Impact Stories from Education Diplomacy/Mentoring Policy Area
Fellow conducts entrepreneurship training for students
Fellow(s): Nour Altobasi
Country: Jordan
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Entrepreneurship, Youth Engagement
Nour Altobasi, 2017 fellow of Jordan, has recently conducted trainings on entrepreneurship and lean startup methodologies for students in her community in Amman. Attendees learned how to transform their ideas into a viable business plan by participating in activities such as creating business model posters and designing surveys. The session also taught participants about entrepreneurship and to understand difference between innovation and invention. A student who attended the workshop said, “I learned how to open my startup with confidence… I know who to reach out to and how to start an idea from zero and turn it into a business.”
Read More »Report Date: 4/9/2018
Mentor and fellows lead Technovation Uzbekistan workshops
Fellow(s): Saida Yusupova, Elena Selezneva, Diana Tsoy and Rekha Pai-Kamath
Country: Uzbekistan
Cohort: 2015, 2016
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls
Mentor Rekha Pai-Kamath partnered with 2016 fellows of Uzbekistan Saida Yusupova and Elena Selezneva and 2015 fellow of Kazakhstan Diana Tsoy to lead workshops as part of the inaugural Women Technology and Innovation Week at Tashkent University of Information Technologies earlier this month. The Technovation Uzbekistan workshops hosted girls age 10 to 18, aiming to enhance participants’ critical thinking, entrepreneurship and programming skills by teaching them to think about issues in their communities through the lens of technology. The inaugural event was also attended by U.S. Ambassador Pamela Spratlen and officials from UNDP Uzbekistan, USAID and local universities.
Rekha and the fellows led breakout sessions, challenging participating girls to contemplate social problems and come up with possible tech solutions. Diana and Rekha also shared their experiences with startups in Silicon Valley.
Rekha is Vice President at Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs and a board member at Fast Forward.
Report Date: 3/26/2018
Fellow featured by She Leads Africa
Fellow(s): Lindiwe Matlali
Country: South Africa
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Lindiwe Matlali, 2017 fellow of South Africa, was recently interviewed by She Leads Africa about her work in the tech industry and her initiative, Africa Teen Geeks, a non-profit organization that provides computer science education to children and underserved youth.
Knit2code, one of the organization’s flagship programs, brings 8- to 10-year-old girls together with their female family members to teach them basic computing through knitting. The program is intended to combat the notion that the tech industry is inaccessible to women. When discussing this commonly held belief, Lindiwe says, “I want to get them to believe that they can also be their generation’s Nelson Mandela. Africa is rising and they are the ones who will rise with it.”
Read More »Report Date: 3/26/2018
Mentors collaborate with fellows of Tunisia
Fellow(s): Eileen Brewer, Erin Keeley, Amel Ghoulia, Ameni Channoufi, and Ines Nasri
Country: Tunisia
Cohort: 2014
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls
Mentors Eileen Brewer and Erin Keeley recently traveled to Tunisia to lead and participate in a week of impact-focused programming in partnership with TechWomen fellows. During their trip, Eileen and Erin spoke at Tunisia Digital Day, the third annual conference dedicated to digital innovation, founded and organized by 2014 fellow Ines Nasri and her company, WebPower Tunisie. With Women Leaders in Technology (WoLTech), a non-governmental organization founded by 2014 fellow Ameni Channoufi and 12 other TechWomen fellows, they led mentorship-focused sessions for university students at Sesame University. At American Corner Tunis, the mentors shared keys to successful entrepreneurship and provided budding entrepreneurs an opportunity to receive feedback on their startup ideas. Their trip also included support for training and activities related to Technovation Tunisia’s Spring Camp in collaboration with 2014 felllow Amel Ghouila. Eileen also led cybersecurity training and presented on fundraising during events organized by accelerator Flat6Labs and Founder Institute Tunisia, respectively.
Eileen has worked in product development for over 20 years and is currently Director of Enterprise Security at Symantec and a Managing Director at Golden Seeds. Erin is an engineer and investor who has worked as a tech executive for two decades. She is now the Global Director of Engineering at HGST.
