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!
Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
At the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Houston, Texas, with my daughter Jessica and 12,000 other geeks, mostly women – including over 20 TechWomen mentors, fellows, and emerging leaders! Jessica and I presented a custom playing card to US CTO Megan Smith (and took the photo below with her).
15 October 2015 Update: We planned to sell our Notable Technical Women and TechWomen playing cards and posters at the GHC15 Duke University exhibit hall table (with Dr. Susan Rodger) on 15 October and 16 October. We are very disappointed that the shipment of Notable Technical Women and TechWomen playing cards did not arrive – although the posters did. The posters will be for sale on Friday 16 October until 2 pm at the Duke University exhibit hall table. Playing cards continue to be available for sale on the Notable Technical Women website. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this shipping mess up!
Photos Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson
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:
Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
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!
Images Copyright 2015 Katy Dickinson – with thanks to Kathy Jenks and Eileen Brewer!
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, Mentoring Standard, News & Reviews
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.
Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
99 TechWomen Emerging Leaders have arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 19 countries. I am one of the Cultural Mentors working with the South Bay contingent. Erin Keeley and I spent time after their orientation today – giving a tour of the CalTrain and VTA Light Rail Stations, going to lunch, and going to the market to stock the kitchens in their apartments. Hanging out with amazingly smart and capable technical women from Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe is such a delight!
Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
Yesterday, I enjoyed presenting the “How to Be an Effective Mentor: Best Practices Workshop” – the first of two such events for TechWomen 2015 mentors. Juniper Networks generously hosted us yesterday in Sunnyvale, California. Tomorrow’s workshop for TechWomen mentors is being hosted by IIE in San Francisco. At the end of the workshop, I congratulated Dr. Jeannice Fairrer Samani, the most recent Certified Mentor of Mentoring Standard – and presented her certificate. Jeannice has been a TechWomen mentor for many years and we are honored to include her on the Honor Roll. Mentoring Standard‘s first Certified Mentor was Eileen Brewer – who was also present yesterday to welcome Jeannice into our growing community of remarkable contributors with deep experience, who have done the work of helping people to achieve their goals and grow their careers.
What Certification Means
Mentoring Standard certifies mentors who can prove they hold within themselves the following 3 qualities:
More: Get Certified.
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Certification Benefits to Mentors
More: Get Certified.
Images Copyright 2015 Katy Dickinson and Kathy Jenks
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