Impact Stories from Empowering Women and Girls Policy Area
Mentors launch series of free data privacy trainings
Fellow(s): “Jessica Dickson Goodman, Tanya Kobyluk, and Fatema Kothari”
Country:
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls
TechWomen mentor Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Board President of the Internet Society’s San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (SF Bay ISOC), has launched a free virtual series of encryption and data protection trainings with the support of co-host and mentor Tanya Kobyluk, ISOC Board Vice-President, and mentor Fatema Kothari, ISOC board member.
Running every third Monday of the month, the trainings focus on providing tactical tech support and training about encryption tools, technologies and good habits to protect personal data and private searches online.
The sessions were started as a response to an overall interest in people seeking better control of their online privacy as a result of recent rollbacks on reproductive protections in the USA. They are open to the public and have been attended by guests worldwide, including TechWomen alumnae from Egypt and Cameroon.
Report Date...: 7/18/2022
Fellow hosts seminar on business accounting with help of NGO
Fellow(s): Merjen Saparmyradova
Country: Turkmenistan
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Merjen Saparmyradova (Turkmenistan, 2019) recently collaborated with Public Accountants, an Ashgabat-based NGO, to lead a seminar on the importance of business accounting as part of her Launch Life Coding Bootcamp for women and girls. The seminar focused on building its participants’ foundational knowledge of economic, financial and legal matters critical for small-scale enterprises and entrepreneurs in Turkmenistan.
Launch Life Coding Bootcamp is designed to promote the economic rights and opportunities of its participants by developing their coding aptitude while also growing their resume, cover letter and interview skills. Merjen believes that “teamwork and collaboration can foster a healthy work culture and environment where teams of individuals can achieve goals through powerful skills and effective work.”
Report Date...: 7/11/2022
Mentor leads POWER sessions with U.S. State Department
Fellow(s): Lucie Newcomb
Country:
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Long-time TechWomen mentor Lucie Newcomb, CEO of NewComm Global Group, collaborated with diplomatic partners to host a series of webinars for Providing Opportunities for Women’s Economic Rise (POWER), an initiative of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.
Topics of the webinar series focused on value proposition and product market fit, business planning, funding sources and pitching. Lucie co-designed and co-facilitated these sessions with stakeholders from the U.S. Embassies in Tokyo and Seoul.
POWER was launched in 2019 to leverage diplomatic relationships and resources to promote women’s economic empowerment worldwide. It connects the U.S. private sector with U.S. missions abroad to encourage opportunities, partnership and strategy among women-led enterprises in emerging markets.
Lucie has worked as a Speaker Program Trainer and Curriculum Developer for the U.S. State Department for more than 8 years. She actively attended last month’s SelectUSA Summit hosted by the U.S. Department of Commerce and has recently been named one of the 150 Great Leaders of 2022 by the Global Council for the Promotion of International Trade.
Report Date...: 7/11/2022
Fellow subject of short film on pioneering satellite build
Fellow(s): Kyzzhibek Batyrkanova
Country: Kyrgyzstan
Cohort: 2019
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth
Kyrgyz fellow Kyzzhibek Batyrkanova (2019) recently starred as the lead subject of a 7-minute documentary on the Kyrgyz Space Program produced by the Eastern Standard Times (EST). Kyzzhibek is the 27-year-old director of the Kyrgyz Space Program and leads an all-girls team on a mission to build and launch their country’s first ever satellite. The Kyrgyz Space Program was founded in 2018 to advance science, education and gender equality in the country and Central Asian region. With no national space infrastructure to lean on, Kyzzhibek and her team have started from scratch, first building a lightweight 10cm x 10cm x 10cm educational model of a CubeSat, a miniature satellite which can collect and analyze simple data from space before moving on to draft and flight models. In the short film, Kyzzhibek explains, “Our project [is] not only aiming to launch the satellite, but also to educate girls and women. More than 100 women [have] graduated our course and they [have] started [sic] how to solder, how to create 3d models, how to code, and [how to] work with Arduino microcontrollers and their sensors.” She continues, “after completing our courses, some of the girls wanted to study programming and become software developers and some [went on] to universities with technical majors.”
