Impact Stories from Empowering Women and Girls Policy Area
Fellow delivers inspirational webinar to youth
Fellow(s): Sarah Abdallah
Country: Lebanon
Cohort: 2016
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
2016 fellow Sarah Abdallah delivered an inspirational talk at Inspire, a conference designed and presented by youth in Gaza. The conference was supported by Al Nayzak Organization for Supportive Education and Scientific Innovation and the UNDP Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People. Sarah is a program director at Anera, an organization that supports refugees in the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Jordan. She is also a lecturer at Saint Joseph University of Beirut, delivering courses in professional branding to the university’s engineering students. During her Inspire session, Sarah spoke about the future of jobs, the importance of professional branding and how people in vulnerable regions can remain motivated to succeed. Sarah, a new mother, also spoke about the stereotype that women cannot sustain both a family and career success. “What was important is maintaining the message of hope, as it is our only way to overcome all our current challenges and thrive,” she said.
Report Date...: 2/7/2022
fellow inspires women in STEM
Fellow(s): Iqra Hameed
Country: Pakistan
Cohort: 2019
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
2019 fellow Iqra Hameed was a featured panelist at DevFest Peshawar, speaking about the importance of inclusion in STEM fields. DevFest, a yearly conference focused on community-led learning on Google technologies, is hosted and locally curated by Google Developer Groups (GDGs) across the globe. Iqra works as a product manager as well as a project management consultant. On her panel, “Journeys and experiences in making STEM more inclusive,” Iqra discussed gender diversity and best practices for recruiting, supporting and retaining women in technology. After her panel, Iqra was approached by a young woman who had traveled from Chitral to meet her. The woman follows Iqra on her popular Instagram account, and wanted to speak to Iqra about her career success and get advice about the TechWomen application. “It was the most precious moment of my life,” said Iqra. “She came all the way to Peshawar just to meet me and understand the TechWomen application process. She applied this year, and I am hoping for the best.”
Read More »Report Date...: 2/7/2022
Fellow(s): Thulile Khanyile, Dana Abdel Khalek, Aziza Haidarova
Country: Lebanon, South Africa, Tajikistan
Cohort: 2022
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth
TechWomen 2022 Emerging Leaders have been invited to share their perspectives and experiences with the TechWomen community in Emerging Leader Voices, a guest blog post series where incoming Emerging Leaders write about their struggles, achievements and journeys to TechWomen. Thulile Khanyile of South Africa, a non-profit founder, lecturer, microbiologist and podcaster, kicked off the series with Impact through biology, entrepreneurship and podcasting: the journey of a multipotentialite. Thulile writes about her passion for fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship through empowering women and youth: “The combination of giving light to new ideas and connecting science to the people is the goal I work tirelessly to fulfill,” she writes. In her post, Hope is not to believe change is coming, but to work towards it, Dana Abdel Khalek of Lebanon writes about the difficulties she faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and her choice to turn her struggles into growth opportunities. Dana founded GenZ, a startup that addresses youth unemployment in Lebanon through offering training in e-commerce, data analysis and more. “GenZ is committed to reaching everyone in need of those skills,” she writes. Aziza Haidarova of Tajikistan writes about her journey to TechWomen in her post, Setting global goals with TechWomen. “For a long time, I hesitated whether to apply or not,” writes Aziza. “Participation in this program will be a great experience for me, both in my career and in my personal capacity. I will discover a new world for myself.” TechWomen will soon conclude the series with two additional posts from Emerging Leaders representing Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
Read More »Report Date...: 1/31/2022
Mentor(s): Vasanthi Renganathan
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Mentor Vasanthi Renganathan shared best practices in communication on the latest episode of Perspectives, a live event where Vasanthi’s LinkedIn colleague, Diana Zhang, invites guests to speak about their experiences and share their paths of empowering others around them. Vasanthi, who has served as both an Impact Coach and Professional Mentor, is a senior staff technical program manager at LinkedIn. “Relationships are the currency of business, and communication is the foundation of successful relationships,” she said during her talk. She then explored what she calls “Communication Meters,” including an audience meter, a goal meter, an emotional meter, an inclusiveness meter, an unconscious bias meter, a boundary meter and more. “The emotional meter really plays a role to create a gage for yourself and keep your team working in the right direction,” she said.
Read More »Report Date...: 1/31/2022
Mentor and fellows collaborate to inspire students
Fellow(s): Eileen Brewer, Elena Selezneva, Ozoda Ismailova, Saida Yusupova, Amel Djenidi
Country: Algeria, United States, Uzbekistan
Cohort: 2016, 2018
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Mentor Eileen Brewer traveled to Uzbekistan, collaborating with fellows to train and empower students throughout Tashkent. Eileen, the mentor manager at startup accelerator 757 Accelerate, first traveled to Uzbekistan with TechWomen as a delegate on the TechWomen 2019 delegation trip. Eileen was invited by American Councils for International Education to deliver two days of training for alumnae of their Young Professional Internships Program (YPIP), an initiative that connects young STEM professionals to internship programs at Uzbek businesses and organizations. Eileen invited 2016 fellow of Uzbekistan Elena Selezneva to support her with the training, collaborating to deliver workshops on entrepreneurship, design thinking, Lean Canvas and pitching. Eileen also visited a local IT park and incubator hub, speaking to girls ages 9-12 from a public school about ideation, design thinking and the Technovation program. There, Eileen was joined by 2018 fellow of Uzbekistan Yulduz Khudaykulova, whose daughter attends the school, as well as 2018 fellow of Algeria Amel Djenidi, who recently moved to Tashkent. Last, Eileen delivered an ideation training to girls from the Technovation program that was organized by Elena alongside 2016 fellows of Uzbekistan Saida Yusupova and Ozoda Ismailova.
