Tag Archives: Morocco

New Playing Cards Honoring Women of Africa and the Middle East

As of January 2015, these cards are available for sale on Notable Technical Women.

Adla Mahmoud Chatila – Lebanon Draft Card Design - Adla Mahmoud Chatila - Lebanon - TechWomen Emerging Leader . Nezha Larhrissi Taghi – Morocco Photo Nezha Larhrissi Taghi- Morocco - TechWomen Emerging Leader
Patience Mthunzi – South Africa Photo Patience Mthunzi - South Africa - TechWomen Emerging Leader . Arwa Yahia Al-Eryani – Yemen Photo Arwa Yahia Al-Eryani - Yemen - TechWomen Emerging Leader
Maysoun Ibrahim – Palestine Photo Maysoun Ibrahim - Palestine - TechWomen Emerging Leader . Josephine Kamanthe Ndambuki – Kenya Photo Josephine Kamanthe Ndambuki - Kenya - TechWomen Emerging Leader

TechWomen Mentor Eileen Brewer, Jessica Dickinson Goodman and I are partnering with Arezoo Miot (IIE TechWomen Director), Jill Finlayson and Julia Lovin (Council Co-Chairs of the TechWomen Alumnae Organization, and TechWomen Mentors) to create a new playing card deck honoring 54 of the remarkable TechWomen Emerging Leaders – from 16 countries in the Middle East and Africa since 2011.  We are building on the success and structure of the “Notable Women in Computing Card Deck”  that Jessica and I developed with Professor Susan Rodger (Duke University) to develop this new deck honoring global women of STEM.

TechWomen is a professional mentorship and exchange program developed in response to President Obama’s efforts to strengthen relations between the United States and the Middle East and North Africa.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton first announced the TechWomen initiative on April 28, 2010 during President Obama’s Entrepreneurship Summit. In June 2011, TechWomen launched with 37 participants from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and the Palestinian Territories. In 2012, the program expanded to include women from Tunsia and Yemen. In 2013, the cohort doubled in size with the addition of women from Cameroon, Kenya, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
TechWomen – Who We Are

The card design above is Jessica’s first draft proposal – still under discussion! It honors my 2012 TechWomen mentee and friend: Adla Chatila of Lebabon. This project is a labor of love for the women behind it, which is why we are licensing the card deck under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 U.S. License. We will make $0 profit from this project. We are still discussing how to fund production.

Thanks to the 70+ TechWomen Emerging Leaders who have already submitted their information to be considered for inclusion. I am very much enjoying my email communications with this inspiring and energetic group as we develop this exciting new project!

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TechWomen Opening Day 2014!

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Yesterday was the TechWomen 2014 opening event for participants from 16 countries in Africa and the Middle East (plus the USA!) – generously hosted by Juniper Networks again in Sunnyvale, California. During the next five weeks, I will be the Professional Mentor for Seham Jaafreh from Jordan – working together at Everwise In San Francisco. Lucy Keoni will also be working with Seham as her Cultural Mentor.

Assistant US Secretary of State Evan Ryan made the welcome announcement that the countries included in TechWomen 2015 will be extended to South Central Asia!

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Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

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Opening Event for TechWomen 2014 Mentors

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I am proud and honored to once again be a TechWomen mentor. Today was the orientation session for the mentors (generously hosted by LinkedIn in Mountain View, California). We meet our Emerging Leaders on 6 October. I am very much looking forward to working with my new mentee from Jordan on a project at Everwise in San Francisco.  She and I have been speaking by Skype for the last few weeks – making plans.  Lucy Keoni will be her Cultural Mentor and I will be her Professional Mentor next month.  Since 2010, I have served with 250 outstanding women mentors from 89 Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area companies in this remarkable and life-changing program.

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About TechWomen:

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.

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.

TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). TechWomen, launched by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 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).

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Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

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Jill’s Morocco Photos

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Jill Finlayson and I were both part of the TechWomen US State Department mentoring delegation to Morocco earlier this month.  She brought along a big Nikon camera and I had my hand-sized Panasonic Lumix DMC-Lx5.  As we walked together, sometimes I would be in position for the best photo and sometimes Jill was.  With permission, here are some of Jill’s images that I am glad she captured:

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Rug sellers in Fez showing the carpet I soon bought

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Fez rug merchant flirting with me

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Fez from the roof

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Ladies with smart phones on the road from Fez

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TechWomen with Lamia Bounahmidi (CEO of startup venture Looly’s Couscous) at Dinarjat Restaurant in Rabat

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Storks at Chellah in Rabat

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Jill at Chellah in Rabat

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Jackie at the Mausoleum of Mohammed V in Rabat

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Katy and Patricia in Rabat

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Rouba at the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca

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TechWomen delegation at the home of Moroccan Minister Mrs. Hakima El Haité in Rabat

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Cake at the TechWomen Morocco Delegation’s Closing Party

Images Copyright 2014 by Jill Finlayson

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Shopping in Morocco

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Part of my enjoyment in traveling is eating local dishes, seeing what people wear and use in daily life, and shopping accordingly for gifts to take home to family and friends. During my recent visit to Morocco (6-15 March 2014), I purchased a 4’x6′ red kilim vintage Berber rug (in Fez), ceramics (in Rabat), a silver bracelet for my son Paul (in Rabat), and cinnamon spice (hotter than what we get in America), silver earrings for my mother and me, a geode for my nephew Daniel, and leather slippers (in Fez). I also brought home two Fez hats: one for my brother Pete and the other for Jill Finlayson’s husband – since she could not find one before she had to travel home. I am happy with my momentoes and, in the case of my big rug purchase, will enjoy seeing it every day in my WP668 office. I was also a member of the  TechWomen delegation to Morocco in 2011, at which time I also bought rugs in Marrakech.  I am now on a rug diet!

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Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen Morocco Delegation – Day 6 – Fez

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The TechWomen delegation spent its last day together touring the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Fez. The historical tour was fascinating and the rooftop lunch (at the Palais de Fes dar Tazi Restaurant) delicious. However, I was glad to have been in the group that visited Fez informally the Friday before because (as is often the case with Official Guides), we mostly were shepherded into relatively expensive shops. Fez felt more touristy (or “touristic” as they say in the Middle East) and less friendly than any other city I have been to in Morocco.  But any day with my TechWomen sisters is a good day – we had a delightful time together regardless!

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Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen Morocco Delegation – Day 5 – Rabat

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The TechWomen delegation enjoyed its last official meetings day on 13 March 2014 in Rabat where we met with the impressive women learning entrepreneurship at INPT – L’Institut national des postes et télécommunications. This was a delightful morning of discussion followed by lunch. Jeannice Fairrer Samani and Hasna Sabah and I were joyful to be together for the first time since Hasna was an Emerging Leader hosted at Huawei in the 2012 TechWomen class. Hasna traveled by train (8 hours round trip from Marrakesh) to join the delegation for the day.

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Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

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