Impact Stories from Education Diplomacy/Mentoring Policy Area
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
Mentor(s): Marily Nika
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls
In a guest blog post, mentor Marily Nika writes about her experience working with Lindiwe Matlali, 2017 fellow of South Africa. Marily was particularly impressed by Lindiwe’s background as founder and CEO of the program Africa Teen Geeks. In her post, Marily affirms the positive impact that mentoring had on her, as she was was able to reinforce her own skills and knowledge while working alongside someone with such infectious enthusiam and unconditional passion as Lindiwe.
Marily is an Engineering Manager at Google and an AI EdTech startup founder. She completed her Ph.D. in Predictive Analytics and has received the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Influence Award and Google’s North America Diversity Award.
Read More »Report Date...: 1/8/2018
Nigerian Fellow's organization selected by High Commission
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, has been incredibly busy since returning from the United States. Her organization, Girls Voices, has successfully implemented their Tech Girls Advocacy Program (TGAP), which taught 50 public school girls advanced digital literacy skills. The girls focused on three issues that they ultimately developed into their own advocacy website: Ending child marriage, ending gender-based violence and promoting girls’ education.
Additionally, the High Commission of Canada in Nigeria selected Girls Voices for their SheCanLead campaign. As part of the project, the High Commissioner partnered with one of the young leaders of Girls Voices for a week of learning initiatives.
Read More »Report Date...: 1/1/2018
TEDx Talk
Fellow(s): Diana Tsoy
Country: Kazakhstan
Cohort: 2015
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement
Diana Tsoy, 2015 fellow of Kazakhstan, presented at Tedx Almaty on the potential of Kazakh schoolgirls and her own journey as a mentor in STEM. Diana’s TechWomen experience inspired her to become a regional ambassador (RA) of Technovation Kazakhstan. With the help of RA Gulshnar Salpykova, 2016 fellow of Kazakhstan, not only has the Kazakh Technovation program grown from just 11 teams to more than 50 teams from across the country, but in 2017, a Kazakh team also took home the Technovation grand prize.
Diana is actively involved in research in renewable energy and is working towards an advanced degree in technical sciences at ITMO University in St. Petersburg. She was also recently invited to speak at the first “Be A Pro” conference, organized by the Astana International Finance Center, where she spoke about the importance of mentorship.
Read More »Report Date...: 1/1/2018
Featured Blog Post
Fellow(s): Zainab Saleem
Country: Pakistan
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring
In a guest blog post, Zainab Saleem, 2017 fellow of Pakistan, writes about the profound experience she had working with her three Impact Coaches: Irum Aftab Musharraf, Director of Impact and Analytics at PayActiv Inc, Bharathy Srinivasan, Global Leader of Asset Management Services at OpenText and Shalini Agarwal, Director of Engineering and Product at LinkedIn.
Zainab recognizes the importance of her mentors’ patience, generosity and leadership, which led her team to secure a seed grant for their project, “Closing the Gender Gap in Stem.”
Read More »Report Date...: 12/18/2017 & 12/25/17
Ideathon
Fellow(s): Elena Selezneva, Saida Yusupova, Shodiyabegim Bakhtiyorzoda, Sevara Siradjeva, Ozoda Ismailova, Natalya Yusupova
Country: Uzbekistan
Cohort: 2015, 2016, 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Youth Engagement
Six fellows from three cohorts came together this month to organize Uzbekistan’s first Ideathon. Elena Selezneva and Saida Yusupova, both 2016 fellows and Technovation Uzbekistan Ambassadors, led 100 girls aged 10 to 18 with the help of 40 mentors. Several other fellows of Uzbekistan, Shodiyabegim Bakhtiyorzoda (2015), Sevara Siradjeva (2016), Ozoda Ismailova (2016) and Natalya Yusupova (2017), also helped with the Ideathon by delivering presentations and offering their guidance to participants.
The Ideathon was a two-day, intensive, workshop-like experience for prospective Technovation students to address challenges of defining a social problem in their community. Participants work in teams with mentors and use design, critical thinking and innovative learning practices to collaborate and create potential solutions.
Read More »Report Date...: 12/18/2017 & 12/25/17
Pro-Fellow interview
Fellow(s): Amanda Gicharu-Kemoli
Country: Kenya
Cohort: 2016
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls
Amanda Gicharu-Kemoli, 2016 fellow of Kenya, was featured in an interview by ProFellow about her experience with TechWomen. In the interview, Amanda emphasized her service-based vision and the profound impact of TechWomen’s professional and cultural mentors.
Amanda co-founded Tech Republic Africa, a social enterprise that creates technology-driven education tools for youth in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) and has received several fellowships and honors for her work in the field, including an Anita Borg Change Agent Award.
Read More »Report Date...: 12/11/2017
