Tag Archives: Jessica

December 22, 2012 · 11:58 pm

Merry Christmas

Best wishes to you and your family for a happy holiday season, from all of us here in the Silicon Valley!

Between trying to get the construction workers finished enough to be out of our house by Christmas, and all of the usual holiday preparations and activities, December 2012 has been particularly busy. There has finally been sufficient progress on the new porch to allow us to have family and guests in the house. The roof and final plastering were finished just before dinner yesterday – barely in time for us to go Christmas caroling on the cable car in San Francisco. Jessica and Matthew were able to get off from work to join us for Christmas – for which we are very joyful!

I went shopping in Chinatown with Sally and Lorene (our tradition for over twenty years). We were sad to see the closed up Sam Wo restaurant where we used to eat raw fish salad for lunch during our annual walking tour of Grant Street stores.
John and I were delighted to hear our young friends Max and Beth perform as part of the Cantabile Youth Singers at the ornate St. Joseph Basilica in San Jose.
My son Paul and I picked out and walked home a Christmas tree – which sat in a bucket of water on the driveway for two weeks until the contractors left and we could move all of the furniture back. Jessica and Matthew and Paul brought the tree inside and decorated it tonight. The decorations are eclectic but cheerful. I still need to put out the nativity figures John bought in Bethlehem.
My EfM class went to see the Bethlehem Christmas story re-enactment, and then went out to dinner together and exchanged gifts.
Last Sunday was the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church children’s pageant.
We have very much enjoyed Willow Glen’s enthusiastic Christmas light displays – which give every street its own twinkly charm as we go about our holiday business.
Today we went to the Dickens Fair at the Cow Palace in San Francisco to enjoy a Victorian Christmas, high tea, and last-minute shopping.
Tomorrow, John starts cooking for our Christmas feast on Tuesday!

2 Comments

Filed under Church, Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as Charles Dickens, Education for Ministry, Episcopal church, Jessica, John, Matthew, Paul, San Francisco, San Jose, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Willow Glen

November 30, 2012 · 2:30 pm

Hopper Conference, TechWomen Press

I have been honored to have been included in two news stories recently:

“Sharing the Hopper Conference” – a story about my daughter Jessica and me attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing together, on the fascinating website Anitasquilt.org
United Nations – Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia Weekly News story (Issue 45/52) “Women and ICT”, about the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing 2012 panel “Arab Women in Computing: Challenges vs. Aspirations” for which I was the moderator. The UN ESCWA story is about the participation of the impressive Sukaina Al-Nasrawi, Associate Social Affairs Officer at the ESCWA Centre for Women in Beirut, Lebanon. Sukaina was one of the amazing participants in the U.S. State Department’s 2011 TechWomen mentoring program, four of whom returned as GHC12 panelists (the others were: Reham Nasser of Egypt, Maysoun Ibrahim of Palestine, and Hania Gati of Algeria). Read more about the panel in my 4 October 2012 blog entry and in Larissa’s 7 October 2012 blog entry.

Here are screen shots of the news stories:

Big Southern California Wedding

My brother Pete Dickinson married Julie Gutman last weekend at a big wedding in Southern California. The guests included dignitaries and creative folks and vast numbers of lawyers (since both Pete and Julie are in that line of work) in addition to family. Most of the joyous event was held at the Terranea Resort in a lovely coastal setting.

Except for the bride in white, the wedding party wore red and black – in honor of my father Wade Dickinson who passed away a year ago (his favorite color was red). The mothers of the bride and groom had a lovely time together, surrounded by all of their children and grandchildren. The Mayor of Los Angeles and the whole City Council signed a beautiful certificate of congratulations and best wishes. California Speaker of the Assembly John Perez participated in the ceremony, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was a guest. My daughter Jessica sang a song to the couple.

The less extroverted guests retreated into corners to commune with their smart phones and avoid all of the excitement. A good time was had by all.

2 Comments

Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as Eleanor, Jessica, John, marriage, Matthew, Paul, Pete, Wade

October 12, 2012 · 8:01 am

TechWomen’s last day in Washington DC

The TechWomen enjoyed their last day in Washington DC and are now slowly making their way home to either the Silicon Valley area (mentors), or to Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, and Yemen in the MENA region (mentees). I miss them already!

