By Joanne Liou, Communications and Impact Specialist
Before catching a flight to Astana, the delegation spent the morning meeting with female students from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 2015 fellow Lina Lebedeva’s alma mater. Lina earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural sciences from the university and is a researcher for the university’s Scientific-Research Institute of Problems of Biology and Biotechnology.
Throughout delegation trips, panel discussions allow mentors and fellows to reach a large audience of girls and young women interested in STEM. Maile Smith of Northgate Environmental Management moderated a panel in which mentors Rachel McGuigan of Mozilla, Devanshi Sheth of Symantec, Hosai Omarkhil of Apple and Sarasija Parthasarthy of LinkedIn shared personal stories of how they found their way to Silicon Valley.
As women, we empathize w/ppl. We have an advantage. We can build better relationships. Sarasija @LinkedIn #TWkz pic.twitter.com/AnB8tgxfPC
— TechWomen (@TechWomen) March 16, 2016
From catering to design to tech writing, @artistconquest of @mozilla, shares her path to where she is today. #TWkz pic.twitter.com/tCwte8Ru9Q
— TechWomen (@TechWomen) March 16, 2016
Go and tutor your fellow students. When you teach someone else, you learn and benefit, too. @hosai_omarkhil #TWkz @KazNU_official
— TechWomen (@TechWomen) March 16, 2016
.@devanshisheth of @symantec shares how support from work, husband has made having a career & family possible #TWkz pic.twitter.com/H4EIuF3Rpm
— TechWomen (@TechWomen) March 16, 2016
Afterward, mentors Beth Steinberg of Felicis Ventures, Queen Denchukwu of Autodesk, Heather Frank of LinkedIn and Paria Rajai of Hackbright led soft skills workshops on resume building, interview skills, social media best practices and professional networking.
Resume does not get you the job. It gets you an interview. @qdenchukwu @Kaznuofficial @USCGAlmaty #TWkz pic.twitter.com/XwJlt7aSdV
— TechWomen (@TechWomen) March 16, 2016
Heather Frank and Paria Rajai spoke with university students about optimizing resources, such as LinkedIn, to increase visibility on the job market.
One of the main objectives of the delegation trips is to mentor young women and girls, while serving as a role model. The panel discussions and workshops serve as an opportunity for mentors and fellows to share their personal experiences and learn about the climate of women and girls in STEM in the program countries. “As this is my first delegation trip, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” mentor Rebecca Biswas of Juniper Networks said. “The experience of meeting with such a large group of women and sharing our experience and trying to help promote STEM education among girls is very satisfying.”
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