Impact Stories

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  Fellow(s): Rana El Chemaitelly

  Country: Lebanon

  Region: MENA

  Cohort: 2017

  Project/Action: Forced to close centers fellow makes online learning free for all

  Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

  2017 fellow Rana El Chemaitelly is the founder of The Little Engineer, an initiative that educates students of all ages in robotics, coding, AI, 3D modeling and more at their five centers throughout Lebanon. As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, Rana made the early decision to close all her centers – home to high-touch surfaces for interactive STEM activities – in order to ensure the safety of the kids that participate in The Little Engineer’s 45 programs.
  Rana, however, didn’t want to take learning opportunities away from students, especially as they faced increased difficulty learning at home. “I wanted to keep supporting kids and come out stronger,” she said. As a result, Rana made The Little Engineer online activities free to all students around the world, beginning with 3D modeling lessons in building and designing objects like boats, airplanes and houses. Rana knew that not all students would have the bandwidth to run her regular programs: “We had to be very fast-moving to enable everyone to be engaged online,” she says. Her solution was to use Tinkercad by Autodesk, a free app for 3D design and electronics. Word of the online programs spread, and The Little Engineer platform is now used by teachers and students in Nigeria, the Philippines, South Africa and the U.S. “Teachers are focused on getting it right so they continue to provide a great educational experience for their students,” says Rana. “If we give opportunities to students, they can excel.”​

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  Report Date: 5/11/20

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  Fellow(s): Natalya Tyudina

  Country: Tajikistan

  Region: CSA

  Cohort: 2018

  Project/Action: Fellow featured for work in augmented and virtual reality

  Policy Area(s): Professional Growth

  This month, 2018 fellow Natalya Tyudina was interviewed about her career, her TechWomen experience and her passion for working in virtual and augmented reality. The article was published by Limu Media, a Tajik online newspaper.
  In the interview, Natalya spoke about her love of technology that was first ignited when she was a young girl, as well as her career path that brought her to specializing in AR/VR technology. Natalya also spoke about her TechWomen mentorship at Twitter, where she worked on functions within Android for people with disabilities. Currently, Natalya is based in Aachen, Germany working as a cloud technology developer at Ericsson. “I am proud to be doing what I love. And I will be happy that this article will open new horizons, inspire and allow other people to find themselves in their favorite business,” she said.​

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  Report Date: 5/11/20