hinges, and drawer slides, so that means rebuilding the drawer boxes. We are also changing two under-cabinet doors to be drawers. The update is limited to those cabinet changes, granite counters to replace the nasty cheap tile, a new sink and faucet, cabinet and wall paint, electrical plug upgrades, and three new appliances: induction range / stove, microwave, and sink disposal. The induction stove meant we also had to buy all new pans. There has been much discussion over microwave placement. John (the fancy cook) says he prefers it over the stove, so we bought a new microwave unit with a built-in hood.
It feels like camping out in our own home. John is patient with the temporary kitchenette we created in his office. (This is overseen by the Moltres Pokemon mural my mother Eleanor Dickinson and son Paul painted when that was his bedroom.) We are doing dishes in the bathroom. My birds are confused by their extended field trip to the dining room, where their cage is surrounded by boxes of china and kitchen stuff. The contractor came by this morning to say that the countertops will be installed tomorrow, and the cabinets and paint will be finished next week. Here’s hoping for that to happen as scheduled!
Nov 2022 John Plocher in old kitchennew kitchen stove, 31 July 2023kitchen backsplash granite slab, 17 Aug 2023kitchen granite shopping, 17 Aug 2023old kitchen 20 August 2023kitchen demolition 21 Aug 2023kitchen after counter removal, 21 Aug 2023kitchen electrical work, 22 Aug 2023kitchen with new backer boards, 24 Aug 2023John Plocher and curious dogs in kitchen 29 Aug 2023bathroom dishes 8 Sep 2023
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