Tag Archives: Jessica

July 8, 2015 · 10:55 am

Become a Mentor with TechWomen!

The Mentor Application for the 2015 TechWomen is now open!

I have been working with the TechWomen program since 2010 and I highly recommend it as a life-changing and exceptionally rewarding professional and personal experience! These photos are of TechWomen mentees and friends from Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Algeria – some of the most impressive and capable women I know!

Apply by July 19th for priority consideration.

Professional Mentor Application

Eligibility Requirements

Professional Mentor applicants must be

Women working in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Able to host an Emerging Leader at their company’s site.

Able to coach the Emerging Leader on the project four days per week for four weeks in October 2015.

Learn more about the Professional Mentor role.

Cultural Mentor Application

Eligibility Requirements

Cultural Mentors applicants must be

Women living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Willing to coordinate within a group to foster relationships and plan activities of interest to their respective Emerging Leaders.

Excited about serving as a cultural ambassador and showcasing all the Bay Area has to offer.

Willing to help Emerging Leaders navigate logistical challenges as they settle into life in the Bay Area.

Learn more about the Cultural Mentor role.

TechWomen Mission

The mission of TechWomen is to empower, connect, and support the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by providing them access and opportunity to advance their careers, pursue their dreams, and become role models for women and girls in their communities.

How TechWomen Does It

TechWomen brings emerging women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from Africa and the Middle East together with their professional counterparts in the United States for a mentorship and exchange program. TechWomen provides participants access to networks, resources, and knowledge to empower them to reach their full potential.

During the five-week program, participants engage in project-based mentorships at leading companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, participate in professional development workshops and networking events, and travel to Washington, D.C. for targeted meetings and special events to conclude the program.

Over the past three years, 156 women from Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, the Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tunisia, Yemen, and Zimbabwe have participated in TechWomen. The 2015 program will expand to include women from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Mentoring Across the World

The TechWomen experience doesn’t end in California or Washington, D.C. After the program, Emerging Leaders and Mentors have the opportunity to reconnect during delegation trips to program countries in Africa and the Middle East. Programming focuses on expanding networks of women in the STEM fields, creating and strengthening partnerships, encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers, and ensuring the sustainability of Mentor-Emerging Leader relationships.

TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). TechWomen, launched in 2011, supports the United States’ global commitment toward advancing the rights and participation of women and girls around the world by enabling them to reach their full potential in the tech industry.

TechWomen is managed by the Center for Women’s Leadership Initiatives (WLI) at the Institute of International Education ® (IIE).

Images Copyright Katy Dickinson 2012-2015

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Tagged as Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Jessica, Jordan, Lebanon, Mentoring, Middle East, Morocco, Palestine, Rwanda, San Francisco, technical women, TechWomen

June 17, 2015 · 4:35 pm

3 Realizations About Seattle

Last week, I stayed with my wonderful daughter Jessica and son-in-law Matthew while visiting Seattle, Washington, to speak on “History of Women in Computing and Women Leaders in Computing” at Microsoft Research. I was last in Seattle on New Year’s Eve 1999, when John and group of friends rented the Virginia City and another private rail car for a three day celebration trip from San Jose, California. In 1999, we saw very little of the city, so this was my first real tour. Jessica generously drove me into the Cascade Range the first day (where we walked a tiny part of the Pacific Crest Trail), and we walked around the city proper after that.

I gained three realizations about Seattle:

Although it is 54 miles from Seattle, I learned how big and present Mount Ranier is during this trip. Even on the hottest day, the huge snow-clad volcano looms at the ends of long streets and above buildings.
Another presence I did not expect was the many seagulls. We saw them at the port but they also flocked on rooftops at sundown to eat the rising bugs.
I am a big fan of civic ironwork and Seattle offers a remarkable selection for the connoisseur of this humble art form.

I learned that there is more to Seattle than coffee and software!

