Tag Archives: teaching

Inspiring STEM Girls and Women in Rwanda

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Today was the TechWomen delegation’s first day of meetings in Kigali, Rwanda. We met with the inspiring girls and young women students of the Akilah Institute for Women, coached proposals for STEM start up companies by kLab Open Space for IT Entrepreneurs, and heard about the ambitious projects of the Girls in ICT group – including their Miss Geek Rwanda entrepreneur contest (to be at the same time as the Miss Rwanda beauty pageant) on International Women’s Day. In the evening, we enjoyed an impressively-organized networking event and reception set up by our Rwandan TechWomen Emerging Leaders for two hundred local IT executives and the press.

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Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

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“Global ICT experts to inspire Rwandan women”

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There is another news story about our TechWomen delegation – in the Rwanda Eye today: “Global ICT experts to inspire Rwandan women” by Olive Ndaka, 29 January 2014. I am almost done creating my handout for the Gashora Girls Academy workshop I am developing – on blogging and web-based research.

Later on 29 January 2014… Here is the “Blogging and Web Research Workshop” handout – ready to go!

3 February 2014 – Here are the presentation slides to go with the handout for today’s presentation to the Gashora Academy girls.

Image Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

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Katy’s 2013 Book List

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I am in the process of switching from an iPad to an iPad Mini for my upcoming TechWomen mentoring program delegation trip to Rwanda, so I have been sorting what Kindle ebooks and iBooks I will take along…  I am a big reader, finishing one to two books most weeks. When I was ten years old, the librarian in our local public library mentioned that I averaged a book a day (shorter books, back then!). In 2013, I started reading books online, so now I can track my titles. Below are some of the books I read in 2013 that I liked best, meaning I will probably read them again.

* means a re-read (because it was too good to read just once!)

  • Bryan, Christopher, And God Spoke / The Authority of the Bible for the Church Today (2002)
  • * Bull, Emma, Bone Dance (1991)
  • * Bull, Emma, War for the Oaks (1987)
  • De Quincey, Thomas, Miscellaneous Essays (1859)
  • * Dickens, Charles, The Complete Works of Charles Dickens (2011) – 2013 focus was on The Christmas Carol
  • * Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sherlock Holmes, Volumes I and II (1986)
  • * Dumas, Alexandre, The Three Musketeers (2010)
  • Flint, Eric 1632 (2000)
  • * Gaiman, Neil, Anansi Boys (2005)
  • * Gaiman, Neil, and Terry Pratchett, Good Omens / The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990)
  • Holy Bible – New Revised Standard Version (1989)
  • Hunt, Linda Lawrence, Bold Spirit / Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America (2003)
  • Ilibagiza, Immaculee, Left to Tell / Discovering God Admist the Rwandan Holocaust (2006)
  • MacCulloch, Diarmaid, Christianity / The First Three Thousand Years (2009)
  • * Melville, Herman, Moby Dick / Or, The Whale (1891)
  • * Modesitt, L.E., The Magic of Recluce (1991)
  • * Nix, Garth, The Abhorsen Trilogy (2003)
  • * Pierce, Tamora Beka Cooper: The Hunt Records (2006)
  • * Pratchett, Terry, Small Gods (1992)
  • * Pratchett, Terry, The Wee Free Men (2003)
  • Sandberg, Sheryl, Lean In / Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (2013)
  • Sansom, C.J., Dissolution (2003)
  • * Sayers, Dorothy, Lord Peter Views the Body (1928)
  • * Sayers, Dorothy, The Nine Tailors (1934)
  • * Shakespeare, William, The Compete Plays of Shakespeare (2011) – in 2013, focus was on Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Twelfth Night
  • * Stephenson, Neal, Snow Crash (1992)
  • Verghese, Abraham, Cutting for Stone (2009)
  • Webb, Maynard, Rebooting Work / Transform How You Work in the Age of Entrepreneurship (2013)

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People To People Global Radio Starts Tonight!

Please join P2P’s inaugural radio show tonight – 9 Jan 2014, at 9:00 pm EST.

Access the weekly show online http://www.blogtalkradio.com/p2pglobalradioshow/ or phone 646-595-4742 each Thursday evening.

