Guest post by Noran Buzgaia, 2023 Fellow from Libya.  Editor’s note: Noran Buzgaia’s is a 2023 Techwomen fellow who has been invited as guest blogger to share her voice, perspective and experiences with the program and community.   Regardless of the title above, this post radiates with pride, self love, success and a surge of positive energy, so let’s dive right in.  Going back a few years, I had a successful career as a social worker and mental health advocate in schools & NGOs, a near five-year career which I started right after my university graduation in 2014. Over time ..read more

The third week of the 5-week TechWomen 2023 program was filled with dynamic and profound mentorship experiences for Emerging Leaders. This week was all about diving into mentorship, as the participants engaged with their dedicated Professional Mentors (PMs), Cultural Mentors (CMs), and Impact Coaches (ICs).  They began with an Impact Coach Speed Mentoring session hosted at Robust Intelligence in San Francisco and Workbox in Chicago. During the first Speed Mentoring session, Emerging Leaders collaborated within their country teams to narrow the focus of the socioeconomic challenges ..read more

Guest post by Clara Njeru, 2023 Fellow from Kenya. Editor’s note: Clara Njeru is a 2023 Techwomen fellow who has been invited as guest blogger to share her voice, perspective and experiences with the program and community. They say that the best views come after the hardest climb, and I know this quite well because I have summitted several mountains. Getting accepted to the TechWomen program feels like one of the best views in my life journey. The good thing about summiting mountains and great views is that they lead to a quest for more mountains, and even better views! This is my journey to t ..read more

Guest post by Kanoatkhon Umurzokova, 2023 Fellow from Uzbekistan Editor’s note: Kanoatkhon has been invited as a guest blogger to share her voice, perspective and experiences with the program and community.   All the way to Illinois Tech From the 27th floor of my apartment in the city of Chicago, I was observing all the beauty of the urban landscape — tiny household backyards, the curvy silhouette of the Chicago River, double decker trains passing over the horizon, and mountains from skyscrapers blinking back the sunlight through the blue glass facades. I grabbed my bag and headed to th ..read more

Guest post by Raghda Ali, 2023 Fellow from Egypt Editor’s note: Raghda has been invited as a guest blogger to share her voice, perspective and experiences with the program and community. The TechWomen program is an extraordinary opportunity for women in the field of technology to advance their careers, expand their networks, and contribute to positive change in their communities. If you’re considering applying for this prestigious program, you’re on the right path to unlocking a world of possibilities. To help you make a successful application and maximize your chances of being selected, I’ve ..read more

Guest post by Priscilla Okechukwu, 2023 Fellow from Sierra Leone. Editor’s note: Priscilla Okechukwu is a 2023 Techwomen fellow who has been invited as guest blogger to share her voice, perspective and experiences with the program and community. My voyage to TechWomen 2023 started the night I decided to apply for the Emerging Leader’s program. Over the years, as a tech-enthusiast with a deep commitment to imparting digital and entrepreneurial skills to women and girls in Sierra Leone, I have discovered that this passion has been profoundly impactful and life-transforming. Indeed, I was filled ..read more

As the excitement of arrivals and the launch of our expanded program began to settle, the Emerging Leaders embraced the second week of their transformative 5-week journey. The week commenced with the much-anticipated Ideation Workshop, where participants collaborated with their country teams for the first time. Here, they delved into the frameworks for designing a solution to a socioeconomic challenge and engaged in brainstorming sessions to define the pressing issues their projects would address.  Mid-week marked the initiation of the Emerging Leaders’ professional mentorships, a cruci ..read more

Guest post by Raghda Medat-Ali, 2023 Emerging Leader from Egypt who is part of our San Francisco cohort. Editor’s note: Raghda Medat-Ali’s guest post is part of our series, Emerging Leader Voices, which invites TechWomen Emerging Leaders to share their voice, perspective and experiences with the TechWomen community.   The last five years have been an exhilarating roller coaster ride for me, and today I want to take you along on this thrilling journey.  It all began after I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics. At that point, my mind was buzzing with questions about my fut ..read more

It’s been just over a week since the Emerging Leaders of the Fall 2023 TechWomen cohort arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area and Chicago, where they immediately launched into a week of intensive workshops designed to prepare them for the three pillars of their program: professional mentorship, impact planning and cultural exchange.  Chicago’s TechWomen Emerging Leaders show their spirit at their Cultural Workshop hosted at the Illinois Institute of Technology.   Following their whirlwind arrivals and welcome orientations, Emerging Leaders met up online with the IIE team for a virt ..read more

The United States Welcomes 2023 TechWomen Emerging Leaders to San Francisco and Chicago On September 20, 2023 100 emerging women leaders in STEM from the Middle East, Africa, and South and Central Asia arrived in Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area for the first-ever U.S. program city expansion. Fulfilling the announcement telecast by U.S. Secretary of State Antony S. Blinken during last year’s TechWomen@10 anniversary event, TechWomen is now operating on the West Coast and in the heartland. Crossing land and sea, 22 emerging leaders from Algeria, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tunisia and Uzbekistan hav ..read more