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Tagged as Jessica, John, Matthew, San Jose, technical women

June 16, 2015 · 6:52 pm

History of Women in Computing and Women Leaders in Computing

Last week, Dr. Telle Whitney (CEO and President, Anita Borg Institute), Dr. Susan Rodger (Professor of the Practice in the Computer Science Department at Duke University) and I gave talks on the “History of Women in Computing and Women Leaders in Computing” – as part of the Microsoft Research Gender Diversity Lecture Series, in Redmond, Washington. We were joined at the event by Jody Mahoney (of ABI, who lives in San Francisco) and my daughter Jessica Dickinson Goodman, (who lives in Seattle). We were invited to speak by Dr. Rane Johnson-Stempson and Dr. Jaime Teevan took good care of us while we were at MSR.

Susan, Jessica, and I have been working together since last summer on the Notable Technical Women project but (even though we created a successful Hopper Conference October 2014 Poster and Kickstarter together) we three had never met in-person before. We had great fun talking and walking around Seattle together after the Seminar. We are looking forward to getting a link to the video of our talks.

19 June 2015: Microsoft Research posted the video with Dr. Telle Whitney, Dr. Susan Rodger, and me speaking: “Microsoft Research Gender Diversity Lecture Series 5: History of Women in Computing and Women Leaders in Computing”

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Filed under Home & Family, Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Geeks, Jessica, Mentoring, San Francisco, teaching, technical women, TechWomen

April 6, 2015 · 4:21 pm

Easter Egg Hunt 2015

Yesterday morning was our annual backyard Easter Egg Hunt – a very popular event among our friends, family, and neighbors. Children ages 9 months to 20 years joined the search for hundreds of plastic eggs filled with chocolate candies. For the adults, there were two specially hidden eggs: gold and silver. Only the following poems gave clues to their locations:

Silver Egg
(buried in the dirt under a stepping stone of the steps up the riverbank)

The stone above me keeps me in the dark.
I would glow like moonlight if I could be
found. But long you’ll search in vain to find me,
because no single quality in your
thub-thubbing heart will guide you to my home:
a canine drive to find me in the ground;
a gardener’s love of dirt; you can possess
no loathing of Jerusalem Crickets’
shy heads; you must be brave to stoop to find
me here. Small hunters may contain within
themselves advantage for they are quite close
to where I make my hidey-home. But look—
you’ll find me if you search closely and dare,
to seek by bark if you would find my lair.

Gold Egg
(tied to a young palm tree frond about ten feet above the ground)

Surrounding me is evidence of past
strong growth, for when my home came here it was
a child, with slender fronds and coiled roots.
But now! My home is tall and casts a shade
quite deeply on the stones beneath my feet.
They do not reach the kennel or the bank
for my tall perch is not yet fully grown.
A teenager provides me with both shade
and shelter from the never-ending drought.
My home is safe from desiccating years
for she was bred from stock that has survived
millennia on California’s dry shores.

Desiree and Dan found the Gold and Silver eggs eventually. eleaThanks to the Associate Easter Bunny, my daughter Jessica for the poems (composed in Washington State), and thanks to Paul and John for helping create the festivities! I love watching the children finding eggs in the garden to fill their baskets, then re-hiding eggs for each other after most of the eggs have been collected. A delightful celebration of new life and renewal!

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Tagged as garden, Jessica, John, Paul

March 11, 2015 · 3:13 pm

Mentoring Standard – A New Venture

High quality mentoring changes lives. Until now there has been no clear way to measure mentoring and program effectiveness in an objective, comparable system, and there has been very little data published by mentoring programs. Mentoring Standard is a new venture with the vision to create an international norm and assessment of quality and achievement for both mentors and mentoring programs, with an associated system and process for accreditation and certification.

Kathy Jenks and I are Founders of Mentoring Standard. I announced this during my “Mentors and Role Models” talk earlier today as part of the Global Tech Women Voices – 2015 virtual conference. You can learn more about Mentoring Standard on our new website: mentoringstandard.com. We look forward to your inquiries!