Despite the simplicity of the satellite model, the project has already lasted four years and is estimated to cost more than 100,000 USD. The Kyrgyz Space Program raises funds in part through a Patreon page. There, they honor important women from international space history with various donation brackets named after the famous figures, including Shiaki Mukai, the first female Asian astronaut, Anousheh Ansari, the first Muslim female astronaut and Anna Lee Fisher, the first mother to journey to space. The history-making satellite has been named after Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy, a 20-year-old Kyrgyz medical student who was murdered by her abductor in a police station while trying to report her own bride kidnapping.
“We really want girls in our country, our region and globally to understand that they are capable of doing anything,” Kyzzhibek declares. “The world is such a big place, and the universe is enormous. No matter what other people tell you, always believe in yourself.”
Report Date...: 7/4/2022
Fellow speaks on transformational mentoring in aerospace panel
Fellow(s): Madeeha Khan
Country: Pakistan
Cohort: 2022
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship
Fellow Madeeha Khan Yousafzai of Pakistan (2022) was honored to speak on the panel “Transformational Mentoring: Inspiring Global Change Makers” at the Womentech Global Conference (WTGC) in June. As founder of House of Passions, a professional coaching and training consultancy, Madeeha brought her extensive expertise in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), IBM Blue Core, scrum framework, and agile and lean methodologies to a discussion on the accelerative value of mentorship in both career and life, with an emphasis on the aerospace industry. Madeeha spoke in the company of four women leaders from the space technology and policy sector to promote the life-changing value of mentorship in advancing entrepreneurship, leadership, diversity and inclusion. Her co-panelists included: Shelli Brunswick, Chief Operating Officer of Space Foundation and a United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) Space4Women mentor; Lee Steinke, Chief Operating Officer of CisLunar Industries; Dr. Wumi Alabi, Deputy Technical Director and Head of Space Applications at the African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in English (ARCSSTE-E); and Tuana Yazici, an UNOOSA Space4women mentee and space tech policy advocate.
The WTGC 2022 was a hybrid conference hosted across a diverse array of global time zones as a program of the WomenTech Network and the Coding Girls Foundation.
Report Date...: 6/20/2022
Marvell mentors and fellows collaborate to promote TechWomen mentorship
Fellow(s): Cora Wai Sheung Lam, Shailja Garg, Nayanika Diwadkar, Khadija Garamanli and Safa Buzgeia
Country: Libya, Tunisia, United States
Cohort: 2022
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Mentors and fellows of sponsor Marvell Technology hosted a webinar of nearly 50 attendees to promote the TechWomen (TW) mentorship experience. The event, “TechWomen 2022: Spring Lookback and Autumn Cohort Applications,” was co-organized by various Marvell stakeholders, including mentors Cora Wai Sheung Lam, Shailja Garg and Nayanika Diwadkar. It also featured guest presentations from fellows Khadija Garamanli (Libya, 2022) and Safa Buzgeia (Tunisia, 2022). The event included an opening address, a comprehensive overview of the TechWomen program, an introductory video featuring TW director Katie Zee, remarks from TW Mentorship Initiatives Lead Linda Miles, and detailed first-hand accounts of the experiences of mentor and fellow experiences. The event was launched with opening speaker Kalpendu Pasad, Principal Engineer and Manager at Marvell, who emphasized, “We are at the cusp of a technology revolution [and]… we cannot afford for women to be left out. One-on-one mentoring by the engineering community, at every stage, is essential to ensure that women cultivate a lasting and fulfilling career in technology.”
Report Date...: 6/20/2022
Nigerian fellow wins funding for youth accelerator in Niger; collaborates with TechWomen mentor for technical tools
Fellow(s): Binta Moustapha
Country: Nigeria
Cohort: 2014
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Nigerian alumna Binta Moustapha, 2014, has recently won a grant from the Bank of Africa Foundation in the amount of ten million West African francs (CFA) for use toward her youth training initiative, Cabinet Hub Zinder. Located in her spouse’s home country, the Republic of Niger, Cabinet Hub Zinder, also called the African Street Business School and Entrepreneurship Hub, was founded to accelerate digital and entrepreneurship skills training for young people aged 18-35 who are not currently involved in critical Education Employment or Training programs (NEETs).
