Tag Archives: teaching

Congratulations to 1st Certified Mentors!

Dr. Jeannice Fairrer Samani - Certified Mentor - with TechWomen

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.

Eileen Brewer, Certified Mentor

What Certification Means
Mentoring Standard certifies mentors who can prove they hold within themselves the following 3 qualities:

  1. Significant Experience in Mentoring.
  2. Good Reputation.
  3. Respectable Professional Experience.

More: Get Certified.

Kathy Jenks and John Plocher, Certified Mentor . Dr. Taghrid Samak, Certified Mentor

Certification Benefits to Mentors

  • Establishes a public record of successful and effective mentoring and growth.
  • Demonstrates a sustained pattern of leadership and career development.
  • Provides objective credentials for an otherwise largely­-subjective experience.
  • Allows the individual to transfer his or her mentoring experience to a new context, job or professional program.
  • Identifies areas to develop and improve both personally and professionally.
  • Documents progression of learning and growth over time as a mentor through three levels: regular, advanced, and master.
  • Creates a long-term mentoring career path from mentee through master mentor.
  • Allows senior mentors to use their own path to certification as an example and guide for their mentees.

More: Get Certified.

James P. Hughes, Certified Mentor

Images Copyright 2015 Katy Dickinson and Kathy Jenks

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TechWomen Emerging Leaders arrive this week!

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The San Francisco Bay Area mentor community is very excited to welcome 99 TechWomen Emerging Leaders from 19 countries – arriving later this week to spend a month in the Silicon Valley, followed by a trip to Washington DC. This is our 5th annual cohort from the Middle East and Africa. In 2015, we are also happy to welcome technical mentees from Central Asia to this prestigious mentoring initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The mentors have been getting ready – developing a professional and cultural events schedule, and meeting with each other at picnics, receptions, and small dinners to make plans.

My company, Mentoring Standard, is honored to provide three services to TechWomen 2015 mentors from 91 Bay Area companies:

  • Two workshops this week for mentors: “How to Be an Effective Mentor: Best Practices Workshop”, generously hosted by Juniper Networks and IIE.
  • Private Consulting for Mentors – Co-Founders Katy Dickinson Kathy Jenks are available to TechWomen 2015 mentors for consultation during October 2015 because even the most experienced mentor sometimes has a specific mentoring question or just wants to check in about developments with her or his mentee.
  • Mentor Certification – Mentoring Standard celebrates mentors with deep experience, who have done the work of helping people to achieve their goals and grow their careers. Great mentoring isn’t the result of completing a check list or training program. Mentor Certification documents and celebrates your past and ongoing mentoring accomplishments – it does not require you to join a new mentoring program or take additional training.

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Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson

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7th Day: General Convention – Some Big Votes

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Today, the 78th Episcopal General Convention (GC) got into some of its bigger legislative discussions. Our Deputation is here in Salt Lake City, Utah, from the Diocese of El Camino Real (ECR) on the Central Coast of California.  I wrote on June 18 that most of the discussions this past year among the ECR Deputation members have been about the serious issues to be considered by this legislative body that meets every three years, especially:

  • Restructuring Church governance to enhance mission and ministry (TREC)
  • Marriage equality
  • Care of creation and social justice
  • Election of the next Presiding Bishop to a 9 year term

On 27 June, Bishop Michael Curry was elected to become Presiding Bishop. General Convention has been holding hearings and committee meetings for the last week and is starting to make decisions on the remaining major issues.  Today was the first day that Rev. Tom Sramek and I moved from the outer darkness of the Alternates seating onto the hallowed floor of the House of Deputies – as actual Deputies. We replaced Jeff Diehl and the Rev. Rob Fisher for today so that they could sit in on House of Bishop discussions.  To change status from Alternate to Deputy requires the signature of our Head of Deputation (Rev. Maly Hughes) or of Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves and must be done well before the legislative session starts.  Jeff and I, and Tom and Rob had to get all of our paperwork done before 7:30 this morning.

After getting a new red and white Deputy badge to replace my yellow Alternate badge, I sat in on the “Formation and Education for Ministry” committee of which Bishop Mary is a member.  The resolutions discussed included: financial support for immigrants and undocumented college students, and General Theological Seminary  (GTS) management, style, and financial relationship to General Convention.  Morning committee hearings were followed by worship service and then we went into the first to two legislative sessions for the day.  Elections held by the House of Deputies today included Executive Council (lay members only – clergy members were elected yesterday), GTS Trustees, members of the Disciplinary Board for Bishops, Treasurer and the Vice President for General Convention.

In addition to elections, House of Deputies also approved or concurred with the House of Bishops on resolutions on some key topics today, including:

Tom and I both spoke to the House of Deputies in support of resolutions where our experience and understanding could further the discussion. After the legislative session ended, John Plocher and I went to the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Education for Ministry program by the University of the South – School of Theology.

