Tag Archives: Middle East

August 7, 2012 · 10:23 pm

TechWomen Mentor Training

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TechWomen mentor training was today, hosted by Walmart in San Bruno, California. About TechWomen:

Harnessing the power of business, technology and innovation, TechWomen brings emerging women leaders in technology sectors from the Middle East and North Africa together with their American counterparts for a professional mentorship and exchange program at leading companies in the United States.

Pairing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of “smart power diplomacy” with “21st Century Statecraft,” TechWomen works to empower women and girls through technology.  It connects and supports the next generation of women in technology sectors by providing them the access and opportunity needed to pursue careers in technology.

TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).  … partnering with the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) to implement this initiative.

This is the second year for TechWomen, with Silicon Valley companies hosting women from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine, and Yemen. I was the Process Architect for TechWomen from 2010-2011. Today, I gave a short talk on the Best and Worst Practices in Mentoring. I am proud to be a Professional Mentor myself this year. Each mentee has both a Professional and a Cultural mentor assigned to her. Huawei hosted three mentees last year in Santa Clara (two from Lebanon and one from Egypt) and will host three more this year (one each from Egypt, Lebanon, and Morocco). We are very much looking forward to meeting them in September!

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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July 21, 2012 · 1:36 pm

Non-Travel Diary 4

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While my husband John is in China on business for Huawei, I am keeping a non-travel diary. This has been a relatively quiet week. In addition to working full-time at Huawei:

  • There was a small amount of progress on our home construction projects. The painter spent a half day painting the wrong color stain on the baseboards.  When I pointed out the error, he spent about the same amount of time sanding that color off and re-staining. Nobody was happy.
  • Thursday, I joined the monthly Board meeting of the Santa Maria Urban Ministry. We said an appreciative goodbye to our summer intern.  The SMUM Tech Team (of which John and I are members) was assigned some new projects by the Board.
  • My newly-assigned 2012 TechWomen mentee from Lebanon and I made first contact. We exchanged introductory emails and are starting to make preparations for her visit to the Silicon Valley in September. Her background is impressive – I very much look forward to working with her in person.  TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
  • I communicated with the 2011 TechWomen mentees with whom I am presenting a panel at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in October 2012 (Baltimore, MD).  I am the moderator of the panel called “Technical Women in the Arab Region: Challenges vs. Aspirations”. We have travel funding confirmed for three of the panelists and we are working on support for our fourth. The ladies are traveling from Algeria, Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon for GHC12.  I am very eager to see them again!
  • Paul and I took our Wood Shop basic safety and equipment introduction at TechShop San Jose last night.  We enjoyed learning to use the miter saw, table saw, band saw, electric sander, and drill press.  The scroll saw is being repaired so we will learn how to use that later.  I made a heart for John and Paul started work on an infinity symbol using the band saw.  One of the other students laser-engraved the heart for me.  I want to take a TechShop laser class next!
  • This morning, we had a community yard sale. Despite being on Craigslist and putting signs up on nearby corners, it was very poorly attended. However, it was fun to hang out with the neighbors. Our neighborhood apparently has 7 boys and 1 girl aged between 6 and 12 years old – who spent the morning rocketing from sale to sale comparing stuff and giving updates.
  • John comes home Tuesday morning!

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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May 12, 2012 · 9:39 pm

Women of Vision 2012

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The annual ABI Women of Vision event was last week – inspiring and interesting, as always. Huawei sponsored my attending the “Top Company for Technical Women” workshop in addition to the evening banquet and awards ceremony. Winners this year:

Leadership Award:
Jennifer Chayes, Distinguished Scientist and Managing Director, Microsoft Research New England
Innovation Award:
Sarita Adve, Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Social Impact Award:
Sarah Revi Sterling, Faculty Director, ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado at Boulder
Anita Borg Top Company For Technical Women Award:
American Express

It was particularly enjoyable to spend social time with women who participated in the 2011 TechWomen program – and who have applied to be mentors again in 2012.

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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March 5, 2012 · 12:20 am

Drafting Proposals for the Hopper Conference (GHC12)

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I am working with two teams on panel proposals for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing, to be held 3-4 October 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland. Submissions are due 16 March. I have been going to the Hopper Conference for many years and have presented regularly. I am particularly excited about GHC12 because all of this year’s TechWomen mentees will be attending. My daughter Jessica usually attend GHC together.

Here is what we have so far for the two proposals:

Panel Proposal #1

“Silicon Valley Inside Out: Surviving the Distance” presents a panel of very senior technical women who work in R&D in the Silicon Valley, for companies based outside of the USA. Topics to be discussed include: culture and language, effective communication, distance collaboration and management, localization, norms and taboos, conflict resolution, issues and risk-mitigation.

Panel Proposal #2

“Mentoring Between Cultures: TechWomen” is a panel on mentoring between technical women, using the successful TechWomen program as an example. The panel members are senior women who work for Silicon Valley technical companies and served as mentors to one or more women from the Middle East or North Africa (MENA) during the first TechWomen term in 2011. Topics to be discussed include: best practices and tips for mentors and mentees, mentoring program design, effective mentoring across cultures and time zones, the benefits of women mentoring women and technical mentorships, the career advantages of mentoring for both mentees and mentors, how mentoring drives transformation, etc.

GHC presentation proposals are accepted based on evaluation by several judges. Competition is ferocious. I hope we are accepted.  Wish us luck!

Image by Katy Dickinson Copyright 2011

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February 18, 2012 · 12:39 am

Silicon Valley Supports Technical Women

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In the last week, I have been to three interesting events supporting technical women and girls here in the Silicon Valley:

It feels good to have strong support from such a wide variety of organizations for women in technology.

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Images by Katy Dickinson 2012 Copyright

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February 14, 2012 · 9:14 pm

TechWomen 2012 Applications

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The Institute for International Education and Anita Borg Institute are again working together on the U.S. State Department’s TechWomen mentoring program for women in the Middle East and North Africa. Yesterday, Microsoft hosted the Mentor recruitment kick-off event, including a video of invitation and welcome by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, plus an in-person address by Lee Satterfield, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Professional and Cultural Exchanges at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Dozens of technical women from Silicon Valley technical companies attended. It was wonderful to catch up with the 2011 mentors, listen to the panel, and meet potential new 2012 participants.

Women working in technology fields from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Tunisia, and Yemen are encouraged to apply to be TechWomen mentees – Applications are due February 15, 2012. The TechWomen Mentor Application Opens March 1, 2012

It was fun to see the What is TechWomen? video (in which I was one of the speakers!) and to discover my picture at the top of the 2012 mentor handout for the event.  This year’s TechWomen mentees will all be going to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (3-6 October 2012 in Baltimore Maryland).

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Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

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January 25, 2012 · 11:39 pm

Wrought Iron Window Grates

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As regular readers know, I am fond of both public art and especially metal work. I took many pictures of the ornamental ironwork window coverings when I was in Morocco late last year. I even saw some urban blacksmiths at work on the street. Last weekend, during a visit to the Northern California’s Wine Country, I was amused to see small weathered Tunisian window grates for sale as decorations for $95 to $490 per. What a difference a little travel makes!

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Images 2011-2012 Copyright Katy Dickinson

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