Tag Archives: technical women

August 3, 2016 · 3:13 pm

TechWomen Mail

The TechWomen mentoring program participants often travel among our 21 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. On our journeys, mentors and mentees often bring each other things, calling such deliveries “TechWomen Mail”. Sometimes the generous TechWomen carry local treats (like cookies or honey), or souvenirs from their country (like pen holders or coffee mugs). Earlier this year, a traveling mentor bought a rug in the souq only to find it too big for her luggage. In the next few months, I am sure that rug will arrive in the Silicon Valley with a visiting TechWoman.

Since I would be seeing the Cameroon “Angels Tech of Africa” Technovation team in San Francisco, Janet Fofang (TechWomen 2013 Fellow) asked me to send her some electronics to use when teaching her Tassah Academy or WeTech girls in Yaounde, Cameroon. My husband, John Plocher, put together a box of interesting electronic boards and chips for exploration. Dorothée Danedjo Fouba (TechWomen 2014 Fellow) kindly agreed to carry the box to Janet. I left the box loosely packed and openable so that Dorothée and customs inspectors could see what it contained – I am sure it looked odd on airport scanners.

This week, Janet wrote me that the box had arrived safely. (Thanks to Dorothée!) Janet and John are now in email discussions about what was in the box, and about software and hardware open source projects he has published on our family website, spcoast.com. We may have more TechWomen Mail headed to Cameroon soon!

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Filed under Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Cameroon, Central Asia, Egypt, Lebanon, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen

July 21, 2016 · 3:43 pm

Technovation World Pitch Summit 2016

Last week, I enjoyed attending the Technovation World Pitch Summit 2016 hosted by the University of San Francisco. Technovation was the single most popular formal mentoring program mentioned by the Mentoring Standard Certified Mentors (see the “First Mentors – What We Learned” report), so I have heard about its excellence from many sources. Technovation was founded in 2009 to offer girls the opportunity to learn how to start a company and become high-tech entrepreneurs. It is now a global competition reaching thousands of girls. This year’s winners were:

First Place, High School: Team A, “OOL” from Mexico
First Place, Middle School: California Coders, “Loc8Don8” from the United States

The pitch videos from all of the finalists are well worth watching. In addition to the awards given to the girls’ teams, TechWomen‘s own Dr. Amel Gouila (Bioinformatician at the Institut Pasteur de Tunis) from Tunisia was honored as The Technovation Regional Ambassador of the year. In advance of the awards, there were inspiring speeches by:

Andy Cunningham – (who said she was fired 5 times by Steve Jobs at Apple, NeXT, and Pixar), Founder and President, Cunningham Collective
Debbie Sterling, Founder & CEO, GoldieBlox
Tara Chklovski, CEO Iridescent

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Central Asia, Mentoring, Mexico, Middle East, San Francisco, technical women, TechWomen

June 6, 2016 · 12:13 pm

Celebrating Sir John Falstaff

Last weekend, our Shakespeare reading group celebrated the 90th birthday of our senior member: John Watson-Williams. We are reading Shakespeare’s “Henriad” tetralogy: Richard II, Henry IV-i, Henry IV-ii, and Henry V. John W-W and I usually compete for who is assigned the lead role. Our 90th Birthday present to John W-W was that he gets to read the role of Sir John Falstaff every time.

Our group meets every two months and watches Shakespeare films in between. We are currently watching The Hollow Crown series – and are very excited that The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses comes out in DVD next month!

The Henriad includes some of Shakespeare’s greatest roles. The four plays are excellent individually and as a set. Part of the particular charm of Henry IV, Part i is its balance of excellent roles: Falstaff has 616 lines, Prince Hal has 551 lines, and Henry Percy “Hotspur” has 562 lines. John W-W, Melita Thorpe and I had a wonderful time sparring through the play!

