Tag Archives: Jessica

September 30, 2013 · 2:21 pm

Mentoring Research Poster and SOL Panel at GHC13

For the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (“GHC-13″) this week, I look forward to presenting a poster (“Lifetime Value of Mentoring to Technical Women”) and also a Student Opportunity Lab (SOL) topic: “Empowering Technical Women Through Global Mentoring” (with Trish Tierney of the Institute of International Education). Since I was at the People to People (P2P) conference last weekend in Washington DC and am traveling to GHC in Minneapolis tomorrow, my husband John Plocher generously managed the printing of the big poster and the SOL panel handouts. While I was in Washington DC, our daughter Jessica Dickinson Goodman tweaked the poster graphics for better effect. John posted the final versions on our website:

“Empowering Technical Women Through Global Mentoring” Student Opportunity Lab (SOL) Handout:
http://www.spcoast.com/pub/Katy/GHC13.Handout.Mentoring.Final.27sep2013.pdf
“Lifetime Value of Mentoring” Poster:
http://www.spcoast.com/pub/Katy/GHC13.mentoringposter.Sep2013.Final.small.pdf

The “Empowering Technical Women Through Global Mentoring” material was developed in collaboration with four TechWomen co-presenters from the Middle East who regretfully are unable to attend GHC13 in person. Thanks to Sukaina Al-Nasrawi of Lebanon and Maysoun Ibrahim of Palestine (TechWomen Inaugural Class 2011), Adla Chatila of Lebanon and Heba Hosny of Egypt (TechWomen Class 2012) for their welcome support and valuable advice. Thanks also to Trish, John, and Jessica! I am blessed to have so many talented people supporting this work!

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Tagged as Egypt, Geeks, Jessica, John, Lebanon, Mentoring, Palestine, technical women, TechWomen

September 26, 2013 · 11:29 am

Lifetime Value of Mentoring

I am almost done with my Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing poster on “Lifetime Value of Mentoring“, to be presented next week. GHC13 is sold out again – as it has been every year since at least 2009! I am very much looking forward to attending next week. My daughter Jessica Dickinson Goodman will be presenting her own GHC13 poster.

In addition to the poster, Trish Tierney (Executive Director of the Institute of International Education in San Francisco) and I are presenting a SOL (Student Opportunity Lab) on “Empowering Technical Women Through Global Mentoring”. The material of this GHC13 SOL was developed in collaboration with four TechWomen co-presenters from the Middle East who regretfully are unable to attend this SOL in person. Thanks to Sukaina Al-Nasrawi of Lebanon and Maysoun Ibrahim of Palestine (TechWomen Inaugural Class 2011), Adla Chatila of Lebanon and Heba Hosny of Egypt (TechWomen Class 2012) for their welcome support and valuable advice.

Since the poster is large (40″ x 36″) and the image font above is small, here is the text so far for my poster:

Summary

This presentation of the lifetime value of mentoring is intended to broaden understanding and encourage more participation in mentoring programs by companies, organizations, and academic institutions. Also, to encourage more technical and academic women to join formal mentoring programs as mentors and mentees! There are two sets of information:

Best practices, as seen in formal mentoring programs

Examples of measurably successful mentoring programs benefiting a wide variety of ages and career stages

In a recent LinkedIn survey of 1,000 women, 82% said having a mentor was important (but 19% had never had a mentor). Participation in a lifelong sequence of formal mentoring programs (at school, university, and at work or in professional life) is normal and valuable. That is: mentoring should not be considered a one-time experience. Sequential mentoring programs are not usually formally related to each other. However, patterns from key programs show that successful mentees will go on to become mentors and many mentors serve over and over – in a variety of programs. Mentors also become Mentees as needed. Thus, disconnected programs may be informally in the same network because of having participants in common. There are many styles of mentoring that can support specific needs, including: Formal One-on-one, Speed Mentoring, One-to-Many, Peer Mentoring, and Group Mentoring. The successful mentoring programs listed here are unusual in that detailed data is publicly available and each program continued for a long time. Unfortunately, although the practice of mentoring is much discussed (almost always favorably), most public reports are anecdotal, superficial, or both. Published results from professional programs, in particular those for staff inside corporations, are few. That is, data about the success of mentoring programs are not consistently available across all areas. In many instances, the continued funding of a mentoring program for many years may be the only publicly-available measure of its success.