When Binta first relocated to Niger in 2016, she faced adjustment issues when she struggled to communicate in the French lanuage. Binta shares that she was inspired by the biblical quote made popular by Hillary Clinton to “bloom where you are planted,” and began volunteering to teach English as a second language at her local American Corner, a regional resource center provided by the US State Department where people can gather, share and learn about American culture, history, current events and government. Her involvement at the American Corner eventually led Binta to the founding of Cabinet Hub Zinder.
In this program, the 120 youth participants, 60% of whom will be women, will receive stipend funds totalling 42,000 CFA each to compensate their time, transportation and data connection expenses. Participants with Cabinet Hub Zinder will also take part in a financial innovation challenge for fintech solutions internship opportunities in mobile device repairs, graphic design and more. Utilizing her TechWomen network, Binta has also partnered with San Francisco mentor Kathy Giori, who will provide MicroBlocks hardware to support program participants. Cabinet Hub Zinder will be hosted at the American Corner in Zinder, Niger.
Report Date...: 6/13/2022
Fellows host roundtable discussion with Kyrgyz National Academy of Sciences
Fellow(s): Kanykei Alipova, Tursunai Bektemirova, Ainura Mitalipova, and Nargiza Abdubalieva
Country: Kyrgyzstan, Palestinian Territories
Cohort: 2014, 2022
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship
In early June, 2022 fellow Tursunai Bektemirova, a chairwoman on the Council of Young Scientists in Kyrgyzstan, co-organized a roundtable discussion with the support and participation of fellows Kanykei Alipova 2022, Ainura Mitalipova 2022, and Nargiza Abdubalieva 2014. The event, “Women in Science and Education: Trends and Perspectives”, was hosted by the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic (NAS KR) and served to highlight, elevate, and support the topic of women’s roles and contributions to science and educational development in the region.
Tursunai shares that she conceived of the idea, “after coming back home from the USA TechWomen program [in] 2022. Right away, I had an idea to organize a roundtable for women in STEM.” During the event, Kanykei supported the talk by spotlighting the team’s TechWomen action plan project Kamkor, an online platform devoted to supporting working mothers at each stage of child care, and Ainura joined remotely to present her own related project, Baby Comer. The event, sponsored by the Kumtor Gold Company JSC, was attended by President of the NAS KR, Murat Dzhumatayev, as well as other noteworthy academicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, leaders and humanitarians. Topics of discussion included the socio-economic opportunities of rural young women, quality and levels of education available for women, and socio-psychological portrayals of women in science.
Report Date...: 6/6/2022
Kenyan fellow offers insights in interview with STEM platform Atingi
Fellow(s): Sylvia Mukasa
Country: Kenya
Cohort: 2014
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls
Kenyan fellow Sylvia Mukasa, 2014, was recently spotlighted in an interview by Atingi, an online platform designed to inspire and motivate young women worldwide to become trailblazers in STEM. Sylvia, a specialist in Emerging Technologies at GlobalX Investments Ltd/GlobalX Innovation Labs with over 15 years of professional experience, shared her inspirations and advisement for launching and navigating a career in Tech. When questioned about the challenges of working in a male-dominated industry, Sylvia shared, that “unconscious bias has been [her] greatest challenge.” She is an advocate for self-validation, always “bringing [your] A-game” and remembering that “you are just as big or as small as you think you are.” Her greatest advice for young women considering a career in STEM is to, “believe in yourself and seek all the support you need to succeed, but… be ready to knock on many doors without tiring. The worst you will be told is a ‘no’. Try the next door if this happens.”
Report Date...: 6/6/2022
Mentor(s): Cora Wai Sheung Lam
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Mentor Cora Wai Sheung Lam was honored as one of the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 2022 Women of Influence in its third year. Honorees are selected from the public, private and non-profit sectors, and each recognized for the positive impacts they have effected in Silicon Valley and beyond. Those selected as honorees must demonstrate a “strong record of innovation in their fields, outstanding performance in their businesses and a clear track record of meaningful community involvement.”
In addition to her years as a mentor and champion for TechWomen, Cora has more than two decades of experience in STEM and current serves as Senior Principal CAD Engineer at Marvell Technology. Cora also leads the Women at Marvell organization and describes her dedication for promoting gender equity in STEM by saying, “Witnessing how STEM can exponentially improve millions of people across the globe, especially women, just touches my heart deeply.”
Report Date...: 5/31/2022