Report Date: 3/26/2018
Mentor(s): Paria Rajal
Company: MissionU
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Mentor Paria Rajai was recently interviewed by Forbes Magazine about her work promoting diversity in the tech sector. As the co-organizer of the inaugural Women of MENA in Tech Conference held in Silicon Valley earlier this year, Paria has actively supported women pursuing careers in tech. She stresses the importance of community in helping women grow in the tech sector and having a network of others who believe in you and encourage you, saying that “sometimes that little faith and support is exactly what you need to overcome that moment of self-doubt.””
Paria is currently leading diversity and inclusion initiatives at MissionU, a company that provides critical job skills training and real-world work experience to students who are unable to afford a traditional four-year degree program.
Read More »Report Date: 3/19/2018
Technovation Training Seminar
Fellow(s): Darya Alontseva
Country: Kazakhstan
Cohort: 2015
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement
Darya Alontseva, 2015 fellow of Kazakhstan, helped to facilitate a two-day training seminar for Technovation teams and mentors at D. Serikbayev East Kazakhstan State Technical University. The event was supported by U.S. Embassy Astana and funded by an alumni scholarship project “Support girls into STEM careers”.
More than 50 people participated in the initiative, which culminated in a pitch presentation to prepare girls to participate in the final stage of the Technovation competition. Six participating teams presented their projects and seven experts evaluated the presentations and provided feedback.
Read More »Report Date: 3/5/2018
Tech Girls Advocacy Program
Fellow(s): Carolyn Seaman
Country: Nigeria
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement
Carolyn Seaman, 2017 fellow of Nigeria and Founder of Girls Voices, recently brought together 100 girls for the organization’s Tech Girls Advocacy Program, a program that trains girls to use photography, computer coding, digital art, creative writing and filmmaking to champion advocacy for girls’ rights. The training resulted in the creation of a website, an app, comic strips, a short film, a research document and many photographs.
Carolyn is passionate about training young girls in tech skills because she believes that STEM has no gender and that for the world to optimize its potential, the brain power of girls cannot be neglected.
Read More »Report Date: 2/26/2018
Fellows Partner with National Youth Service Corps
Fellow(s): Mercy Sosanya and Chioma Ezedi-Chukwu
Country: Nigeria
Cohort: 2015, 2016
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Youth Engagement
Two fellows of Nigeria, Mercy Sosanya, 2015, and Chioma Ezedi-Chukwu, 2016, partnered with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to share their journeys in STEM with over 1,000 young NYSC members. Mercy and Chioma spoke about the power of STEM to solve diverse community problems, including their STEMteers initiative, a digital platform to connect and engage students, professionals and mentors involved in STEM fields in the northeast of Nigeria. At the event, Mercy and Chioma recruited more than 100 new volunteers, whom they will train to implement STEM trainings in secondary schools this March.
Both Mercy and Chioma are involved in multiple activities aimed at engaging and empowering their communities
through STEM, including the YouthCanTech digital literacy program for kids, Mozilla Learning Clubs and Girls Discover STEM workshops in Bauchi.
Report Date: 2/12/2018
TEDx Talk
Fellow(s): Lindiwe Matlali
Country: South Africa
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls
Lindiwe Matlali, 2017 fellow of South Africa, gave a TEDx Talk titled “Knitting is Coding,” which has been published online on the TEDx platform. In her talk, Lindiwe explains how her Knit 2 Code program in South Africa connects knitting to computer science, revealing how grandmothers can teach a new generation the skills of the future.
Lindiwe is the Founder and CEO of Africa Teen Geeks, a non-profit organization that teaches school children and unemployed youth how to code.
Read More »Report Date: 2/5/2018
STEM Training
Fellow(s): Saltanat Alieva
Country: Kyrgyzstan
Cohort: 2016
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement
Saltanat Alieva, 2016 fellow of Kyrgyzstan, recently joined with the American Corners and Centers in her country to launch the project “Girls in Science.” She led a workshop focused on teaching 25 high school girls how to use 3D modeling software from Autodesk, her TechWomen host company.
Earlier this month, Saltanat also received two prestigious designations from the Kyrgyz Economic University: the award for Best Senior Lecturer and the medal for Contributions to the Development of the University.
Additionally, she was one of six winners chosen from participants in a social entrepreneurship training program at the University of Central Asia School of Professional and Continuing Education. As a result, Saltanat received a $3,000 grant to implement an innovative community development project in Kyrgyzstan.
Report Date: 1/15/2018