Background

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is usually a longer-term relationship focused on professional or life issues. The mentor is much more experienced than the mentee but may or may not be an expert in the same professional area. The important power difference between them is one of wisdom rather than position. Mentoring is at the top of most lists of effective tools for promoting women’s professional development and advancement.

Why be a mentor?

Mentors are typically professional volunteers who get satisfaction from “paying it forward” – that is, providing others with guidance such as that which benefited them during their own development.

What do mentors do?

Mentors advise and inspire. In practical terms, Mentors make introductions, give recommendations to people and resources, and give feedback for the Mentee to consider.

Results

Mentoring program benefits reported by individuals, companies, and organizations include:

Improved satisfaction, higher morale, greater motivation

Higher retention, improved organizational and community bonding and loyalty

Particular value to women and minorities – works to improve organizational variety in 3 areas: demographic, geographic, and professional

Broadening the diversity of innovation and ideas available to the organization

Improved communication between target groups (eroding organizational silos) – community establishment, strengthening

Improved participant performance (in reviews, grades, or deliverables) and value-to-organization

Personal learning, professional development

Leadership building

References

Bottomley, Lisa, “Maintaining Your Long-term Mentoring Relationship”, Michigan State University Extension Blog 31 Jan. 2013.

Corwin, Sara J., Kathryn Frahm, Leslie A Ochs, et al. “Medical Student and Senior Participants’ Perceptions of a Mentoring Program Designed to Enhance Geriatric Medical Education”, Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, Vol.26 No.3, 2006.

Dickinson, Katy, Ravishankar Gundlapalli “Professional Mentoring – Fostering Triangular Partnership” (chapter in Triangular Partnership: the Power of the Diaspora book), People to People, 2013. http://www.spcoast.com/pub/Katy/MentorCloud.P2P.ProfMentoring.Triangular.pdf

Dickinson, Katy “How Speed Mentoring Works”, 2009. http://www.spcoast.com/pub/Katy/howspeedmentoringworks.16dec2009.pdf

Dickinson, Katy, Tanya Jankot, Helen Gracon “Sun Mentoring: 1996-2009”, Sun Microsystems Laboratories Technical Report SMLI TR-2009-185, 2009. http://spcoast.com/pub/Katy/SunMentoring1996-2009.smli_tr-2009-185.pdf

DiversityInc., “Case Study: Sodexo’s Mentoring Program” 2012.

Emory University “Emory Senior Mentor Program” 2012. YouTube Video

Foster, Lisa, “Effectiveness of Mentor Programs – Review of the Literature from 1995 to 2000”, California Research Bureau, CRB-01-004. March 2001.

Hansen, Keoki, Kristin Romens, Sandra LaFleur, “Final Report on the Enhanced School-Based Mentoring Pilot: Developing and Substantiating an Evidence-based Model”, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2011.

Herrera, Carla, David L. DuBois, Jean B. Grossman, “The Role of Risk: Mentoring Experiences and Outcomes for Youth with Varying Risk Profiles”, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2013.

Hewlett, Sylvia Ann, Kerrie Peraino, Laura Sherbin, et al., “The Sponsor Effect: Breaking Through the Last Glass Ceiling”, Harvard Business Review, 12 June 2013.

Jasper, Emily, “LinkedIn Report: Women without a Mentor”, Forbes, 25 October 2011.

Murrell, Audrey J., Sheila Forte-Trammell, Diana A. Bing, Intelligent Mentoring: How IBM Creates Value through People, Knowledge, and Relationships, IBM Press, 2008.

NCWIT, “Evaluating a Mentoring Program Guide”, National Center for Women & Information Technology, 2011.

Pololi, Linda, Sharon Knight, “Mentoring Faculty in Academic Medicine: A New Paradigm?”, J Gen Intern Med. 2005 September; 20(9).

Sodexo “Spirit of Mentoring Video”, 2008. YouTube Video

Straus, Sharon E., Mallory O. Johnson, Christine Marquez, et al. “Characteristics of Successful and Failed Mentoring Relationships: A Qualitative Study Across Two Academic Health Centers”, Academic Medicine Vol.88, No.1, 2013.

Wiley, Tonya T., “Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring”, MENTOR, 2009.

