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#techwomen22 week two: mentorship, action planning and cultural exchange in the Bay Area

March 10, 2022 By TechWomen Leave a Comment

Editor’s note: After a social media pause, TechWomen is sharing weekly highlights from the Spring 2022 TechWomen program that began on February 23 and concluded on March 31, 2022.

After an active week of cultural exchange and professional development workshops, Emerging Leaders were eager to explore all the Bay Area has to offer alongside Cultural Mentors, their cultural ambassadors to the Bay Area. Whether it was a visit to the Academy of Sciences, a tour of Tesla, attending panels with industry leaders at a Bloomberg event or sightseeing around the Painted Ladies, Emerging Leaders and mentors learned about Bay Area culture, and one another, before a busy week ahead.



Professional Interest Groups

Week two kicked-off with the first meeting of Professional Interest Groups, small groups of Emerging Leaders with common professional interests that are guided by mentors. Through the groups — themed on a variety of fields such as digital media, edtech, green tech, engineering, biotech and health sciences, AI and machine learning and more — Emerging Leaders and their mentors will share learnings from their professional mentorship experience, exchange resources and engage in conversations relevant to their fields of interest. Their first meeting explored themes established in the Leadership Workshop, prompting Emerging Leaders to discuss their individual strengths, team strengths and how they could leverage their skills for impact. Cora Lam and Anila Adhikari, co-leaders of the software engineering group, spent time setting goals with their group of Emerging Leaders: “We had a great meeting,” Cora said. “What we discussed the most was soft skills, and we asked Emerging Leaders to create tech-related learning priorities topic that we mentors will try to cover.”

Professional Mentorship

Emerging Leaders were eager to officially begin their professional mentorships on week two, diving into their mentorship goals alongside their mentors. On week one, Professional Mentors and their Emerging Leaders were encouraged to discuss their professional journeys, the Emerging Leaders’ goals and how the Emerging Leader can be supported in her learning objectives. Many Emerging Leaders had an opportunity to meet their mentors on-site at some of the Bay Area’s leading companies.


Action Plan Workshop 1

On Sunday, Emerging Leaders came together as country teams to lay the groundwork for their social impact projects at Action Plan Workshop 1 led by Susie Kelleher and her colleagues at YSC. At the online event, Emerging Leaders began to think strategically about their action plan, a project that will address a socioeconomic issue in their home country. Building off the framework of leveraging personal strengths, thinking critically and maximizing teamwork, Emerging Leaders gathered in breakout rooms to discuss their best moments at work and their best moments outside of work. “What lights you up?” Susie asked.


After the first breakout room session, Emerging Leaders were asked to reflect on their team dynamics through a Strengths-Asks-Offers exercise, sharing what they ask of their team and what they can offer their team. In the share-out that followed, country teams shared what they discussed. “We offer diversity, complementarity and compatibility,” said Team Algeria. “We’re in it to win it,” said Emerging Leaders from Zimbabwe. “Together, we are stronger,” said Team Tajikistan.

Next, country groups began the process of brainstorming with their action plan projects might be. In extended breakout room sessions, country teams created their “headline,” mapped out bullet points that go with their headline and identified their strategic priorities. They also had room to revisit and edit, assessing what they were doing well, identifying what needs to change and agreeing on what requires further discussion after the session concluded. By the end of the day, many country teams had settled on their group’s headlines. Team Pakistan shared their headline of “Mental health for women, and making workplaces better for women’s inclusion. Retention in the workforce.” Team Rwanda agreed on “Food security in regards to gender based violence,” and the Palestinian Territories shared their headline of “Mentoring other women and girls on how to discover and apply for exchange opportunities.” Although many teams laid the groundwork for their project’s missions, coming to a collective decision was not mandatory. Instead, Emerging Leaders were encouraged to continue brainstorming and troubleshooting before submitting their first deliverable, their Issue Statement.

Week three will bring Action Plan Workshop 2, a continuation of Professional Interest Groups and professional mentorship and, hopefully, continued exchange as Emerging Leaders take advantage of all the Bay Area has to offer.

 

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Filed Under: 2022 program, Central Asia, Cultural Exchange, Entrepreneurship, IIE, Impact, Mentorship, Middle East and North Africa, Professional Development, Seed Grant, STEM, Sub-Saharan Africa, Technology

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