Impact Stories from Professional Growth Policy Area
Fellow wins Young Professional of the Year at Nexte Awards
Fellow(s): Sebay Momoh
Country: Sierra Leone
Cohort: 2018
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
This week, 2018 fellow Sebay Momoh was awarded Young Professional of the Year at Sierra Leone’s Heirs Africa and Nexte Awards. Nexte, the philanthropic arm of Heirs Holdings, works to to minimize economic inequality in Africa and create a generation of successful entrepreneurs.
Attended by government officials, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and academics, the annual awards recognize individuals who are making meaningful contributions to development through hard work and commitment to innovation. Sebay, a petroleum engineer and program coordinator for STEM Women SL, was awarded the Young Professional of the Year award for her contributions to national development. “Some days the vision I’m striving for isn’t as clear to me,” says Sebay. “But then there are times like these that reignite the fire and inspire me to keep pushing.”
Report Date...: 4/22/19
Fellow speaks at San Francisco’s Google Cloud Next ’19
Fellow(s): Hanan Youssef
Country: Egypt
Cohort: 2013
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth
This month, 2013 fellow of Egypt Hanan Youssef traveled to San Francisco to speak at Google Cloud Next ’19, a global conference that brings three days of education and inspiration to a diverse audience of developers, CEOs and those passionate about the cloud’s next generation. There, attendees share challenges and solutions in order to provide an accessible, scalable and socially responsible cloud.
Hanan, a product manager at Google Cloud Platform in Seattle, took part in the event’s opening keynote to show the audience live migration in action on the SAP Google Cloud platform. The keynote session was opened by Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai and featured Google Cloud’s leaders and customers showing how the cloud can transform businesses as well as improve the lives and circumstances of people around the world.
Report Date...: 4/22/19
Fellows share expertise at annual Social Media Camp
Fellow(s): Nassima Berrayah, Fatima Zohra Benhamida
Country: Algeria
Cohort: 2013, 2017
Policy Area(s): Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth
Last month, fellows Nassima Berrayah (2013) and Fatima Zohra Benhamida (2017) were invited to speak at Algeria’s Social Media Camp 2019, a conference that brought together more than 300 participants for three days of interactive programming. The event, now in its second year, invited professors, journalists and social media professionals to share best practices on online marketing, social networks and the ethics of social media.
Nassima, founder of Women Entrepreneurs Accelerator and founder and CEO of eBlink, led a workshop on leveraging collaborative platforms to organize events. Fatima presented to students on best practices in pitching, using TechWomen’s action plans as examples of pitching community-based impact projects. “The room was overcrowded because I couldn’t let participants in after we reached capacity,” said Fatima. “I was invited to repeat my presentation the next day in a room of 300 people.”
2018 fellow and blogger Salma Bekkouche was in attendance, and together, the three fellows met in hopes of establishing future partnerships and collaboration.
Report Date...: 4/15/19
Fellow presents emerging satellite technologies at conference
Fellow(s): Zainab Saleem
Country: Pakistan
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth
2017 fellow of Pakistan Zainab Saleem was a featured speaker at the inaugural Vytah Space Industry Conference held last month in Bratislava, Slovakia. The conference, organized with a mission to grow Slovakia’s space industry, brought together professionals from academia, government and business to explore current and future space technologies. Zainab, who holds a master’s in aerospace and aeronautical engineering, is currently working at Finland’s ICEYE as an attitude and orbit control system engineer.
During her session, Zainab presented on ICEYE’s radar satellites that provide timely and reliable earth observation data to help their customers make informed decisions. She also introduced attendees to the company’s groundbreaking SAR satellite, a never-before used technology created using a “new space” approach. The satellite is 100 times more cost effective than traditional counterparts and weighs less than 100 kilograms.
Report Date...: 4/15/19
Fellow recognized for inspiring and educating girls in Kenya
Fellow(s): Ruth Kaveke
Country: Kenya
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
This week, 2017 fellow of Kenya Ruth Kaveke was featured in an article from Digital Opportunity Trust Kenya, an initiative that supports youth in becoming innovators and leaders through digital technology. Ruth is the co-founder and director of Pwani Teknowgalz, a non-profit that aims to educate and empower girls through STEM education.
As one of few women in ICT at their university, Ruth and her co-founder Aisha were determined to bridge the gender gap in STEM, later establishing their organization to educate secondary and university girls on mobile apps, coding and web development. This month, Pwani Teknowgalz launched a campaign to train 100 girls from underserved communities in Mombasa on web development and digital marketing.
Report Date...: 4/15/19
Fellows partner with Facebook and UNODC to host hackathon
Fellow(s): Carolyn Seaman, Lindiwe Matlali
Country: Nigeria, South Africa
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
2017 fellows Lindiwe Matlali of South Africa and Carolyn Seaman of Nigeria recently collaborated to host Nigeria’s first Hackathon for Justice. Organized in partnership with Facebook and the Education for Justice initiative of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the annual event aims to engage youth in using technology to address challenges to rule of law. Last year’s hackathon, also organized by Lindiwe, was hosted in Silicon Valley at TechWomen partner company Symantec.
