My son Paul has recently attended both “Admitted Spartan’s Day” and admitted students’ orientation day at San Jose State University (in San Jose, California where we live). He is in his final quarter at Foothill College and is excited about graduating in June with an Associates degree in Studio Art. After transferring SJSU in September 2014, Paul will continue to study fine art and also plans to earn a teaching credential.
Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
I have regrettably developed a severe allergy to P-Phenylenediamine and possibly other dye substances. Over the last month, this has taken the form of violent Contact Dermatitis (think about what happens when you touch Poison Oak): inflammation, rash, blisters, itching – all the nasty ways your skin tells you that it is very unhappy about something you touched. I just finished taking Prednisone for several weeks – Prednisone is a synthetic corticosteroid drug that is particularly effective as an immunosuppressant – and am getting ready for a full allergy test at University of California at San Francisco – Dermatology Clinic.
I am writing this blog not so much to share my woe as to spread the word in case my readers may also experience this allergy. It certainly took me by surprise!
Paraphenylenediamine turns out to be a very common substance, found in:
A generalized reaction to PPD can also occur from taking closely related saccharin sweeteners, thiazide diuretics, sulfanamide antibiotics, sufonylurea antidiabetic agents, PAS, or celecoxib.
Some persons allergic to PPD will also react to black rubber mix, parabens, benzocaine group anesthetics, PABA family sunscreens, and azo dyes, especially orange and yellow, often in ballpoint pens.
This information is from the American Contact Dermatitis Society (ACDS).
More information:
Image Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson – detail showing vanity – from a stained glass window at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Saratoga, California by Mark Adams
Filed under Church, Home & Family, News & Reviews
I have been thinking during this twenty year anniversary and rememberance of the Rwandan Genocide of the remarkable emerging leaders I met during my recent visit as part of the TechWomen Rwanda delegation. Tomorrow, at the American Association of University Women (AAUW) California convention in Los Angeles, I am giving a breakfast talk on mentoring. I will open my talk by describing the delegation’s visit to meet the inspiring Gashora Girls Academy (GGAST) in Rwanda – as way of illustrating how mentoring is about meeting people where they are. I have been saving the Rwanda remembrance news stories served up by my Feedly reader, as a way seeing how the world understands these events and what came after. Here is what I have so far:
Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
The American Association of University Women (AAUW) is holding their California convention this weekend in Los Angeles. Tomorrow, I am giving a breakfast talk on mentoring. I am a member of both the San Jose and California Online branches of AAUW and am looking forward to the big event!
13 April 2014: Here I am giving the talk:
Images copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
The TechWomen delegation gave workshops on careers in Science, Engineering, and Technology to the girls at the Khalil Gibran School in Rabat today. Mohna Dhomse and I gave a talk called “How to Start a Blog and Share Your Voice… Safely!”. We enjoyed lunch at the Cosmopolitan Restaurant with local dignitaries, then went shopping for ceramics at a local atelier de poterie (pottery workshop). In the evening, the entire delegation spoke at length with Mrs. Hakima El Haité, Minister in Charge of Environment, and Delegate to the Minister of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment, who generously invited us into her lovely home. I am sad that tomorrow night is our TechWomen Morocco delegation farewell party.
Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
The TechWomen delegation to Rwanda earlier this month was honored to receive a great deal of local and US media attention, before, during, and after our journey. New stories are still coming in…
4 March 2014 addition: Institute of International Education Quarterly Newsletter: March 2014 “TechWomen Expand the Network of African Women in STEM” (lead article)
Image Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
On our last full day together in Rwanda, the TechWomen delegation visited Girl Hub and the University of Rwanda – College of Science and Technology (formerly called Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and Management or KIST).
Girl Hub is a strategic collaboration between the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Nike Foundation. Girl Hub helps transform the lives of adolescent girls living in poverty by unleashing their potential and empowering them with the assets they need to end poverty for themselves, their families and their community.
Girl Hub publishes Ni Nyampinga magazine and distributes it to 90,000 girls in Rwanda.
Four of the six 2013 Emerging TechWomen Leaders from Rwanda were KIST graduates. We spoke with the faculty, and enjoyed a well-escorted campus tour before meeting with about a hundred women technical students – answering their personal and professional questions. After our university visit, the TechWomen group went shopping for fabric, then had a farewell gathering at the hotel. Tomorrow, the first group of us departs for the mountains to see the gorillas. This has been a moving and inspiring week.
Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
