Tag Archives: Palestine

December 28, 2014 · 4:38 pm

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	.	Nezha Larhrissi Taghi – Morocco
Patience Mthunzi – South Africa	.	Arwa Yahia Al-Eryani – Yemen
Maysoun Ibrahim – Palestine	.	Josephine Kamanthe Ndambuki – Kenya

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

Tagged as Africa, Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jessica, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Mentoring, Middle East, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, technical women, TechWomen, Tunisia, Yemen, Zimbabwe

December 12, 2014 · 6:05 pm

After Everwise

Yesterday, my last day as Vice President – Mentoring at Everwise, was when the big storm hit, so the company holiday party was postponed. I handed out train ducks as presents to the two other people in the San Francisco office – and left extras with Veronica French for staff who could not get to work due to wild weather.

Some of the deliverables I am proudest of during my half year with Everwise:

Introducing InovAtiva Brasil to Everwise then traveling to Brasil to help the InovAtiva team design a mentoring program for entrepreneurs that just won a prize for “Best Innovation in Public Administration – 2014″ by Brazil’s National School of Public Administration/Ministry of Planning.
Working with the Everwise team to develop and publish 14 documents in the Mentoring in a Box set, presenting best practices and structure for small mentoring programs – including a metrics spreadsheet by TechWomen Emerging Leader Seham Al Jaafreh.
Helping to develop and launch the Everwise Women’s Group – with members in San Francisco, New York, and the Midwest – for whom I developed Mutual Invitation with Positive Review.
Mentoring two TechWomen Emerging Leaders hosted by Everwise in October, including working with project lead Mai Temraz (of Palestine) and Seham Al Jaafreh (from Jordan) to develop seven Everwise-branded videos in Arabic about the value and practice of mentoring.
Representing Everwise during TechWomen meetings with the US State Department and dignitaries in Washington DC.
Developing the Notable Women in Computing card deck and poster for the Hopper Conference. Then, creating the Kickstarter project (sponsored by Duke University and Everwise) that raised five times the original funding request. We are sending 500 funder-sponsored cards and 80 posters to educators and schools around the world this month.
Helping develop the Everwise Answers blog series, and the blog entries by and about our TechWomen.
“Why Your Emerging Leaders Need Mentors” September 2014 Webinar

On to new adventures!

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Jordan, Mentoring, Palestine, San Francisco, technical women, TechWomen

November 24, 2014 · 12:32 pm

Mentoring in Arab Culture

One of my motivations in working with Mai Temraz (of Palestine) and Seham Al Jaafreh (of Jordan) to create the Arabic Mentor-Protege video set by Everwise was to respond to discussions I had in the Middle East last year. As I wrote in my February 2013 blog entry “Honoring Our Own Generosity“, I was surprised and concerned to be twice told that in Arabic, that the saying is not “Give and Take” but “Take and Give”. Some doubted that mentoring would work in Arab culture. Yet, I have been treated with nothing but extraordinary generosity in my travels in the Middle East. Also, in the last four years, I have seen the TechWomen Emerging Leaders from the Middle East thrive in that professional mentoring program. I think that mentoring fits beautifully into the ancient Arab tradition of hospitality.

In October 2014 in San Francisco, Mai and Seham and I worked together to record the seven videos posted on my YouTube channel:

Everwise: Mentoring in Arab Culture (In Arabic), Featuring Seham Al Jaafreh, 16 views
Everwise: Mentoring Feedback (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Temraz, 6 views
Everwise: Mentoring Recommendations and Resources (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Temraz, 7 views
Everwise: Questions for Your Mentor? (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Temraz, 14 views
Everwise: Mentoring Introductions (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Termaz, 12 views
Everwise: Why Be a Mentor? (In Arabic), Featuring Seham Al Jaafreh, 22 views
Why Mentoring? (In Arabic), Featuring Seham Al Jaafreh, 5 views

The seven videos are getting a small amount of attention and I hope that they will get more. These videos present mentoring in simple words, communicating to potential mentors and proteges. If you are interested in mentoring but do not understand exactly how it can work for your circumstances, this series is for you. Mentoring is new to many cultures, and not all languages even have a word for the practice.