This year, 50 students from 10 universities were selected from among 400 applicants to participate in the hackathon. Within a 24-hour period, 13 teams used problem-based learning to design and create apps, receiving mentorship and coaching from Facebook’s software engineers and representatives of Africa Teen Geeks, Lindiwe’s STEM education non-profit. By the end of the hackathon, the teams developed mobile apps addressing issues such as corruption, human trafficking, violence against children and terrorism.
“We are excited to be working with UNODC and Facebook to encourage youth to be actively involved in solving issues of rule of law and to amplify the great work of the Education for Justice initiative,” Lindiwe said. A hackathon participant reiterated, “This is not the end; we will keep the same energy and continue providing solutions to the problems of our world.”
Report Date...: 4/8/2019
Fellow organizes International Women’s Day event in Dubai
Fellow(s): Rayan Al Zahab
Country: Lebanon
Cohort: 2016
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth
2016 fellow of Lebanon Rayan Al Zahab, a Women Techmakers ambassador and Google Developers Expert, recently partnered with Google to organize an International Women’s Day event in Dubai. The event theme, “#IAmRemarkable,” was borrowed from the initiative of the same name that aims to empower women and underrepresented groups to speak openly about their accomplishments. Organized by Rayan for the second straight year, the event welcomed nearly 200 attendees.
Princess Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of the Dubai royal family presided over the event, announcing with a Google representative an initiative to train and certify 1,000 girls in the MENA region on Google Cloud technologies.
Report Date...: 4/8/2019
Mentor(s): Saura Naim
Company: Juniper Networks
Mentor Type: Impact, Professional
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Impact Coach Saura Naim, senior director and head of the business executive office at Juniper Networks, was recently featured in an online video series produced by Watermark, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of women in leadership positions. In the video, Saura shares her experience as a TechWomen mentor, explaining how she uses mentorship to build upon Emerging Leaders’ skills and help them create impactful pitches.
Emphasizing the importance of a well-crafted pitch, Saura references Team Nigeria, her 2018 action plan team that won a seed grant for MAAMI, their initiative that educates expectant mothers in underserved communities. By employing successful pitch strategies, Saura explains, Team Nigeria was able to secure funding and launch their initiative. “They are driving that change,” she said. “They are making a difference.”
A longtime mentor, Saura has served the TechWomen community in many capacities, including as Professional Mentor, Impact Coach and Co-Chair of the TechWomen Alumnae Council.
Report Date...: 4/8/2019
Fellows organize first TechWomen conference in Ramallah
Fellow(s): Gina Kadri, Dalia Shurrab, Zeina Sadeddin, Hanan Atallah, Waad Jabbarin and Nuha Shawahna (2018); Razan Qraini, Ruba Awayes, Rasha Abu Dayyeh and Rana Nofal (2017); Yamama Shaka’a (2016) and Ayah Soufan (2015)
Country: Palestinian Territories
Cohort: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
This week, TechWomen fellows from multiple cohorts came together to organize the first TechWomen conference in Ramallah. Gina Kadri, Dalia Shurrab, Zeina Sadeddin, Hanan Atallah, Waad Jabbarin and Nuha Shawahna (2018) were joined by Razan Qraini, Ruba Awayes, Rasha Abu Dayyeh and Rana Nofal (2017), as well as Yamama Shaka’a (2016) and Ayah Soufan (2015) for the one-day event. The conference, sponsored by U.S. Embassy Jerusalem and attended by 80 students from throughout the region, aimed to strengthen the TechWomen and TechGirls networks and feature women leaders in STEM.
The day’s programming included TED-style talks and practical workshops focused on leadership development, personal branding and design thinking. TechWomen Impact Coach Jessica Dickinson Goodman, who mentored action plan teams from the West Bank and Gaza in 2017 and 2018, joined the conference from the Bay Area via Skype, leading a session on creating a five-year career plan. “It was a great event, and a great chance to network and meet leading Palestinian women,” said Gina.
Report Date...: 4/1/19
Fellow named to OkayAfrica’s 100 Women list
Fellow(s): Dr. Chao Mbogo
Country: Kenya
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth
Recently, 2017 fellow of Kenya Dr. Chao Mbogo was named to the OkayAfrica 100 Women 2019 list. Now in its third year, the 2019 campaign is themed on Africa’s youth and features Africa’s women leaders who are pioneering innovative ways to invest in youth and changing the future for the next generation.
Chao, the head of the computer science department at Kenya Methodist University, is the founder of KamiLimu, a six-month computer science mentorship program for Kenyan university students. Although Chao sees a gender imbalance in her university classes, 50% of KamiLimu’s current mentees are women. The initiative is now in its third year and has seen a steady increase in mentees, 30% of whom return to serve as peer mentors in subsequent KamiLimu cohorts.
Report Date...: 4/1/19