I have been the Mentor for this Shakespeare reading group since we started in 2012, providing background reading and film homework and assigning roles at the start of each party. Melita and I sometimes coach readers but we are blessed in having many experienced voices from whom to select. Role assignments are made easy by the line analysis prepared in advance by the Rev. Stephenie Cooper. Our primary difficulty is that we do not all use the same Shakespeare editions, so sometimes there is confusion as to line assignment. For this reading, an extra challenge was offered by the Goodyear Blimp which was circling noisily overhead while we read in Melita’s garden. In August, we take on the least popular play in the Henriad: Henry IV Part ii. My husband John and I are hosting.

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Filed under Church, Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as John, San Jose, Shakespeare, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, technical women

May 31, 2016 · 12:17 pm

Sharing Space

Current news about Bathroom Bills and silly videos like “Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People Ep. 1” reminded me of how the Silicon Valley company where I worked decades ago managed the bathroom question.

Our company loved to dress up for Halloween. One year, Angel*, a very tall Hardware Diagnostics staff member came to work on Halloween dressed as a woman. Up until then, we had thought of Angel as a man, so when he loomed over all of us wearing platform shoes and a dress, it was considered a very good costume. The next day and after that, Angel continued to dress as a woman. For most of us, this was our first experience with a Transgender person and there was initial confusion; however, we had work to do and most of us ignored Angel’s transition as being none of our business.

Then, we noticed Angel using the staff break area sink for tooth brushing. When I asked why not brush in the bathroom, Angel said that the men in our building objected to sharing the Men’s Rooms and had forbidden her access. Angel said she waited until she got home to use the toilet but that she wanted to brush her teeth after meals.

The next week, the women staff (Engineers, Managers, Support, and Administration) went to lunch together to discuss what to do. A few days later, several of the women met with Angel and offered her use of the Women’s Rooms. Angel agreed. The only real change in behavior was after that, the women used bathroom stalls for privacy when changing clothes. The men continued to be rude to Angel but at least she had a place where she could brush her teeth and use the toilet at work.

*name changed

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Filed under News & Reviews

Tagged as Geeks, Silicon Valley, Sun Microsystems, technical women

May 17, 2016 · 4:17 pm

TechWomen Alumnae Resources

The TechWomen Alumnae Resources web page is now available, presenting recommendations and references to materials helpful to technical women stuck in place because of politics or personal circumstances. So far, TechWomen Alumnae Resources topics include:

Professional Associations for Technical Women
Funding Graduate School
Starting a Local Mentoring Program
E-Learning Sites – Thanks to TechWomen Mentor Lisa Ramirez (Juniper Netoworks) for her recommendations
Writing for Wikipedia – Thanks to Dr. Susan Rodger (Duke University) for her recommendations

More topics are being developed. This resource was created as a result of discussions on 12 February 2016 during the TechWomen Jordan Delegation’s Unconference at the Dead Sea. The session I lead was called “Supporting TechWomen Fellows in Conflict Zones”. A group of nine TechWomen Fellows, Mentors, and supporters from the Middle East and USA started by discussing how to support TechWomen Fellows in conflict zones – especially Gaza, Yemen, and Libya – but we soon expanded our scope to consider those stuck at home because of severe family illness or other care taking responsibilities. That is, these are ideas / resources / programs to benefit TechWomen Mentors and Fellows who are stuck in place. This was not about getting them out but rather helping them remain professionally active where they are. The five categories in which we felt that support could be offered / maintained and would be most helpful are:

Entrepreneurship – training, startup feedback, recommendations to funding sources.
Outsourcing – recommendations on finding / developing professional work that could be done where they are.
Starting and managing local mentoring programs.
Professional visibility and volunteerism:
- Writing for Wikipedia
- Open Source contributions
- eLearning Resources
Recommendations and introductions:

The top photo shows my 2014 TechWomen mentee, Mai Temraz, with her Grace Hopper Conference bag and gifts in Gaza City, in February 2016. We carried these gifts to her because she could attend the October 2015 GHC15 conference in-person to accept her award as 2015 Change Agent ABIE. Being stuck in place is part of life in Gaza City. Remarkable technical leaders like Mai are the inspiration for the TechWomen Alumnae Resources web page.