Wednesday was full of TechWomen-normal activities: networking, exchanging ideas and experiences, and taking pictures. It is usual for me to be given three to six cameras and smart phones and asked to photograph a posed group of lovely intelligent women. The group I am photographing may start small but if the setting is good, it often doubles and triples as other TechWomen join in. Taking TechWomen group pictures is an enjoyable if frenetic experience. My daughter Jessica lives in Washington DC and was invited to two of the TechWomen dinners – which made picture taking even more enjoyable.

We met in the morning in the Loy Henderson conference room at the US State Department for a political discussion, then had a magnificent lunch in the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room. The TechWomen were welcomed and honored by Ann Stock, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, and Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. We regretfully did not get to meet the program sponsor, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Ann Stock was patient and a very good sport – she stayed after the lunch to take dozens of pictures with the TechWomen. I love the diplomatic rooms at the US State Department, with cases full of china and silver (some by Paul Revere), and walls covered with portraits of American historical greats. The copy of the Declaration of Independence is my particular favorite.

After lunch, we returned to the Henderson room for Sheila Casey (Deputy Director, Office of Citizen Exchanges at U.S. Department of State) and Heather Ramsey (Director at Institute of International Education) to give the mentees their participation certificates (signed by Secretary Clinton). Our going away party was around the very windy roof pool of the Donovan House hotel (the party eventually moved downstairs since we were all freezing!).

2 Comments

Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Algeria, Egypt, Geeks, Jessica, Jordan, Lebanon, Mentoring, Middle East, Morocco, Palestine, technical women, TechWomen

October 9, 2012 · 5:10 am

TechWomen Leadership Workshop

Yesterday, the TechWomen spent a day at Georgetown University in a leadership workshop with Barbara Fittipaldi. Barbara Fittipaldi was one of those who inspired Dr. Anita Borg to start what is now the Anita Borg Institute.

Afterwards, some of the TechWomen spent the evening exploring Georgetown. My daughter Jessica and my mentee and I went exploring on the mall to see the sights at night, particularly the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. We were moved by Dr. King’s words carved on the curving wall behind the big statue. Jessica and I sang “We Shall Overcome” – the anthem for the African-American Civil Rights Movement. We also visited the Washington Monument and White House to see them wearing lights in the dark.

MLK door mural on the Luther Place Memorial Church (Washington DC), seen 9 October 2012:

1 Comment

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

Tagged as Jessica, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen

October 7, 2012 · 8:21 pm

National Zoo Visit

My daughter Jessica, her husband Matthew, and I visited the National Zoo (Smithsonian National Zoological Park) today in Washington DC. Highlights were the Cheetahs, Pandas, Otters, and the reptile house. The two zoo functions of conservation and education were much in evidence, with displays and interactive exhibits everywhere along with information about zoo breeding programs for rare animals. There is still sadness over the unexpected death of a panda cub at the zoo last month.

Last Day of Hopper Conference 2012

After some very promising networking and fascinating presentations, the TechWomen mentors and mentees enjoyed dinner together and then walked to the final party of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing – held at the Maryland Science Center on the harbor in Baltimore MD.

I particularly enjoyed yesterday’s talk by Jane Margolis about changes in the technical world in the ten years since her publication with Allan Fisher of the groundbreaking book Unlocking the Clubhouse. There has been both growth and retreat for the community of technical women during that time. Some of the advances are in:

Visible Leadership: Exemplified by Maria Klawe becoming President of Harvey Mudd College, Shirley Tilghman becoming President of Princeton, Ginni Rometty becoming Chairman and CEO of IBM, and Meg Whitman becoming President and CEO of HP. (See the Famous Women in Computer Science list for more…)
Growing Role Models: Exemplified by the Spelbots, the African-American Women’s Robotics Team of Spelman College.
Successful Education and Networking: Exemplified by the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing growing from a few hundred attendees in 1994 to 3,600 participants this year – and GHC being sold out in advance for the third year running. 2012 is also the 25th anniversary of Systers – the world’s largest email community of technical women in computing. Another notable success is the National Center for Women & Information Technology organization and NCWIT’s Aspirations in Computing award program for technical girls.