Impact Stories from Professional Growth Policy Area
Fellows launch initiative developed during 2017 TechWomen program
Fellow(s): Lara Chikhani, Maya Itani and Rasha Sukkarieh
Country: Lebanon
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
After developing their action plan concept during the 2017 program, three fellows of Lebanon, Lara Chikhani, Maya Itani and Rasha Sukkarieh, have launched Solve24, a project-based summer program that will train students aged 13-17 to solve real-life problems through STEM. Though the team was not awarded a seed grant during their time in the U.S., Lara, Maya and Rasha were passionate about their idea and continued their mentorship virtually upon returning home, supported by Impact Coaches Katy Dickinson, Fatema Kothari and Mercedes Soria, who serve on Solve24’s advisory board. Said Lara, “Thank you to Techwomen for pushing us to start this and connecting us with the amazing mentors.”
Solve24 will offer activities to improve participants’ skills in design thinking, leadership, communication, innovation and teamwork as they design a project focused on solving an issue in their community. At the end of the program, students will pitch their projects to design professionals, mentors and family members. The top projects will be awarded a prize.
Lara, Maya and Rasha hope that Solve24 will help Lebanese youth cultivate critical thinking skills and creativity in order to create positive impact and be competitive in the global job market. The first boot camp program will begin this summer.
Report Date...: 6/25/2018
Fellows presents action plan initiative at Women Ambassador Forum
Fellow(s): Hiba Shabrouq
Country: Jordan
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
2017 fellow Hiba Shabrouq recently represented Jordan at the Women Ambassadors Forum (WAF) in Dallas, Texas. The forum aims to provide women leaders with resources and the supportive network they need to reach their full potential. While attending, Hiba pitched Ozwah, Team Jordan’s action plan project that won a TechWomen seed grant during the 2017 program. Ozwah strives to make higher education more accessible to female orphans through training and mentorship. After her pitch presentation, Hiba received valuable feedback about the possibility of international collaboration.
The annual Women Ambassadors Forum runs five days and includes professional development seminars, meetings with corporate and community leaders, a speaker series and field trips. WAF receives more than 1,000 applications from changemakers across the globe, but only a select pool is invited to attend.
Report Date...: 6/18/2018
Fellow shares experiences as a female founder at MEST Africa Summit
Fellow(s): Baratang Miya
Country: South Africa
Cohort: 2015
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Baratang Miya, 2015 fellow of South Africa, spoke on a panel about female founders at the MEST Africa Summit in Cape Town. The panel discussed the lack of women in the African tech space and the challenges female CEOs face in building their businesses. Baratang is a self-taught coder who believes coding is a powerful tool that can be used to empower women and girls who are often shut out of the technology industry. After learning to code, Baratang was inspired to found GirlHype, an organization that offers free after-school programming for 6th to 12th grade girls to learn coding. In addition, the program teaches participants lessons in digital literacy, such as positive and negative consequences of the internet, including privacy concerns and ways to protect one’s information.
When discussing resources for success on the panel, Baratang said, “You need mentors. I was in business for too long until I went into a program of women who just said to me, listen, you just got to do it. Forget about all the stereotypes in your head.”
Report Date...: 6/18/2018
Mentor(s): Catherine Simpson
Company: Agile Learning
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth
Mentor Cathy Simpson attended the 2018 Go Viral Festival in Almaty, Kazakhstan, an event that brought together experts in the fields of media, business, culture and technology to create innovative ideas. Fellow Diana Tsoy (2015) served on the festival’s Board of Supervisors, which also included U.S. Consul General Mark Moody and others from the Consulate General, which supported the event.
Cathy is a certified scrum trainer and agile coach at Agile Learning Labs. At the festival, she led workshops on the scrum process and how it can increase productivity for businesses. She also discussed the importance of increasing the presence of women and girls in STEM. In an interview with Go Viral, Cathy shared several tips for companies to become more agile. “Get feedback. Engage your customers, engage your stake holders, engage your team members. There is nothing more vital than doing good project work or creating a good product and making sure you’re on the right track.”
During Cathy’s visit to Kazkhastan, she also traveled to Astana, where she led additional workshops and trainings, including for Technovation participants. Joining activities during Cathy’s visit were fellows Dina Shaikhislam, Bee Makhambet, Yelena Filipchik, Aliya Meldebekova, Veronika Iurchenko, Gulshnar Salpykova and Aliya Mukhametzhanova, as well as 2018 Emerging Leader Nargiza Siyabekova.
Report Date...: 6/18/2018
Fellows return to Bay Area as part of collaboration with Mozilla
Fellow(s): Ayah Soufan, Yamama Shaka’a and Dorothée Danedjo Fouba
Country: Cameroon, Palestinian Territories
Cohort: 2014, 2015, 2016
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth
Fellows Ayah Soufan (2015) and Yamama Shaka’a (2016) of the Palestinian Territories and fellow Dorothée Danedjo Fouba (2014) of Cameroon visited San Francisco this week to attend Mozilla’s All Hands Meeting. All three fellows became involved in Mozilla’s global community after being mentored at the company during the TechWomen program. They have remained engaged with Mozilla as community members and Mozilla Tech Speakers, a role that involves speaking to their communities about Mozilla’s products and services. Tech Speakers have been competitively selected to complete a six-week program where participants develop workshops and receive training on public speaking so that the workshops can be presented all over the world.
