Tag Archives: Huawei

Local Honey

Made by Bees Lip Balm

One of my Huawei co-workers is a Beekeeper (apiary specialist) who sells honey and bee products in Santa Clara, California. Mark arrived early to help me set up for the TechWomen mentoring program’s entrepreneurship workshop, hosted at Huawei last week. In his truck, he had a hive of newly-caught honeybees, still sleepy from the cold night. He also sold me some Natural Honey Lip Balm, which works well and smells lovely. Mark can be reached at

Mark Paterson

464 West Campbell Avenue, Campbell California 95008

408-469-2152

madebybees@usa.com

honey bee hive bucket

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen at Huawei

TechWomen at Huawei . TechWomen at Huawei

The TechWomen Mentees from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) were hosted by Huawei at its Santa Clara, California, R&D Center on Friday for a workshop on entrepreneurship for women. The Mentees were welcomed by Huawei Fellow Jim Hughes and by Executive Vice President Guolin Wang.

There were two panels of venture capitalists and successful entrepreneurs who spoke and coached the Mentees during the day. After the workshop, Mentors joined us for dinner of MENA foods (including konafa – which I love), hosted by the nearby Muslim Community Association (MCA). Then, we went on a tour of the MCA community center.

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Images Copyright 2011 Katy Dickinson

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Why I Blog

ZapCar . Burning Man Car

Right now, someone is particularly angry at me for not communicating through the means she prefers. She wrote me an email saying that she wants letters on paper and will read email but thinks blogs are impersonal and not worth her time.

So, why write blogs?

  • I work two jobs (for TechWomen and Huawei), each of which is interesting and worthwhile
  • I love a distractingly wonderful husband, two remarkable kids in college, two dogs, a cat, and two birds, each of whom would like and deserves more of my attention
  • Our daughter is getting married in six weeks, with over a hundred guests
  • I am working with my brothers to advise and support two interesting parents (both over 80) whose health is failing
  • I am on several volunteer Boards and I teach a group of twenty adorable kids three hours a week in an after-school program, all of whom have justified expectations of my time and nurturing
  • I have plants that expected better when they came into my garden, and weeds that are much happier than they should be
  • I have a stack of well-written and highly-recommended books that leak guilt at me when I look in their direction

I am over-committed and over-scheduled doing work I love and do well.  When my daughter went to college, she made a wise decision. She could either try to keep in touch with her large circle of friends and relations individually, and do nothing else. Or, she could blog and hope that her admirers would follow her news in a less-direct but more complete way.

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626)

When I don’t blog, I find that I drop out of touch and actually spend more time communicating to worse effect. I love writing and taking pictures and I think sharing what I see with my readers benefits both. I am frequently contacted by interesting people who ask to use one of my pictures or want to continue a discussion started on my blog.  For example, I was on the local TV news last week because of my blog entries last year about FEMA.  I have included recent pictures of strange local cars and old metal signs for you today – just for fun! Publishing here makes me consider more deeply and starts many of my conversations with my family and friends in the middle of current experience, instead of spending half of each meeting catching each other up.

Orchard Supply Hardware old sign . Western Hotel old sign

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen Work Today

Mark Bregman Symantec TechWomen . TechWomen

Yesterday I taught at the well-received Mentor-Mentee Workshop, generously hosted by Symantec. Mark Bregman (EVP and CTO for Symantec) welcomed us. Today is the first day of work for the 37 TechWomen Mentees in the Silicon Valley. Our three Mentees at Huawei are settled into their office – we are still getting everything sorted out but they seem happy and pleased with their first day.

Huawei TechWomen

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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Opening Day TechWomen

TechWomen in San Francisco

Today is the opening day of the first TechWomen mentoring program. I am in San Francisco listening to a panel from the three organizations which put together the program. TechWomen is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE), and implemented in partnership with the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI).  I have been working on TechWomen with ABI during the last year.

We were welcomed by Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Ann Stock on behalf of TechWomen’s sponsor, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. We also enjoyed an inspirational talk by Google Engineering Vice President Jen Fitzpatrick.

The best part has been finally meeting the 37 technical women Mentees from 6 Middle Eastern and North African countries and territories in person, after so much planning and hard work. I know how to say their names now (sortof, anyway). I was happy to hear that some Mentees have just as much trouble saying our names.

Linda Schneider (Huawei Distinguished Engineer), Athellina Athsani (Huawei Senior Manager), and I just met the three TechWomen Mentees who will be hosted by Huawei this month. So exciting!

Huawei TechWomen

Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson

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Getting Ready: Silicon Valley TechWomen

The TechWomen program staff have been working for about nine months to get ready for 38 Mentees from 6 countries and territories who will be arriving soon from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to work in the Silicon Valley in June 2011. We have already held the Mentor Training and are getting ready for Mentee orientation.  After that, I will be one of the teachers for the Mentor-Mentee Workshop, to be held the day before the Mentees start work.

I have been answering questions for weeks from Mentors and other company representatives about Export status, non-disclosure agreements, Human Resources policies, laptop usage and security, project plans, plus all of the other details we need to sort through so that the companies will be ready to host their Mentees.

I am eager to meet the Mentees that Huawei will host. We have an office for them. I have seen their pictures. I know their backgrounds but I still have no idea if I am pronouncing their names correctly…

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TechWomen Mentor Training

TechWomen documents

I was one of the teachers for the first TechWomen Mentor Workshop today. HP Labs in Palo Alto generously hosted the event. We were joined by most of the 38 Technical Mentors and more than a dozen Cultural Mentors from over 40 Silicon Valley companies.  These impressive professional women will coach the 38 Mentees from 6 countries and territories who will be arriving in June from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It was a day full of good questions, excitement, and anticipation.

TechWomen is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE), and implemented in partnership with the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI).  I have been the Mentoring Process Architect for TechWomen since September 2010, working with ABI.  It is a joy to see the program finally starting!

Among many topics, we discussed schedules and expectations, technical and business competencies, vocabulary, learning goals, mentoring and community resources. The TechWomen program team put together a Mentor Guide which included many of these materials. Additional community resources which came out in discussion:

Some elements of the TechWomen program were inspired by the SEED mentoring program I created and managed for Sun Microsystems for 10 years. Details on SEED are available in the free Sun Labs Technical Report “Sun Mentoring: 1996-2009” (published in 2009).

HP Labs Palo Alto . Katy Dickinson TechWomen Huawei badge

Images Copyright 2011 Katy Dickinson

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