Williams, Nicole. “INFOGRAPHIC: Women and Mentoring in the U.S.”, 25 Oct. 2011 LinkedIn Blog

Images Copyright 2011-2013 by Katy Dickinson
Updated 15 May 2018

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August 13, 2013 · 1:28 pm

Lair of the Golden Bear, 9th Week

School start dates keep moving earlier, so over our 21 summers at the University of California at Berkeley family camp, the Lair of the Golden Bear, we have moved in Camp Blue from 12th week to 11th to 10th and this year, to 9th week. The transition to 9th week meant a new location for our three tents: we are now creekside. Creekside is farther from the bathrooms but has a prettier view.

9th week is both the same and different from 10th. We were too early to see the annual Perseid Meteor Shower and we missed Ed’s 10th week Margarita Party but 9th week features a Pirate Party and there is more water in the rivers. This year, we went rafting on the Stanislaus River. The rapids were no rougher than Class 2 but we enjoyed our day out of camp. We also drove to the Trail of the Gargoyles to see the sunset – made very colorful by a forest fire about twenty miles away.

We attended one of the talks (Dr. Larry Michalak on “Tunisia and the Arab Spring”), danced during Disco Bingo, celebrated Jessica and Matthew’s 2nd wedding anniversary and Paul’s 21st birthday with a Lair Cake, enjoyed arts and crafts, and played board games for many hours in the lodge. My brother Pete and his wife Julie went running to Pinecrest Lake early every morning but most of us slept in until the first breakfast bell.

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July 25, 2013 · 11:08 am

Local News, Distant News

For neighborhood news here in Willow Glen, California, we have email lists. I manage a list for the houses in our immediate area – where yesterday I announced finding a thrown-away kitten (and settled the cute little guy in a new home that night) – and there are other lists for our Northeast Quadrant, and for our whole section of the City of San Jose (Willow Glen takes up about 3 square miles).

For national news, I listen to National Public Radio on station KQED. I sometimes check in at the New York Times but their 10-story-a-month free-limit blocks my regular usage. I have been a KQED sustaining member for decades and don’t want to pay more than that for news.

For international updates, I read Al Jazeera (English) and the BBC – two services with similar web designs but different points of view and sources. My daughter Jessica recommended Al-Jazeera, a service started by the royal family of Qatar where she studied at CMU-Q. Maybe Qatar’s backing is why Al Jazeera has no advertisements? Current stories I found interesting on Al-Jazeera:

Is religion good or evil? – Mehdi Hasan challenges evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins at the Oxford Union
Monk by Blood – One young Japanese struggles with his destiny as the next in line to take over his family’s 800-year old temple
Church of England takes on money lenders – Archbishop of Canterbury wants to offer church loans in bid to put high interest lenders out of business.

Creative Writing Exchange

This month I am enjoying experimenting with new writing – part of an exchange my daughter Jessica set up among eight pairs of friends. We are committed to write for at least ten minutes a day in answer to her email prompt and also to giving only positive feedback to our writing partner. For example, on 6 July 2013, Jessica’s prompt was: “What are the women saying to each other? One is wearing cultural dress, another a stove-pipe hat, and the third sunglasses.”

My response was the short story below. Following Mark Twain’s advice to “Write What You Know”, I borrowed the names of some TechWomen friends but this is a work of fiction – not about particular women! Only the conferences and places are real: I have travelled recently to both Portland, Oregon and Amman, Jordan.

Afnan, Noor, and Colleen were shopping in Amman. The three geeks had met at the OpenStack conference in Portland, Oregon, the year before. Professional discussions between technical sessions, about programming and politics, had moved into complaints about guys and how pleasant it was for once not to be the only woman in the room. The usual complaints had become more personal and by the time they went to Powell’s Books and lunch together, the three were friends.

Afnan and Noor were both graduates of Princess Sumaya University, although from different years. Colleen had gone to Cal and was fascinated by the other girls’ stories about Jordan and the developing technical culture of the Middle East – so different from her experiences in the People’s Republic of Bezerkley and California. By the time OpenStack ended, the three were collaborating on an open source project together, firmly connected in Facebook, LinkedIn and all of the other web-based glue of the technical world. When Colleen’s Cal thesis advisor was invited to speak TEDxAmman the following year and offered her a ticket to the big event, she grabbed the chance.

