Tag Archives: Africa

October 29, 2015 · 7:27 pm

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):

Team Nigeria’s “STEM in a Box” – this education project was also voted “Audience Favorite”
Palestine’s “STEM Fem” – project to connect technical women to jobs
Jordan’s “She Can Do It!” – focus on workforce training
Egypt’s “She is Back” – project to re-employ women returning to workplace
Kyrgyzstan’s “We Care” – project to improve healthcare
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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Tagged as Africa, Algeria, Cameroon, Central Asia, Certified Mentors, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mentoring, Middle East, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Rwanda, San Francisco, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, technical women, TechWomen, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe

October 24, 2015 · 11:00 pm

Disappointing “Revolution” at Computer History Museum

The Computer History Museum exhibit “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing” was a big disappointment. Our TechWomen Cultural Mentor team brought 19 STEM experts from the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia to tour the Computer History museum yesterday. TechWomen is a prestigious initiative of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Our group was very disappointed to see almost no historical role models for technical women or people of color in this show, not even Admiral Grace Hopper (inventor of the compiler, Computer History Museum Fellow), Katherine Johnson (early NASA mathematician and “Computer”), or Jean Sammet (early computer language developer, Computer History Museum Fellow).

Despite the exhibit title, by the time our helpful docent had brought our tour group up to the 1970s, it was clear that we were seeing a celebration of the March of White American Men’s Technical Progress. Ada Lovelace tshirts are for sale in the museum’s bookstore, and the museum has 7 women among its 70 prestigious Fellows; however among those Fellows only Jean Bartik was included in this sad exhibit that has been up since 2011. There were, however, very large images trivializing women: showing her legs while sitting on a computer, holding a food bowl looking adoringly at her man who is using a computer, and using a headset because “She Makes Friends as Well as Reservations”. Almost no photos that did show women included their names (this is called “erasure”).

Kate McGregor (Education Programs Consultant, Community Programs, Computer History Museum) was kind enough to discuss this exhibit with me. She told me that there is special tour once a month that focuses on women in technology (Separate but Equal?). She also said I missed seeing the photo of Adele Goldberg with the Alto computer. So it seems that the exhibit of “2000 Years of Computing” names just two women: Jean Bartik, and Adele Goldberg.

Having spent many years developing the Notable Technical Women project and predecessor projects to celebrate and document the impressive history of women in computer science, I was sorry we went to this museum exhibit and wish we had taken the our remarkable TechWomen leaders someplace else.

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Tagged as Africa, Central Asia, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen

October 23, 2015 · 10:37 am

Families Without Borders – Sierra Leone

Last weekend, Terri Khonsari (TechWomen mentor and friend) and Dr. Hamid Khonsari generously hosted the 3rd Annual Gala fundraising event for Families Without Borders to support higher education for young women and men in Sierra Leone. The four TechWomen 2015 Emerging Leaders from Sierra Leone were honored guests at the event. Congratulations on the success of this worthy effort!

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Tagged as Africa, Mentoring, Sierra Leone, technical women, TechWomen

October 10, 2015 · 10:04 pm

New Front Yard

During the last week or so, we have been following up on the water conserving landscape plans I wrote about in August. So far, we have removed the old lawn, brought in new topsoil and decorative boulders, created Paul’s seating area, and placed hundreds of new plants. While I am in Monterey tomorrow with the TechWomen mentors and Emerging Leaders from Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, John is going to finish installing the new watering system. The last step is to put mulch (bark chips) around the plants to conserve water and protect them. So far, I am happy with the results! Once everything is complete, I can submit receipts to the Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) for a refund of part of the cost of this big project.

August 2015:

October 2015:

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Tagged as Africa, garden, House Work, John, Mentoring, Middle East, Paul, San Jose, technical women, TechWomen, Willow Glen

September 30, 2015 · 9:31 pm

Mentor, Mentee Development by Mentoring Standard

Mentoring Standard has been honored to provide three training events for the 2015 TechWomen mentors and mentees from 19 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, on 22 September (hosted by Juniper Networks in Sunnyvale), 24 September (hosted by the Institute of International Education in San Francisco), and today (hosted by Symantec in Mountain View):

It has been a pleasure to work with such an accomplished, talented, motivated, and inspiring group of technical leaders. We look forward to the next step – working with this community on mentor certification!

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Tagged as Africa, Central Asia, Mentoring, Middle East, teaching, technical women, TechWomen

September 29, 2015 · 11:49 pm

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.

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Tagged as Africa, Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mentoring, Middle East, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, technical women, TechWomen, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe

September 21, 2015 · 3:24 pm

TechWomen Emerging Leaders arrive this week!

The San Francisco Bay Area mentor community is very excited to welcome 99 TechWomen Emerging Leaders from 19 countries – arriving later this week to spend a month in the Silicon Valley, followed by a trip to Washington DC. This is our 5th annual cohort from the Middle East and Africa. In 2015, we are also happy to welcome technical mentees from Central Asia to this prestigious mentoring initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The mentors have been getting ready – developing a professional and cultural events schedule, and meeting with each other at picnics, receptions, and small dinners to make plans.

My company, Mentoring Standard, is honored to provide three services to TechWomen 2015 mentors from 91 Bay Area companies:

Two workshops this week for mentors: “How to Be an Effective Mentor: Best Practices Workshop”, generously hosted by Juniper Networks and IIE.
Private Consulting for Mentors – Co-Founders Katy Dickinson Kathy Jenks are available to TechWomen 2015 mentors for consultation during October 2015 because even the most experienced mentor sometimes has a specific mentoring question or just wants to check in about developments with her or his mentee.
Mentor Certification – Mentoring Standard celebrates mentors with deep experience, who have done the work of helping people to achieve their goals and grow their careers. Great mentoring isn’t the result of completing a check list or training program. 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.