A sideshow are the continuing problems with the ECR Deputation’s hotel which has been having catastrophic plumbing problems, including an exploding boiler causing fire alarms in the middle of the last two nights. Cold showers and interrupted sleep have not made us big fans.

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Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson. Photo of Katy Copyright 2015 by Rev. Tom Sramek

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History of Women in Computing and Women Leaders in Computing

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Last week, Dr. Telle Whitney (CEO and President, Anita Borg Institute), Dr. Susan Rodger (Professor of the Practice in the Computer Science Department at Duke University) and I gave talks on the “History of Women in Computing and Women Leaders in Computing” – as part of the Microsoft Research Gender Diversity Lecture Series, in Redmond, Washington. We were joined at the event by Jody Mahoney (of ABI, who lives in San Francisco) and my daughter Jessica Dickinson Goodman, (who lives in Seattle). We were invited to speak by Dr. Rane Johnson-Stempson and Dr. Jaime Teevan took good care of us while we were at MSR.

Susan, Jessica, and I have been working together since last summer on the Notable Technical Women project but (even though we created a successful Hopper Conference October 2014 Poster and Kickstarter together) we three had never met in-person before.  We had great fun talking and walking around Seattle together after the Seminar.  We are looking forward to getting a link to the video of our talks.

19 June 2015: Microsoft Research posted the video with Dr. Telle Whitney, Dr. Susan Rodger, and me speaking: “Microsoft Research Gender Diversity Lecture Series 5: History of Women in Computing and Women Leaders in Computing”

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Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson and Jessica Dickinson Goodman

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Maker Faire in San Mateo, California

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This weekend was the 10th annual Maker Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area. John and Paul and I bought weekend tickets to the event at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. I could not go yesterday due to the schedule conflict but I had a great time at the fair today. John has been involved in open source hardware and software for many years (see his publications on SPCoast). Paul is a skilled ceramics artist and has recently started metalwork at SJSU. We all enjoy seeing the new DIY tools and demonstrations.

I was delighted to see the US Patent and Trademark Office had a booth where they were distributing cards honoring American inventors – among them Ellen Ochoa who is also an honoree on the Notable Women in Computing card deck and poster. The best part of the Maker Faire is watching children engage with tools and technology – learning to create the world they will live in.

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Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson

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Mentoring Standard at SunEdison

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While we were traveling with the TechWomen Delegation in South Africa in January 2015, sister TechWomen mentor Dr. Teresa Zhang (Global Design & Engineering – SunEdison) invited me to meet StepUp mentoring program participants at her company. Last week, Mentoring Standard Co-Founder Kathy Jenks and I enjoyed talking with solar energy company SunEdison staff in Belmont – located on the picturesque O’Neill Slough of San Francisco Bay. I was honored to be introduced by Tim Derrick, SunEdison General Manager, Advanced Solutions. We enjoyed speaking with about 30 mentors and mentees in the room and another 24 joining by phone. Questions were excellent!

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Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson and Kathy Jenks

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2 Days with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

Bishops Katharine Jefferts Schori, Mary Gray-Reeves, Rev. Amy Denny Zuniga and daughter

The Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real and our Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves were recently honored to host a visit by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. About 70 of us went with the Bishops on a pilgrimage walk in the Jolon area.  The next day was the annual diocesan Spring Conference, held at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Saratoga, California. Bishop Katharine lead 150 of us in a series of discussions and meditations, starting with five minutes of silence to consider what it means to be beloved by God. A video of a version of her morning talk is available as part of the General Convention 2015 orientation.

Bishop Katharine is nearing the end of her 9-year term as Episcopal Presiding Bishop or “PB”. I am looking forward to attending General Convention next month in Salt Lake City where her successor will be elected. I have never attended “GC” before and am excited to be going! There will be several key discussions at GC, including recommendations for large-scale reorganization or “re-imagining” of the Episcopal Church, in addition to electing the new PB.  (As a side note – although they are each capable and remarkable, I was disappointed that three of the four candidates announced this month to be considered for Bishop Katharine’s successor are from East Coast USA states – the closest to California is from Ohio, three are white, and all are men.  I was hoping for more variety.)

At the end of the Spring Conference, I was one of the speakers to rise when Bishop Mary asked us if there was anything we wanted to say to Bishop Katherine. I told her that ten years ago, when I first heard that the new PB was not only female but also from the Western state of Nevada, what she was inspired me. To have a western woman lead our church was important to me, to many of my sister leaders in the church, and to our daughters who will follow. Watching Bishop Katharine ordain Bishop Mary in 2007 was a lifetime-memory. Since then, I have heard Bishop Katharine speak at Stanford University, have read her writings, listened to her words, and watched her work. Over these years, who she is as a wise leader has become more important. We will miss Bishop Katharine.

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Images Copyright 2015 by Katy Dickinson

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