Learn about TechWomen’s expansion to Chicago!

TechWomenTechWomen

TechWomen is an Initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

  • Home
  • Program
    • Overview
    • 2022 Action Plans
    • Professional Development
    • Cultural Exchange
    • Delegation Trips
    • Impact
    • [email protected]
    • TechWomen Covid-19 Program Information
  • Participants
    • Eligibility and Application
    • The Experience
    • Award Details
    • 2022 Emerging Leader Profiles
  • Mentors
    • Why Mentor With TechWomen?
    • Professional Mentor Overview
    • Cultural Mentor Overview
    • Impact Coach Overview
    • TechWomen Mentor Application
  • Get Involved
    • TechWomen Chicago
    • Host an Emerging Leader
    • Host an Event
    • Other Ways to Get Involved
    • Host companies and partners
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • Our Team
    • Program Countries
    • Connect
  • FAQ
    • General
    • Participants
    • Mentors
  • Blog
  • Log In

Weeks Four and Five: Final 10 days of TechWomen Fall 2022 Conclude with Historic Events and Expansion Announcements

November 7, 2022 By Zaria Qadafi 1 Comment

The Fall 2022 TechWomen Program capped off with 10 days of high-profile events including the annual Pitch Day hosted by Waymo, the [email protected] Anniversary Event with keynote speaker Assistant Secretary of State of the ECA Lee Satterfield and a DC Delegation that included a surprise visit with remarks from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

Pitch Day was preceded by the third and final Action Plan Workshop led virtually by mentor Eileen Brewer who guided Emerging Leaders through a pitching best practices presentation, followed by breakout sessions to provide each country team dedicated practice time with their Impact Coaches.

On October 17, all 104 Emerging Leaders, Impact Coaches and community stakeholders including U.S. State Department Program Officers Angela Woods and Sydney Plunkett gathered at Google Headquarters, under the sponsorship of partner Waymo, for Pitch Day. Following a brief introduction from Samera Edwards and opening remarks from Suzanne Phillion, both of Waymo, each team delivered an impassioned three-minute pitch offering scalable and sustainable solutions they intend to implement in their home countries to fight problems ranging from water insecurity to domestic violence. Each pitch was then scored by an executive panel of judges composed of Jumana Muwafi of Synopsys, Andrew Udeshi of Chime and Michelle Peacock of Waymo.

Two days later, on Thursday October 20, more than 300 members of the TechWomen community gathered at the Juniper Aspiration Dome to celebrate TechWomen surpassing 10 years of service, impact and programming. Guests including all 104 Emerging Leaders, more than 100 mentors past and present, representatives of loyal partner companies, former TechWomen staff members and special guests from IIE and the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The event kicked off with opening remarks from IIE Senior Vice President of Program Management and Government Edith Cecil followed by words from Juniper Networks Vice President and Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity Hillary Weingast.

Next up, came brief words from Emerging Leader Zanyiwe Asare of South Africa, who announced special keynote speaker Lee Satterfield, Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs after declaring that “talking about the dire need for global change in this unequal world is a good thing, but bringing together over 100 women on a STEM-based program year in and year out is a phenomenal thing.”

Assistant Secretary Satterfield expressed thanks to the expressed thanks to the community before providing insights into the origins of the TechWomen program. “Inspired by former President Obama’s call for a new beginning with the Muslim world during a speech in Cairo in 2009,” Assistant Secretary Satterfield shared, “the State Department created TechWomen. Since the beginning of the program we’ve reached nearly 1000 women in Tech.”

“An essential part of our diplomacy at the State Department,” she added moments later,  “is to build mutual understanding between people in the United States and people in other countries through programs like TechWomen. The idea is that we’re building a network and a community outside of traditional government to government conversations. This is where the real change happens. This is where the real work takes place. When we can create a community to approach shared global challenges.”

Following the remarks from Assistant Secretary Satterfield, long-standing mentors Jeannice Fairrer Samani, Erica Lockheimer, Anar Simpson and Beth Steinberg took to the stage for a panel discussion looking back on their most memorable experiences and advisements as TechWomen.

The penultimate event of the evening was a pre-recorded message from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which highlighted several successful members of the TechWomen community and unveiled five surprise announcements, including the U.S.  expansion of TechWomen into Chicago, Illinois and the overseas expansion into the Balkan nations, commencing with Albania and Montenegro.

