Impact Stories from Professional Growth Policy Area

Fellows named 2021 Chevening Scholars

Fellow(s): Imene Henni Mansour, Davephine Tholley

Country: Algeria, Sierra Leone

Cohort: 2018, 2019

2018 fellow of Sierra Leone Davephine Tholley and 2019 fellow of Algeria Imene Henni Mansour were named recipients of the Chevening Scholarship, a program that awards global leaders a fully-funded scholarship to pursue a one-year master’s degree at a UK-based institution.
Davephine, an engineer who most recently worked as an operations manager at Water4Ever, will pursue a master’s in engineering business management at University of Sussex. Imene, an IT consultant and general manager at InnoCom, will pursue an MSc in business intelligence and digital marketing at Brunel Business School in London.

Report Date...: 8/23/21

Fellow launches Inn2preneur-- a platform to inspire innovation

Fellow(s): Ala’a Agha Karss

Country: Jordan

Cohort: 2017

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

2017 fellow Ala’a Agha Karss launched a new platform to empower youth and women on their entrepreneurial journeys, sharing best practices for those interested in business, coding and more. On the YouTube channel, Inn2preneur, Ala’a shares tips and advice for people at all levels of entrepreneurship, offering actionable steps that encourage creativity, confidence and innovation.
Ala’a is the founder and CTO of Superiors TechHub, and trains women and youth in coding, mobile app development and more. The Inn2preneur videos share content on how to become a developer, an intro to programming, non-programming jobs in the IT sector and more.

Report Date...: 8/23/21

Fellows hold summer camp for over 100 students

Fellow(s): Damilola Asaleye, Ehi Aigiomawu, Flora Asibe, Happy Amos, Olayinka Fagbemiro and Oluwatoyin Adegoke

Country: Nigeria

Cohort: 2020-2021

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

This week, 2020-2021 fellows Damilola Asaleye, Ehi Aigiomawu, Flora Asibe, Happy Amos, Olayinka Fagbemiro and Oluwatoyin Adegoke successfully hosted a five day summer camp for children in partnership with the Girls and Women Technological Empowerment Organisation (GWTEO). The EduChamps summer camp is part of the 2020-2021 Nigerian fellows’ action plan project created during the TechWomen program to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
The camp was attended by over 100 secondary school students, most of whom were girls. Over five days, the students were placed into break out sessions where each group discussed leadership, efficiency, upcycling, solar energy and sustainability. They also received training on various topics including entrepreneurship, financial literacy, renewable energy, team building, sustainable agriculture and more. In addition to workshops and training, the students heard inspiring keynotes from women in STEM who encouraged them to be ambitious, dream big and believe they can be world leaders.
The goal of the camp was to provide an opportunity for students to network, learn leadership and technical skills and visit educational institutions during the summer break. “Through this program, we believe that these kids are better prepared and inspired to return to school having the right mindset on the importance of education and are empowered with the resources to enable them remain in school,” Flora said. Next, the fellows will continue to work with partners to further prepare the students for the upcoming fall school term.

Report Date...: 8/16/21

Fellows serve as TechGirls Pitch and Project Mentors

Fellow(s): CSA and MENA fellows

Country:

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

Recently, a TechWomen-TechGirls Summit was held where over 100 TechGirls participants from 12 countries presented their pitches on community-based project initiatives to address issues with the environment, education systems, the gender gap, technology disparities, mental health and more. Select TechWomen fellows served as mentors to TechGirls participants, assisting them from the beginning of the process with solution ideation all the way to this pitch summit. Despite their young age, both the fellows and session facilitators were impressed by the TechGirls participants’ commitment to achieve their project despite the constraints due to the ongoing pandemic. They noted the girls’ outstanding professionalism that allowed for feedback on each project to be shared effectively and for concrete next steps to be planned all while making meaningful connections with one another. “This TechWomen-TechGirls Summit is the perfect moment to understand the impact of bringing women and girls from different countries, sectors and backgrounds,” said Salma Gherraby, 2019 fellow and project mentor for TechGirls Morocco. “While discussing issues around the world, they all show the importance of STEM to resolve those problems.”

Report Date...: 8/16/21

Fellow appointed Global Ambassador for learning platform

Fellow(s): Asna Javed

Country: Pakistan

Cohort: 2019

Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

2019 fellow Asna Javed was introduced as the Global Ambassador for Al Nafi in a recent video interview. Al Nafi is an online learning platform that provides multilingual career counseling and guidance to youth looking for jobs in emerging technologies. She highlighted the need for platforms like Al Nafi that provide free and acccessible STEM education to underprivelieged youth in many different countries who otherwise wouldn’t have many opportunities to learn about technology. Asna, a lead developer advocate at IBM Pakistan, also talked about her journey to becoming a successful IT professional while also being differently-abled as she was born without arms. Though it was not easy to convince people she was just as technically capable as they were, she credits her perserverance and resilience to not give up on herself and encourages others to do the same: “If things don’t work out, try again. If that particular thing is not for you, try something else, but don’t give up.”