While in the Bay Area, Ayah, Yamama and Dorothée also attended a TechWomen event hosted at Twitter to celebrate the program’s impact in Egypt and Nigeria. Visiting fellows, mentors and program staff gathered to share and learn about the many ways fellows are creating meaningful impact in their communities, particularly highlighting the 2018 delegation trips.
Report Date...: 6/11/2018
Fellow selected as U.S. embassy alumna of the month
Fellow(s): Faten Khalfallah
Country: Tunisia
Cohort: 2015
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Faten Khalfallah, 2015 fellow of Tunisia, was selected as alumna of the month by the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia. During the TechWomen program, Faten was mentored at Autodesk, where she received training on many of the company’s software applications, as well as support from her mentors to launch her own initiative in Tunisia. The embassy highlighted Faten’s efforts as founder of First Skills Club, a non-profit organization that provides STEM programming for youth aged 10 to 16. The program is currently training 150 students in computer programming, robotics and entrepreneurship.
Last year, several students in the First Skills Club participated in the Robotics Olympics in Washington, D.C. and won gold and silver medals in the International Excellence category. Students from the club also attended the 2018 Robotics World Championship in Kentucky, where they won the Judge’s Award and were among the top ten teams of girls aged 12 to 14. Faten is now preparing a team that will soon travel to Mexico to participate in the 2018 Robotic Olympic Games. She hopes that one day Tunisia will become a global technology hub.
Read More »Report Date...: 6/11/2018
Fellow highlights STEM mentorship program in podcast episode
Fellow(s): Chao Mbogo
Country: Kenya
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
2017 fellow of Kenya Dr. Chao Mbogo was interviewed in an episode of Pursuit Podcast about her organization, KamiLimu, which engages computer science students at Kenyan universities in a six-month mentorship program. Chao explains that she launched KamiLimu to address the gap between what students are learning in the classroom and the skills they need to be competitive in the global STEM job market. Since 2016, KamiLimu has supported 96 students, several of whom have won international awards and scholarships after participating in the mentorship program.
Chao discussed the four major pillars that participants learn in the program: innovation and ICT skills, professional development, community involvement and scholarship application and awareness. This model ensures that while students are learning ICT skills to supplement what might be lacking in their curricula, they also receive training to most effectively apply to jobs and scholarships and become active members of the Kenya tech community. Chao said, “Mentorship for me is not inviting someone to talk and then they go away… Mentorship is more long term, and it has to happen every day, every week, every month.”
Report Date...: 6/11/2018
Mentor(s): Leedjia Svec
Company: U.S. Navy
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth
Mentor Leedjia Svec was featured in an article by Wogrammer highlighting her innovative and creative efforts to promote science education around the world. Leedjia, who is passionate about both science and art, started a personal blog called StylishSTEM that explores the ways in which STEM is used in the fashion industry.
The article also highlights Leedjia’s travels to Nigeria as part of the 2018 TechWomen delegation, where she connected with a woman who works at the African Technology Foundation. Through this connection, Leedjia discovered that the foundation is working on NASA’s International Space App Challenge in an effort to support Nigeria to become an important stakeholder in the space industry.
The trip inspired Leedjia to think about STEM and fashion within this context. She said, “What if we combine space concepts into their fabric? Nigerian textiles are a huge part of their culture and are present everywhere. If we incorporate space themes into their fabric, they will begin to see space everywhere and their own identity in space. It would be a fun way to learn and see themselves in these industries.” Leedjia continues to leverage the relationships she built on the delegation trip to Nigeria, including by co-developing a color physics curriculum using the foundation’s textiles.
Report Date...: 6/4/2018
Fellow joins AmCham in honoring U.S. Ambassador
Fellow(s): Elena Sergeeva
Country: Uzbekistan
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth
Elena Sergeeva, 2017 fellow of Uzbekistan, recently attended an event to honor the departing U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Pamela Spratlen. Hosted at AmCham, the event brought together members of the American Chamber of Commerce, as well as representatives from local embassies and companies, including Microsoft, Mars and Artishok.
Hugo Minderhould, President of AmCham, gave introductory remarks commending Ambassador Spratlen on her work to advance diplomacy between Uzbekistan and the United States. The Ambassador then delivered a speech about the relationship between the two countries, as well as President Mirziyoyev’s visit to Washington, DC and Uzbekistan’s commendable efforts to join the World Trade Organization.
Report Date...: 6/4/2018
Fellow chosen as Optical Society Ambassador
Fellow(s): Yaseera Ismail
Country: South Africa
Cohort: 2016
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth
Yaseera Ismail, 2016 fellow of South Africa, was selected as a 2018 Optical Society Ambassador for her work on quantum communications and the development of quantum-enabled technologies. Yaseera has been an active member of the Optical Society of America (OSA) for nine years and was the founding president of the student chapter in Durban, South Africa in 2012.
OSA Ambassadors are leaders in the field of optics and photonics who are dedicated to supporting the society’s chapters. They provide career advice, technical knowledge and mentorship and support professional development events at different chapters of OSA. Ambassadors also serve as mentors to early career professionals in the optics and photonics fields. Just ten individuals are selected to be ambassadors each year, hailing from across the globe.
OSA was founded in 1916 with the mission to educate and bring together scientists, engineers, educators and technicians from across the globe to engage in professional development.
Report Date...: 6/4/2018
