Impact Stories from Professional Growth Policy Area
Fellow shares perspectives with recent engineering graduates
Fellow(s): Samia Elhanchi
Country: Morocco
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth
2017 fellow of Morocco Samia Elhanchi spoke to recent engineering graduates at Career Bootcamp [website in French], an annual gathering of engineers in Morocco. The event, organized by the Engineers Forum Association, brought together 50 recent engineering graduates and experts in the field for a week of training, conferences and workshops. Experts shared their knowledge and best practices, guiding the recent graduates on their career choices and encouraging knowledge sharing. Samia is a senior project and portfolio manager at Orange Morocco.
In her address, Samia shared lessons learned throughout 20 years in the industry, outlining her career journey, her academic achievements and the difficult decisions she made balancing professional and personal goals. Joined on stage by her husband, also an engineer, Samia spoke about how teamwork and mutual support of each other’s ambition aided their professional success. She concluded by stressing the importance of lifelong learning, reflecting on her TechWomen experience and the impact of networking, mentorship and community involvement.
Read More »Report Date...: 8/6/2018
Mentor(s): Anar Simpson
Company: Technovation
Mentor Type: Impact
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth
Anar Simpson, longtime TechWomen mentor and advisor, was invited to speak at the Women in Technology Summit hosted by OpenText in Toronto. In her address, “Beyond the Glass Ceiling,” Anar discussed new technological innovations and advocated for the inclusion of women and girls in these advances. “My message is that we continue to work on our efforts to break glass ceilings but also shift our gaze to engage in Web 3.0 technologies [the next evolution of the internet and web applications] for a fundamentally new way of working in technology,” said Anar.
Currently, Anar serves as Global Ambassador for Technovation and is a board member at the Wilson Center, a non-partisan think tank that tackles global issues through independent research.
Report Date...: 7/30/18
Fellow awarded Schlumberger Faculty for the Future fellowship
Fellow(s): Titi Aladesanmi
Country: Nigeria
Cohort: 2015
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth
2015 fellow of Nigeria Dr. Omolara (Titi) Aladesanmi was awarded the 2018-2019 Sclumberger Faculty for the Future fellowship. Titi, who specializes in ecotoxicology and bioremediation and is a lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University, is one of 50 new fellows selected from a total of 555 applicants.
During the 2015 TechWomen program, Titi was paired with Professional Mentor Dr. Romy Chakraborty at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Three years later, her Faculty for the Future fellowship will brings her back to the Bay Area, where she will once again work alongside Dr. Chakraborty. Titi’s research, “Bioremediation of Cyanide Polluted Water,” will investigate environmentally sustainable ways of reclaiming polluted environments.
The Schlumberger Foundation, an independent non-profit that supports STEM education, developed its fellowship to support women in STEM during their postgraduate studies.
Report Date...: 7/30/2018
Fellows selected among top 50 inspiring women in South Africa
Fellow(s): Fanelwa Ajayi, Zimkhita Buwa, Ridhwana Khan
Country: South Africa
Cohort: 2013, 2017
Policy Area(s): Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth
Fellows Fanelwa Ajayi (2013), Zimkhita Buwa (2017) and Ridhwana Khan (2017) of South Africa have been selected for this year’s Inspiring 50 South Africa list. Established by CoCreateSA, the Inspiring 50 list honors South African women who are making a meaningful impact in STEM fields.
Fanelwa is the founder of AmaQawe Ngemfundo, a program that provides interactive STEM-based education to children in rural and township schools. Zimkhita, an advocate for girls seeking careers in technology, is the chief operating officer at BriteHouse. Ridhwana is the co-founder and a software developer at Zero One, as well as an active leader of KasiMaths, which started as a TechWomen seed-grant winning action plan project providing math tutoring to students in under-resourced communities and has continued to expand.
This year, CoCreateSA received nearly 300 nominations for the Inspiring 50 list. Winners were chosen by a panel of female leaders in STEM throughout South Africa.
Report Date...: 7/30/2018
Fellows win AEIF grant for youth STEM camp in Lebanon
Fellow(s): Sabine El Kahi and Aseel Honein
Country: Lebanon
Cohort: 2013 & 2014
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Fellows Sabine El Kahi (2014) and Aseel Honein (2013) of Lebanon are winners of an Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) award for their Orion STEM camp, which will introduce youth to different aspects of technology, including design, electronics, coding and gaming. Intended for students 12 to 18 years old, the camp will bring young adults together to collaborate and solve challenges through a scientific lens. The program will reserve half of its spots for students from underserved communities.
During the camp’s closing ceremony, participants will have the opportunity to pitch their innovative ideas and demonstrate their learnings. Sabine and Aseel hope that students will gain valuable skills through engagement with design thinking, architecture, game making and mechanical engineering.
AEIF awards support alumni initiatives that promote shared values and innovative solutions to global challenges. Out of more than 1,300 applications submitted this year, Sabine and Aseel’s project is one of just 70 to be selected for a grant and is funded under the AEIF theme of Advancing Science, Technology, Health and Innovation.