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Jordan, Mentoring, Middle East, Palestine, San Francisco, technical women, TechWomen

November 19, 2014 · 5:49 pm

Everwise Blogs by TechWomen

Everwise just posted another in its series of blogs about TechWomen (the US State Department – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ mentoring program) and hosting two Emerging Leaders in San Francisco, in October 2014. Here is the whole blog set:

Getting a lot done (and practically perfectly) 19 October 2014, by Katy with Mai and Seham
Participating In Multiple Approaches To Mentorship 23 October 2014, by Seham Al Jaafareh (Jordan) and Katy Dickinson
Increasing Access To STEM Careers, Around The World 17 October 2014, by Mai Temraz (Palestine) and Katy Dickinson
Everwise is a Proud TechWomen Host 2 October 2014, by Katy Dickinson

Mai is still traveling in the USA, visiting family, but Seham has returned to Jordan. Hers is the first donation of “Notable Women in Computing” card decks to be delivered to actual users in the field. Here are Seham’s cards being checked out at the Mutah Knowledge Station (Karak, Jordan):

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Tagged as Jordan, Mentoring, Middle East, Palestine, San Francisco, technical women, TechWomen

November 14, 2014 · 4:59 pm

Recording TechWomen

During October, Everwise was pleased and honored to host two TechWomen Emerging Leaders: Mai Temraz (of Palestine) and Seham Al Jaafreh (of Jordan) in San Francisco. One of the projects we three worked on all month was making a series of videos about mentoring – featuring Seham and Mai speaking in Arabic. I have been processing the videos, adding music and animation. Six of the seven recordings are already posted on YouTube:

Everwise: Mentoring in Arab Culture (In Arabic), Featuring Seham Al Jaafreh
Everwise: Mentoring Feedback (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Temraz
Everwise: Mentoring Recommendations and Resources (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Temraz
Everwise: Questions for Your Mentor? (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Temraz
Everwise: Mentoring Introductions (In Arabic), Featuring Mai Termaz
Everwise: Why Be a Mentor? (In Arabic), Featuring Seham Al Jaafreh

15 November update: Why Mentoring? (In Arabic), Featuring Seham Al Jaafreh, has now been posted – that is the whole initial video set!

These videos present mentoring in simple words, communicating to potential mentors and proteges. If you are interested in mentoring but do not understand exactly how it can work for your circumstances, this series is for you. Mentoring is new to many cultures, and not all languages even have a word for the practice.

In addition to these videos, Mai and I were audio-recorded by StoryCorps at the San Francisco Main Public Library. Also, a picture including Seham and me was featured on the TechWomen banner on display at the US State Department in Washington DC. It was a well-recorded month!

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Jordan, Mentoring, Middle East, Palestine, San Francisco, technical women, TechWomen

November 5, 2014 · 6:12 am

TechWomen in Washington DC – Day 4

Yesterday, the TechWomen visited the US State Department, including a formal lunch at the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room. This is one of my favorite events during the TechWomen program! I was honored to sit next to the fascinating Ambassador Catherine M. Russell of the US State Department Office of Global Women’s Issues at lunch. I was very proud of Everwise Emerging Leaders Seham Al Jaafreh (Jordan) and Mai Temraz (Palestine) for both speaking to US government dignitaries and officials during group discussions. Mai was one of two Emerging Leaders asked to be on the luncheon panel. They have both started their post-TechWomen journeys to see some more of the USA: Seham to New York City, and Mai to Chicago. I already miss them both very much. Their intelligence, energy, and vibrant enthusiasm are an inspiration.

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Jordan, Mentoring, Middle East, Palestine, technical women, TechWomen

November 3, 2014 · 5:54 pm

TechWomen in Washington DC – Days 2 and 3

Yesterday, eleven of the TechWomen visited to the National Zoo together. The ladies from Kenya left early (since, as they said, they see many of these animals on the way to work every day). In the afternoon, we all went on a Potomac River Cruise at sunset. Today was our first day of meetings at the US State Department. I was very proud of Everwise Emerging Leader Mai Temraz (Palestine) for addressing Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State David Thorne. Mai talked about the importance of professional women being persistent and open with their government (and with their husbands!) about their vision and accomplishments – to get the support they need.

I took the opportunity of US Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith meeting with the TechWomen to present her with a deck of the Notable Women in Computing playing cards. She loved them! My favorite quotes from her talk:

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
“If not us, who?”
“Things don’t magically happen, people do things.”

Tag Archives: Palestine

New Playing Cards Honoring Women of Africa and the Middle East

After Everwise

Mentoring in Arab Culture

Everwise Blogs by TechWomen

Recording TechWomen

TechWomen in Washington DC – Day 4

TechWomen in Washington DC – Days 2 and 3

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