Thanks to Jessica Dickinson Goodman who designed and created the Mentoring Standard branding and website.

Photo of Kathy Jenks Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson.
Photo of Katy Dickinson presenting in Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa by Max Mogale

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Tagged as Africa, Certified Mentors, Jessica, Mentoring, technical women, TechWomen

February 27, 2015 · 11:07 am

Notable Technical Women Project

I am happy to report that the Notable Technical Women Project – creators and distributors of the “Notable Women in Technology” and “TechWomen Emerging Leaders from Africa and the Middle East” educational playing cards and posters – is thriving!

Keep our history
Women have been leaders in tech from the start, but not enough of our contributions are remembered.
These cards can help.

“TechWomen Emerging Leaders from Africa and the Middle East” was the first publication of the TechWomen Alumnae group, and is the first daughter of the “Notable Women in Computing” project. Between them, we are distributing information to the world about 108 technical role models! You can get involved in the project through the Duke University “CRA-W and Anita Borg Institute Wikipedia Project – Writing Wikipedia Pages for Notable Women in Computing” website: http://www.cs.duke.edu/csed/wikipedia/

Recent Notable Technical Women Project developments:

Dr. Susan Rodger (Duke University) offered “Notable Women in Computing” cards to about 1,300 SIGCSE (ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education) conference registrants – and 800 placed orders (in both regular and jumbo size – for classroom use). The conference starts next week.
Great Press from Julie Bort of Business Insider on 12 February 2015, including all of the Notable Women cards: 54 Women Who Rocked the World – thanks for your many retweets!
Reach and Teach bookstore in San Mateo CA is the first to put our “Notable Women in Computing” cards on their physical shelves. Thanks to Craig Weisner and Derrick Kikuchi for their support!
Internet sales are brisk at http://www.notabletechnicalwomen.org/ – We had enough interest to place a big production order for the “TechWomen Emerging Leaders in Africa and the Middle East” posters and cards.
Jessica Dickinson Goodman is minding our online store and recording photos of educators and students all over the world using “Notable Women” cards and posters. You can see photos of cards and posters in the wild at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jessidg/notable-women-in-computing-card-deck/posts.
We have distributed over 3,000 cards since October 2014 (they were originally sold at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing -aka GHC14- conference). Our first full production shipment of TechWomen cards just arrived today! The first thirty decks were printed last month through the generous donations of TechWomen mentors – and Symantec sponsored the first poster printing. Today’s shipment is being paid for by actual customers.
Eileen Brewer (Symantec) and I took cards and posters on the TechWomen Delegation to South Africa last month and will take them on the Delegation to Tunisia next month also.

Thank you for your ongoing support!

Zimkhita Buwa, Seven of Diamonds, South Africa

Nomso Faith Kana, TechWomen Eight of Clubs, South Africa

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Tagged as Africa, Jessica, Mentoring, Middle East, South Africa, technical women, TechWomen, Tunisia

February 6, 2015 · 5:25 pm

TechWomen Delegation to South Africa

I am still catching up from my trip to South Africa with the TechWomen Delegation. Some of the highlights for me of this inspiring trip to Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and nearby Townships were spending time in a professional workshop or coaching session with girls and women, particularly at the Phateng Secondary School (in Mamelodi, Pretoria), TheBarn incubator (in Khayelitsha, Cape Town), and at the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (in Muizenberg, Cape Town) where I was honored to give a talk on mentoring. It was a great pleasure to spend the week with the other two 2011 TechWomen Alumnae in the SA Delegation – my dear friends Sukaina Al-Nasrawi and Maysoun Ibrahim. We have not seen each other in-person since Jessica and I visited them in Beirut in 2012.

Eileen Brewer and I gave away dozens of “TechWomen Emerging Leaders from Africa and the Middle East” posters and card decks (now for sale!) – often in a brief formal presentation at the end of the Delegation’s visit. We hope that these educational materials will continue to inspire women in their technical aspirations for many years to come. This trip marks the farthest South I have ever been!