Report Date...: 7/23/2018
Fellows convene in South Africa as Obama Foundation Leaders
Fellow(s): Patu Ndango Fen and Mide Ayeni
Country: Cameroon, Nigeria
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Professional Growth
2017 fellows Patu Ndango Fen of Cameroon and Mide Ayeni of Nigeria have been selected as Obama Foundation Leaders, joining just 200 other emerging leaders from across Africa who are working to tackle challenges in their communities. The program will empower these leaders with the skills they need to succeed through plenary sessions, workshops, technical trainings and leadership development.
Patu is a social entrepreneur with a passion for environmental science; Mide is the founder of Pearl Recycling, an organization that uses recycled materials such as tires, bottles, straws and plastic cutlery to create furniture.
The Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa program kicked off last week with a convening in Johannesburg.
Report Date...: 7/16/2018
Pakistani fellow launches mentoring initiative for orphans
Fellow(s): Mehak Jamal
Country: Pakistan
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
2017 fellow Mehak Jamal of Pakistan recently launched a social initiative called Ibtida, meaning “beginning” in Urdu, for local women to support other young women. Ibtida will train educated but economically inactive women from financially marginalized communities as mentors for middle school girls in under-resourced schools. For mentors, Ibtida develops a higher sense of self, thus supporting them to a become more engaged in their community; for the young girls, “it’s the beginning of a journey of self-exploration.”
Once trained, mentors are placed in underserved schools, where they will implement activity-based programming for girls to develop skills that better prepare them to enter the workforce. The first cycle of Ibtida will begin this September with 20 mentors and 60 eighth grade girls from Lahore, beginning with young orphans, who are among the most vulnerable in their society. In the second phase, the program will expand to include refugees and internally displaced persons.
Mehak hopes that the program will be enriching for both mentors and mentees and will help address the low rate of women in the workforce in Pakistan by empowering participants with marketable skills and training. Her goal is that by 2020, Ibtida will support 600 women, 1,200+ young girls and 30 schools.
Report Date...: 7/16/2018
Fellow leads engagement in international teen hackathon
Fellow(s): Lindiwe Matlali
Country: South Africa
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
2017 fellow of South Africa Lindiwe Matlali recently led a group of teens participating in an Education for Justice (E4J)-sponsored hackathon in Silicon Valley. In partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Lindiwe also helped coordinate elements of the hackathon, relying on connections from her TechWomen network, including at Symantec, which hosted the three-day event. The delegation from South Africa, which included student participants from Africa Teen Geeks, the organization founded by Lindiwe, was accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training of South Africa, Buti Manamela.
The event asked students to develop educational games to teach users about criminal justice and crime prevention. Twenty-five students were selected among winners of previous regional hackathons in South Africa, Indonesia, Bolivia and the U.S. Lindiwe’s team won the competition by creating Silent Screm, an app aimed at combatting human trafficking in South Africa.
Report Date...: 7/9/2018
Fellow featured on Wonder Women Entrepreneurs List
Fellow(s): Afnan Ali
Country: Jordan
Cohort: 2011
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
Afnan Ali, 2011 fellow of Jordan, was highlighted on StartUp Scene’s “8 Wonder Women Entrepreneurs Crossing Milestones in Jordan” list. The article discusses Afnan’s startup, Eureka, which provides scientific programming to Jordanian youth, teaching them about engineering, robotics, electronics and renewable energy, as well as entrepreneurship and creating business plans. Eureka students are encouraged to compete in local and international competitions. Since the startup’s founding in 2014, more than 500 students have participated in the program.
In 2016, Afnan pitched Eureka at the Rise Up Summit in Cairo, Egypt. Out of 23 pitches, she was one of six entrepreneurs chosen to participate in a 10-day acceleration program hosted by RiseUp and TechWadi in Silicon Valley.
Report Date...: 6/25/2018
Fellows launch initiative developed during 2017 TechWomen program
Fellow(s): Lara Chikhani, Maya Itani and Rasha Sukkarieh
Country: Lebanon
Cohort: 2017
Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement
After developing their action plan concept during the 2017 program, three fellows of Lebanon, Lara Chikhani, Maya Itani and Rasha Sukkarieh, have launched Solve24, a project-based summer program that will train students aged 13-17 to solve real-life problems through STEM. Though the team was not awarded a seed grant during their time in the U.S., Lara, Maya and Rasha were passionate about their idea and continued their mentorship virtually upon returning home, supported by Impact Coaches Katy Dickinson, Fatema Kothari and Mercedes Soria, who serve on Solve24’s advisory board. Said Lara, “Thank you to Techwomen for pushing us to start this and connecting us with the amazing mentors.”
Solve24 will offer activities to improve participants’ skills in design thinking, leadership, communication, innovation and teamwork as they design a project focused on solving an issue in their community. At the end of the program, students will pitch their projects to design professionals, mentors and family members. The top projects will be awarded a prize.
Lara, Maya and Rasha hope that Solve24 will help Lebanese youth cultivate critical thinking skills and creativity in order to create positive impact and be competitive in the global job market. The first boot camp program will begin this summer.
Report Date...: 6/25/2018