Colleen was a true nerd, wearing what was comfortable and clean, but sometimes adding a bizarre element to keep her all-male co-workers noticing that she was still a girl. Some days it was yellow socks with pink and white nigiri sushi images, today it was a stove-pipe hat. Colleen was a firm believer in the principle that you can be as weird as you are good. She was a very good programmer. At first, that Afnan and Noor wore hijab and more stylish clothes did not concern Colleen. It was their kind of uniform, just as jeans and funny socks or hats were hers. Noor wearing her sunglasses propped on top of her headscarf was kind of like a hat.

Colleen told Noor and Afnan that her professor’s TEDx talk had gone well and that she was meeting amazing new people, men and women whose work had made a difference, who were trying to change the world. But for the first time since High School, Colleen was a little worried about her clothes. Maybe the hat wasn’t right for this high-end crowd. She asked her elegant friends to go shopping, to help her spend some money. Colleen did not want to wear hijab or that western-uniform, the skirted suit, but the long dress and coat that Afnan wore or Noor’s fitted slacks and jackets looked good. Colleen was ready for a change.

Goodbye to Valentino

Yesterday, John and I said a sad goodbye to our last cat, Valentino. Tino was the prettiest, sweetest, and dumbest cat we ever had. His long fluffy tail always curled backwards like a teapot handle. In addition to being beautiful and irrepressibly loving, Tino had some very bad habits. Eating electronics was one (see “Arduino vs. Tino“, 2011), shedding everywhere and making stinky messes in corners were others. He earned the nickname “Piddle Kitty”.

The kids and I adopted Valentino and his sister Garbo eighteen years ago, after some creep dumped the kittens near the Donner Pass road, high in the Sierras in winter. Jessica has written a tribute to Tino: “Sadness for a heaven-bound cat and a recipe for feeling better“.

When John and I got engaged, Tino was one of four cats in our family – to which John was highly allergic. We made a deal: John agreed to live with my cats and I agreed not to replace them after they passed. I have had pet cats all of my life but Tino was my last. I pray that our silly fuzzball is now happily cuddling in heaven with his sister Garbo who passed in 2007. Goodbye sweet friend. We miss you.

John and four cats in 2001:

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June 24, 2013 · 6:48 pm

Creekmore Family Reunion, Knoxville Tennessee

After our visit to Loon Lake, Wisconsin, with the Plocher family last week, John and I flew to Knoxville, Tennessee, for a reunion of my Creekmore relations. My mother, Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson, was born and raised at 1007 Circle Park in Knoxville, spending summers at our Elkmont family cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains. My brothers and I and our cousins and friends also spent many happy childhood weeks at the cabin and nearby swimming hole. My brother Mark is the oldest of our generation and I am next – we have a first cousin who is twenty years younger. More Elkmont history and photos are in my Elkmont, Tennesee 2011 blog entry.

It was delightful to get together with my mother and brothers, aunts and uncles, cousins and nieces and nephews. My mother, Mark, Jessica and Matthew met us in Knoxville. Unfortunately, Paul could not come because of final exams at Foothill College. My brother Pete was able to bring his whole family.

We went as a group to see “Dear Lodge” – the Creekmore’s Elkmont Cabin #6, now part of the “Elkmont Emergency Stabilization Project” of the US National Park Service’s “Elkmont Historic District: Appalachian Club”. Despite the many “US Property – No Trespassing” signs, the cabin’s back door was flat on the kitchen floor, plus a window and the front door of the cabin were open. However, we were happy that the holes in the floor my daughter saw during her visit in 2008 have been repaired.

We had a big family dinner at Latitude 35 in Knoxville after visiting the mountains. Part of the fun of a reunion is telling funny stories on each other. Here is one I shared:

When my brothers and cousins and I were little, our mothers, aunts, and uncles would sometimes take us to a drive-in at night, usually to see a Godzilla monster movie. There would be two cars: the adults would put us kids in one and lock themselves in the other so that they could watch the movie and eat their popcorn in peace. They rolled the windows down just enough to let in the movie speaker and some air. Of course, we kids would quietly get out of our car to sit on the hood or catch frogs in the grass. One evening, we had an idea. We snuck up on the grown-ups’ car and pushed some of our frogs into the window opening. Unfortunately, one of the frogs dropped into my Aunt Mary’s soda and then immediately jumped down the front of her blouse. The resulting commotion in the adult car was spectacularly noisy. We got in big trouble (but it was worth it!).

Yesterday, John and my mother and I went to service at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral where my parents were married in 1952. Then, we visited the family graves at Highland Memorial Cemetery on the way to the airport.