The guests for the 9 January show will be: Ambassador David Shinn, the 19th US Ambassador to Ethiopia and currently Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at the George Washington University; Dr. Joseph Berger, Professor of Neurology at the University of Kentucky; and Dr. David Clifford, Professor of Neuropharmacology at Washington University, St. Louis.

Our host will be P2P Board Chair, Dr. Anteneh Habte.

Your questions and comments will be welcome. If you are unable to tune in live, you can access the whole show at your convenience using the link provided on the People To People Global Radio Show Blogtalkradio web page.

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People To People Global Radio Background
People to People (P2P) is launching this weekly radio program as part of its core mission of engaging the Diaspora in health care issues of importance in Ethiopia and beyond. The show will air on Thursdays from 9:00pm to 10:00 pm EST and its target audience will be primarily non-health care professionals. It will be moderated by P2P members who will interview subject matter experts with work experience in Ethiopia. Audience participation will be solicited through phone calls and social media for exchange of ideas. The broadcast will be available through the link http://www.blogtalkradio.com/p2pglobalradioshow/ an hour after airtime and will be achieved indefinitely.

Katy Dickinson is the P2P Chief Operating Officer and is looking forward to becoming a radio show moderator! More about P2P

Image Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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Caboose Clinic: The Adventures of WP668

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I presented a “Caboose Clinic” to the Coast Division of the National Model Railroad Association on 8 December 2013 in San Leandro, California. The title of my talk was “The Adventures of WP668 1916-2013: Buying and Restoring a Western Pacific Caboose”. You can see additional information about the backyard caboose in which I have my office on WP668’s web page: http://wp668.org. About forty guys and one woman attended my clinic. I was glad that they asked so many questions and seemed to have a good time.

As always, my thanks and appreciation to all who have made WP668’s long adventures possible, especially:

WP668 today:
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WP668 in active service, 1971:
Used with permission of Don Marenzi
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Images Copyright 1971 by Don Marenzi, and 2013 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

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Honoring Nelson Mandela

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Working on my Christmas shopping, late Friday I made my annual trip to the Artifactory Holiday Fair craft sale at Hoover House in Palo Alto. I was touched to see that Inja (of Inja Ink Calligraphy) had stopped her other work to write out a  Nelson Mandela quote on the day he died. The new piece was on display for consideration and honor, not for sale.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

I had been feeling sad at the passing of a hero and role model.  Inja’s gentle tribute lifted my heart.

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Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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Paul Applying to San Jose State University

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I am delighted to write that my son Paul is finishing up his last year at Foothill College and applying to transfer to San Jose State University (SJSU) in 2014. In addition to studying Studio Art, Paul is interested in becoming a credentialed art teacher for children with disabilities. Samples of his art are below – with more in his online portfolio: Paul’s Element.

Raising a kid with disabilities is a challenge and I am proud of Paul and of our whole family for his successful progress. Paul has been blessed with some remarkable and excellent teachers – to whom I am forever grateful:

Paul also had more than his share of poor teachers but we survived them. I only ask that they and…

  • …the teachers who did not want disabled kids like Paul in their class:
  • …the administrators who told us that Paul would be lucky to get to college:
  • …the head of school who kicked Paul out because his disabilities were bringing down her scores:
  • …the career counsellors who took Paul and the other disabled kids on a tour of the sewer plant:

Please consider this…

Jane Goodall went in the back door to become an ethologist. That’s something I’ve thought about a lot, because people with autism usually have to go in the back door. We have a lot of trouble following the normal paths. We don’t do very well in interviews, which are a big problem for us, and a lot of autistic people also have extremely “uneven” academic skills. An autistic person can test at the bottom of the IQ range on one subscale and at the very top on another. For example, I had great difficulty with algebra because there’s no way to visualize it.  I couldn’t be doing what I’m doing if there weren’t any back doors.

Dr. Temple Grandin, 2009
In 2010, Dr. Temple Grandin was listed in the Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world in the “Heroes” category.

Wish Paul luck in being accepted!  We will hear back from SJSU by March 2014.

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Images Copyright Katy Dickinson and Paul D. Goodman 2011-2013

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