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, Mentoring Standard, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Central Asia, Gaza, Jordan, Libya, Mentoring, Middle East, Palestine, technical women, TechWomen, Yemen

May 16, 2016 · 2:39 pm

Videos from Jordan, Zimbabwe, Kazakhstan TechWomen Delegations

The TechWomen Alumnae Council held a reunion for the Jordan, Zimbabwe, and Kazakhstan Delegations on 26 April 2016, hosted by AOL in San Mateo, California (in the Silicon Valley). TechWomen Director Arezoo Riahi reported that the three Delegations (of 37 Mentors from the US and almost 50 Fellow from 13 countries) together reached 1,925 girls and women.

John Plocher taped the inspiring personal and professional reports by IIE staff and Delegation members: the set of 11 videos is now available. You can also watch the individual videos:

Arezoo Riahi – opening, Delegations report, update on 2015 and 2016 TechWomen cohorts
Audrey Simpson, Cindy Cooley, Cathy Simpson, Evelyn Zoubi – update on TechWomen Alumnae Council, and how to make Jordanian mansaf
Katy Dickinson – Jordan, Palestine, Zimbabwe, and update on TechWomen Alumnae Resources
Rekha Pai – Kazakhstan
Rebecca Biswas – Kazakhstan
Teresa Zhang – Kazakhstan
Molly Pyle – Zimbabwe
Sarasija Parthasarthy – Kazakhstan
Shawne Van Deusen-Jeffries – Zimbabwe
Zhilan Zweiger – Zimbabwe, Kenya
Mary Karam McKey – “All Protocols Observed”

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, Mentoring Standard, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Central Asia, Gaza, John, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mentoring, Middle East, Palestine, technical women, TechWomen, Zimbabwe

May 8, 2016 · 9:50 pm

“First Mentors – What We Learned” report now available

Mentoring Standard‘s 16 page report on the first 72 Certified Mentors is now published: “First Mentors – What We Learned” (by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher).

Executive Summary
This is a baseline report on mentors certified by Mentoring Standard during its first year in business. Subsequent reports will expand on this material. This report presents demographic, geographic, and professional information about the first cohort of 72 Certified Mentors, plus information on mentoring as a practice that has demonstrated consistent and remarkable benefits. Nine conclusions are made but understanding of other patterns will need to wait for a larger group to analyze. Detailed comparisons are made with one of the few large sets of data published on professional mentoring – that of Sun Microsystems Engineering.

The information in this report is drawn from an interconnected worldwide community of dedicated mentors – not a general population. In this first cohort, there are far more women, highly educated and technical professionals represented among the Certified Mentors than are in the general public.

The top three conclusions in this report are:

Mentors report great satisfaction from working with mentees. Most reported being mentors for years and seem to want to continue mentoring and improving as mentors for the foreseeable future. Mentors write about formal and informal mentoring being a regular part of their personal and professional lives.

Participants report that mentor certification gives immediate benefit in increased confidence and recognition of their own accomplishments, and may also yield professional visibility and better advancement as well.

Mentoring works well for a wide diversity of nationalities and ethnicities. It seems to be an accepted practice in all 17 of the countries where Certified Mentors live.

The intended audience for this report is current and potential Certified Mentors, customers of Mentoring Standard, academics and professionals interested in how mentoring actually works. I look forward to your comments and questions!

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, Mentoring Standard, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Central Asia, John, Mentoring, Middle East, Sun Microsystems, technical women, TechWomen

Tag Archives: technical women

TechWomen Mail

Technovation World Pitch Summit 2016

Celebrating Sir John Falstaff

Sharing Space

TechWomen Alumnae Resources

Videos from Jordan, Zimbabwe, Kazakhstan TechWomen Delegations

“First Mentors – What We Learned” report now available

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