KatysBlog

One of my motivations in working with Mai Temraz (of Palestine) and Seham Al Jaafreh (of Jordan) to create the Arabic Mentor-Protege video set by Everwise was to respond to discussions I had in the Middle East last year. As I wrote in my February 2013 blog entry “Honoring Our Own Generosity“, I was surprised and concerned to be twice told that in Arabic, that the saying is not “Give and Take” but “Take and Give”. Some doubted that mentoring would work in Arab culture. Yet, I have been treated with nothing but extraordinary generosity in my travels in the Middle East.  Also, in the last four years, I have seen the TechWomen Emerging Leaders from the Middle East thrive in that professional mentoring program.  I think that mentoring fits beautifully into the ancient Arab tradition of hospitality.

In October 2014 in San Francisco, Mai and Seham and I worked together to record the seven videos posted on my YouTube channel:

• Everwise: Mentoring in Arab Culture (In Arabic), Featuring Seham Al Jaafreh, 16 views
• Everwise: Mentoring Feedback (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Temraz, 6 views
• Everwise: Mentoring Recommendations and Resources (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Temraz, 7 views
• Everwise: Questions for Your Mentor? (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Temraz, 14 views
• Everwise: Mentoring Introductions (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Termaz, 12 views
• Everwise: Why Be a Mentor? (In Arabic), Featuring Seham Al Jaafreh, 22 views
• Why Mentoring? (In Arabic), Featuring Seham Al Jaafreh, 5 views

The seven videos are getting a small amount of attention and I hope that they will get more.  These videos present mentoring in simple words, communicating to potential mentors and proteges. If you are interested in mentoring but do not understand exactly how it can work for your circumstances, this series is for you. Mentoring is new to many cultures, and not all languages even have a word for the practice.

Photo copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

Everwise just posted another in its series of blogs about TechWomen (the US State Department – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ mentoring program) and hosting two Emerging Leaders in San Francisco, in October 2014.  Here is the whole blog set:

• Getting a lot done (and practically perfectly) 19 October 2014, by Katy with Mai and Seham
• Participating In Multiple Approaches To Mentorship 23 October 2014, by Seham Al Jaafareh (Jordan) and Katy Dickinson
• Increasing Access To STEM Careers, Around The World 17 October 2014, by Mai Temraz (Palestine) and Katy Dickinson
• Everwise is a Proud TechWomen Host 2 October 2014, by Katy Dickinson

Mai is still traveling in the USA, visiting family, but Seham has returned to Jordan. Hers is the first donation of “Notable Women in Computing” card decks to be delivered to actual users in the field. Here are Seham’s cards being checked out at the Mutah Knowledge Station (Karak, Jordan):

Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson and Seham Al Jaafreh