To cap off the evening, the seed grant winning teams from Monday’s Pitch Day were announced by mentors Meg Gordon and Jumana Mawafi, who represented seed grant sponsor Synopsys.

Team Sierra Leone was the first of five teams awarded $3000 in seed grant funds. Their impact project, Wata Na Life, will bring clean, safe & sustainable water to the Waterloo community in Sierra Leone.

Team Palestinian Territories was announced as the next $3000 seed grant recipient to develop their Maan app, a mobile tool designed to help new parents navigate care & dismantle stigmas toward children born with disabilities such as Downs Syndrome.

Next, Team Pakistan was announced, earning a $3000 seed grant for their project Agahi, which will use mobile tech to raise awareness about climate change in response to devastating floods that hit Pakistan this year.

Team Rwanda was also awarded $3000 in seed funds for their Pitch Day project, Hatchery Hub, which will combat hunger and inflation in their economy by providing affordable, locally-made hatchery incubators to poultry farmers.

Team Morocco was announced as the final seed fund grantees, earning $3000 for their project AFITech, which will prevent environmentally & economically devastating argan tree wildfires with a solar-powered warning system.

The next week, all of the TechWomen team and Emerging Leaders, along with several delegates from the mentor community, traveled to Washington, DC for the final week of the program. The Washington, DC activities kicked off with a luncheon featuring a women in leadership panel and surprise keynote speech from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who expanded on his previous announcement in a pre-recorded message shared at [email protected]  on five momentous future developments TechWomen will see in coming years, including U.S. expansion to the Chicago market and overseas expansion into the Balkan nations. The following day started with regional summits and closed with an emotional Certificate Ceremony to mark their transition from ELs to Fellows. To close out, ELs engaged in an “I AM Remarkable” debriefing and goal-setting workshop followed by a farewell dinner on October 27.

 

.

​

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Filed Under: 2022 program

Comments

  1. eman youssif says

    November 11, 2022 at 7:15 am

    great journey

    Reply

Speak Your Mind Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 892 other subscribers

Recent Posts

  • Morocco Day 5: Day of Mentorship and Networking with Hello Women, DigiGirlz, TechGirls and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University
  • Morocco Day 4: TechWomen delegation supports launch of Titrit mentoring platform and engages with local entrepreneurs
  • Morocco Day 3: Celebrating 10 Years of TechWomen in Morocco
  • Morocco Day 2: Mentors Dive into U.S. Embassy and Exchange Alumni Impact and Form Focus Groups for Fellow-founded Mentorship App
  • A Moment of Truth, A Moment of Providence: Exploring the life-changing impact of TechWomen with Moroccan Fellow Rahma Tizzane

Categories

  • 2012 Program
  • 2013 Program
  • 2014 Program
  • 2015 Program
  • 2016 Program
  • 2017 Program
  • 2018 Program
  • 2019 Program
  • 2020 Program
  • 2022 (Fall) Program
  • 2022 program
  • Alumnae
  • Announcements
  • Application Tips
  • Central Asia
  • Conferences
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Delegation Trips
  • Emerging Leader Voices
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Girls Education
  • IIE
  • Impact
  • Lean In
  • Mentor Application
  • Mentoring Girls
  • Mentorship
  • Middle East and North Africa
  • Partnerships
  • Professional Development
  • Scholarship
  • Seed Grant
  • Solar Power
  • STEM
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Technology
  • Uncategorized
  • Washington, D.C.

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011

Tags

2013 program 2014 program 2015 program Africa Algeria Alumnae application careers central asia Community cultural exchange Cultural Mentor delegation trips Education Egypt emerging leaders emerging women leaders Empowerment Entrepreneurship guest post impact Jordan kazakhstan Leadership MENA Mentees Mentor Mentors mentorship Middle East Morocco nigeria Rwanda San Francisco Silicon Valley State Department STEM technology TechWomen TechWomen Alumni Tunisia U.S. Department of State Women women in tech womenintech

Blogroll

  • DipNote
  • E-Mediat
  • Fulbright mtvU Fellows
  • Fulbright Student Program
  • Gilman Program
  • Ibrahim Leadership and Dialogue Project Blog
  • IIE Opening Minds
  • Parallel Earth
  • TechGirls
  • Women’s Enterprise for Sustainability

CONTACT US | MEDIA | Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Sitemap
Copyright © 2023 TechWomen | Site by MIGHTYminnow

   

Copyright © 2023 · TechWomen on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...