Report Date...: 8/16/21

Fellow holds Women in Tech Summit with alumnae support

Fellow(s): Sabina Nforba, Janet Fofang, Sophie Ngassa, Dr. Ngwashi Christabel and Enyong-Eta Grateful

Country: Cameroon

Cohort: 2013, 2014, 2020-2021

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth

Last month, 2020-2021 fellow Sabina Nforba held the inaugural Women in Tech Summit, collaborating with TechWomen alumnae to share best practices on empowering women in STEM fields. The summit was hosted by AfriTech Hub, the organization Sabina co-founded that empowers young students to pursue STEM education and STEM careers.
The summit convened over 100 women in technology in Cameroon for a day of networking and knowledge-sharing. Fellows Janet Fofang (2013), Sophie Ngassa (2014), Dr. Ngwashi Christabel (2020-2021) and Enyong-Eta Grateful (2020-2021) joined as featured speakers, presenting on the importance of women in leadership, Cameroon’s digital transformation and more. Enyong-Eta facilitated a workshop called Brand-Up, drawing inspiration from Rock Your LinkedIn Profile, a TechWomen 2020-2021 event. There, she encouraged participants to optimize their profiles in order to self-promote and attract opportunities.
Since the summit, Sabina and her team have created Slack channels to facilitate conversation, mentorship and collaboration among attendees and speakers. “The summit overall was a huge success,” she said. “The turnout was not only beyond expectation but the speakers were very transparent about their experiences — a quality that is not very common.” Next, AfriTech Hub will organize a coding bootcamp for women with no previous experience to support them in transitioning to tech careers.

Report Date...: 8/9/21

Fellow named Anitab.org Abie Award winner

Fellow(s): Ainura Sagyn

Country: Kyrgyzstan

Cohort: 2017

Policy Area(s): Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth

This week 2017 fellow Ainura Sagyn was named an Anitab.org Abie Award winner, recognized for her career success, her commitment to her community and her dedication to improving the world. Ainura is the co-founder and CEO of Tazar, a mobile app that seeks to reduce waste in landfills by connecting waste producers with recyclers. She is currently studying for her master’s in computer vision and image processing at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Ainura was named the Student of Vision Award winner for using technology to solve leading issues and working to inspire more women to enter technology fields. In addition to receiving a cash prize, Ainura will be speaking at the Virtual Grace Hopper Celebration later this year, presenting on when ideas meet action. “Every idea and opportunity I’ve had I turned to action, from mentoring girls to organizing a coding training for schoolgirls in all regions of Kyrgyzstan, or helping the planet by using Tazar to reduce the pervasive problem of litter and waste in Kyrgyzstan,” she said.

Report Date...: 8/9/21

Fellow named sustainability ambassador by Egypt government

Fellow(s): Ghada Amin

Country: Egypt

Cohort: 2018

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth

2018 fellow Ghada Amin was named an ambassador of sustainable development by Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, an initiative that seeks to build capacity around environmental sustainability through training and partnerships with universities, NGO’s and the private sector. Ghada is part of a small group of ambassadors chosen out of over 7,000 candidates. Ghada, a researcher and engineer in the field of sustainable development, will soon enter certification training in order to learn more about sustainable development, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Egypt’s sustainability priorities. After, Ghada will begin working with schools and youth for training on the UN SDGs, educating them in order to help create a culture of sustainability. Previously, Ghada attended the UN International Day of Women and Girls in Science Assembly in New York, sharing best practices on advancing women and girls in science.

Report Date...: 8/9/21

Alumnae work together for new sustainability initiative

Fellow(s): Elena Selezneva, Saida Yusupova, Erin Keeley, Gisele Beatrice Sonfack

Country: Cameroon, United States, Uzbekistan

Cohort: 2016

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth

2016 fellows of Uzbekistan Elena Selezneva and Saida Yusupova collaborated with 2016 fellow of Cameroon Gisele Beatrice Sonfack and mentor Erin Keeley to deliver workshops on mentorship and best practices for mentoring women in technology. The workshops were organized by Tech4Impact, the initiative Elena and Saida founded that nurtures IT, innovation, green tech and women’s entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan and Central Asia. They recently launched their latest project, Accelerating Women’s Climate Change Tech Startups in Uzbekistan, with funding from the United Nations Democracy Fund. The two-year project will train and support women in the Karakalpakstan region of Uzbekistan, helping them establish businesses and initiatives that address the social and economic effects of climate change. The program includes a six-month accelerator program that will establish a culture of mentorship in the region and connect women-led startups to investors.
Elena and Saida recruited Erin and Gisele to deliver workshops for Tech4Impact’s trainers, sharing best practices in mentorship and how mentors can support and guide mentees. Erin, the global director of engineering at Hitachi GST, also spoke about the green tech ecosystem in Silicon Valley, sharing various initiatives that aim to combat the climate crisis. Gisele, a current Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future fellow, spoke about setting SMART Goals, mentoring techniques and the importance of mentoring women in STEM fields. “We are very thankful to TechWomen community for connecting us all and supporting us for all these years,” said Elena.

Report Date...: 8/2/21

Fellows featured in ShareAmerica article

Fellow(s): Nisreen Deeb, Faten Khalfallah Hammouda

Country: Jordan, Tunisia

Cohort: 2013, 2015

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

2013 fellow of Jordan Nisreen Deeb and 2015 fellow of Tunisia Faten Khalfallah Hammouda were featured in an article this month from ShareAmerica, a platform of the U.S. Department of State that shares stories of innovation, education, the role of civil society and more. Nisreen is a computer scientist, founder of Girls Got IT and the director of the Lebanese League for Women in Business. Faten is the founder of First Skills Club, a STEM education initiative that introduces Tunisia’s youth to technologies such as mobile apps, robotics, electronics, design and 3D printing. The article highlights both the TechWomen and the TechGirls programs, outlining Nisreen and Faten’s TechWomen journeys and the program’s influence on their leadership skills and dedication to investing in the next generation of women in STEM fields. “I love mentoring girls and guiding them to be future female leaders,” said Faten. Both Nisreen and Faten have been involved with TechGirls: Nisreen collaborated with TechGirls alumnae for a Girls Got IT event, and Faten was selected as a flight chaperone for Tunisian TechGirls participants.

Report Date...: 8/2/21

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