Report Date...: 1/17/2022
Mentor(s): Erica Lockheimer
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth
Mentor Erica Lockheimer was named to the 100 Women Tech Leaders to Watch in 2022 list by WomenTech Network, a global platform that promotes diversity in tech. Their annual list recognizes and honors women who are moving technology forward and working towards greater gender parity in their fields. Erica is the vice president of engineering for LinkedIn Talent Solutions, LinkedIn Learning and Glint. During TechWomen 2020-2021, Erica spoke in a fireside chat alongside mentor Mansi Modak, telling Emerging Leaders about her path to leadership and stressing the importance of mentorship. “You’re not going to fit into a perfect box,” she reminded them. “I struggled, and if there’s anything I can do to make that path easier for people by sharing my story, I will.”
Read More »Report Date...: 1/17/2022
Fellows collaborate for Turkmenistan’s first DevFest
Fellow(s): Maral Hudaybergenova, Natalya Tyudina
Country: Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
Cohort: 2018
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
2018 fellow of Turkmenistan Maral Hudaybergenova organized Turkmenistan’s first-ever DevFest Ashgabat, a two-day event that brought together local developers for learning and networking. DevFest, a yearly conference focused on community-led learning on Google technologies, is hosted and locally curated by Google Developer Groups (GDGs) across the globe. Maral serves as the GDG Ashgabat lead, as well as the ambassador for Women TechMakers Ashgabat. She is also the chapter ambassador for Technovation, and last year launched the first season of the program in Turkmenistan. Maral invited 2018 fellow of Tajikistan Nataliya Tyudina, a cloud technology developer at Ericsson, to speak at the inaugural event, joining other technology leaders who presented on community-building, dev-ops, IoT and more. In her presentation, Natalya spoke about eXtended reality technologies and trends, sharing about AR, VR, MR and XR. Natalya focused on the accessibility of these emerging technologies, emphasizing that despite sounding “fancy,” they are easy to learn and deliver high-impact results. “It was one the most engaging presentations that I have done this year,” said Natalya. “I got a lot of questions from the participants, and the majority of people who were asking were females.” Since her talk, Natalya has connected with some of the women in attendance, sharing resources and suggesting courses for them to continue their learning.
Report Date...: 1/10/2022
Fellow wins Woman in Tech Award
Fellow(s): Sabina Nforba
Country: Cameroon
Cohort: 2020-2021
Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
2020-2021 fellow Sabina Nforba won the Woman in Tech Award at the Bonteh Digital Media Awards, recognized for her leadership in technology and for empowering the next generation. Bonteh Digital Media Awards is Cameroon’s first media and tech award ceremony aimed at honoring and amplifying leaders in the digital economy. Sabina is the co-founder and president of AfriTech Hub, an organization that empowers young students and women to pursue STEM education and STEM careers. The initiative has worked with 3,000 students through its clubs, workshops and summits, and recently held a training for girls in front-end coding, helping place them in internships at the bootcamp’s conclusion. Sabina also works in data analytics for i engineering Group, a Beirut-based telecommunications company. “It was an honor to receive the Woman in Tech Award,” wrote Sabina. “A big thanks to everyone who has supported me through the work we do at AfriTech Hub. There would be no award without you and this is dedicated to you. I hope this inspires you to dream and do! Start wherever you are, start today. I promise, the world will be thankful you did.”
Read More »Report Date...: 1/10/2022
Fellow joins U.S. Embassy’s Alumni Mentorship Program
Fellow(s): Ghada Amin
Country: Egypt
Cohort: 2018
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
2018 fellow Ghada Amin was accepted as a mentor for the Alumni Mentorship Program, an initiative from the U.S. Embassy Cairo that empowers alumni of State Department-funded exchange programs to train and mentor others in their communities. The program, available in Cairo, Alexandria and Upper Egypt, seeks to connect alumni mentors and mentees from diverse fields to support mentees with their personal and professional goals.
In addition to working as an environment and compliance service manager, Ghada is an ambassador of sustainable development for Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, an initiative that seeks to build capacity around environmental sustainability. Last month, Ghada attended a three-day training that offered program mentors tools and best practices for optimizing the mentor and mentee experience. This month, she began mentoring five women in the fields of sustainable development, climate change and digital marketing; two of the women are undergraduate students, two are graduates and one is a high school student who is also an alumna of the TechGirls program. Ghada will mentor the women for three months, guiding them through challenges and offering her advice and expertise. “I’m so inspired by the program,” said Ghada. “I’m excited to mentor more people and give back to our community.”
Report Date...: 1/3/2022
Fellow featured in U.S. Embassy’s #30Years30Friends campaign
Fellow(s): Gulzire Minbaeva
Country: Kyrgyzstan
Cohort: 2018
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
2018 fellow Gulzire Minbaeva was highlighted in #30Years30Friends, a campaign from the U.S. Embassy in the Kyrgyz Republic that celebrates the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Kyrgyz Republic.
After visiting Khan Academy HQ during TechWomen 2018 Gulzire, a teacher and education advocate, became the official representative of Khan Academy in Kyrgyzstan. Since then, she has been featured for leading a team that is translating thousands of video courses to Kyrgyz available for free to students throughout Kyrgyzstan. In her #30Years30Friends spotlight, Gulzire shared how the TechWomen program supported her in achieving her dreams: “The TechWomen program is the best program aimed at developing the qualities of leadership, determination, risk, diligence and wisdom,” she said. “TechWomen taught me to look for opportunities, to recognize them and to use them properly. I learned to inspire myself, to always move forward and to achieve goals.”
Report Date...: 1/3/2022
