Task Discussion

annalise said:

Hi everyone,

One of our mentors, Jo, alerted me to a problem we had with our mentor map. Several women work at the same company and so their pins were hiding each other. I fixed this by going in and changing the addresses very slightly so they would be spaced apart, for the following companies which had more than one mentor: LinkedIn, Google, Berkeley Lab, Boku, and Splunk. I'll continue doing this from now on so that we don't have any hidden pins.

Another thing I'd like to let you know about is that right now we have a shortage of mentors in Oakland. We have six schools and only 1 mentor in Oakland. If you have any contacts in the East Bay, please consider reaching out to them and asking them to help spread the word!

Finally, I know a number of mentors out there haven't found a school yet because we have fewer schools than we have mentors in some areas (particularly the Mountain View, CA area). If this is the case for you, consider reaching out to a middle or high school in your neighborhood and telling them about the program. It's helpful if you have a contact already, but even if you don't, I find that guidance counselors are a wonderful resource to help you get a program started. Let us know if you need help reaching out to a school near you, we're happy to help.

AnnaLise

on Nov. 27, 2012, 10:30 p.m.

Jo said:

Thanks for doing that! :)

Also, I contacted an engineer friend of mine who lives in Oakland, and I hope Rori and Emmanuel can benefit from it! She said she will do it just now! :D

on Nov. 28, 2012, 2:08 p.m. in reply to annalise

annalise said:

You are awesome, thank you!!

on Nov. 28, 2012, 5:55 p.m. in reply to Jo
Rosemary said:

Hello!

My name is Rosemary and I work as a User Experience Designer at Cisco in San Jose, CA. I was a mentor for the 2012 program, and looking forward to mentoring again in 2013!

I am looking for a teacher to partner with in the south bay, technical or non is all ok. Although I currently do not work in a technical/programming role, I do have some rusty programming skills, and can likely supplement any expertise gaps with help from friends :)

There's nothing more wonderful than seeing every problem the world encounters as something we can affect positively and feeling equipped with a framework to do so. Hope to share such a feeling with our girls!

Thanks!

Rosemary

on Nov. 27, 2012, 7:25 p.m.
Natasha S. said:

Hi,

My name is Natasha and I'm a User Interface Designer by profession. I was a mentor last year and I'm excited to be part of this program this year as well.

I haven't been paired with a teacher yet, so if interested, please feel free to reach out to me. I would strongly prefer to work in the South Bay area.

I am fairly technical and have a background in front-end engineering and interface design. Let's work together! :)

Thanks,

Natasha

on Nov. 27, 2012, 7:04 p.m.
Indira Vidyaprakash said:

Hi,

My name is Indira and I work as a Software Product Manager at Oracle. This is my first year participating in Technovation Challenge. I live in San Francisco and am ideally looking for a school in SFO.

My background is in Computer Science and Engineering and I started as a software developer at Oracle. For the last 6 years I have worked as a Product Manager on the business side. My passion is still in software development and now working with Social, Mobile and Cloud products at Oracle.

I am looking forward to mentoring and hoping that my experience in both engineering and product management will bring different perspectives to the students.

Thanks,
Indira

on Nov. 27, 2012, 3:08 p.m.
JuAnne said:

Hello! I was a mentor for the 2012 program. Excited to be doing this again in 2013. I haven't been paired up with a school yet. I'm looking to possibly get a group in Red Hook, Brooklyn to participate.

on Nov. 27, 2012, 12:51 p.m.

emmanuel said:

Hi: My name is Emmanuel Onyeador and glad for the opportunity to bring this again to our girls here at Tech. We are still in need of mentors for Oakland Technical High School. Contact us if available. Thanks Emmanuel Onyeador Oakland Technical High School

on Nov. 28, 2012, 1:51 p.m. in reply to JuAnne

JuAnne said:

Hi Emmanuel. I live on the east coast. I'm considering mentoring with a school in my local borough but I am opened to being a virtual mentor as well if the local school has another mentor. I regularly work with people from the west coast and understand the constraints of the time difference. How would your students feel about working with a virtual mentor and meeting in a specific time range (probably between 3-6pm)? Please feel free to direct message me. Thanks!

on Nov. 29, 2012, 9:52 p.m. in reply to emmanuel
annalise said:

Hi everyone, I've gotten some requests from mentors and teachers who haven't been paired up yet, so I am sharing the matching maps: http://bit.ly/TeacherMap2013 http://bit.ly/MentorMap2013 Feel free to reach out to folks from these maps to connect and pair up for Technovation. Let us know if you need help. Good luck! ~AnnaLise

on Nov. 26, 2012, 8:05 p.m.

Ann Greyson said:

Hi AnnaLise. I found our mentors a few weeks ago, but I'm receiving frequent inquiries from mentors looking for teachers. I removed my mentor search message from my profile, but is there a way to remove me from the map? Thanks! Ann Greyson On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 5:06 PM, annalise <

on Nov. 26, 2012, 8:45 p.m. in reply to annalise

Kamilah said:

Hi Ann,

Actually what would be helpful is if you mention on your profile that you have mentors for your team, then when mentors look at your profile they'll know not to message you!

In general I think this would be really useful, is if all the mentors still looking for teams indicate that on their profile, and if you have team, indicate that you have team. Similarly for teachers, if you have mentors, have that on your profile, and if you don't have mentors yet, have that on your profile. Then we can focus on pairing mentors and mentees who don't have matches yet!

Kamilah

on Nov. 26, 2012, 8:53 p.m. in reply to Ann Greyson

Ann Greyson said:

Thanks for the suggestion, Kamilah. I have just updated my profile. Best of luck with this year's Challenge!

on Nov. 26, 2012, 9:55 p.m. in reply to Kamilah

Anonym said:

FYI, I will work with Mark Frey as his mentor. -Michele On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 5:06 PM, annalise <

on Nov. 26, 2012, 9:57 p.m. in reply to annalise

annalise said:

Thanks for pointing that out, Kamilah! We request that everyone put their "status" as matched or not in their profile under description. This will prevent you from being contacted when you are already matched. Michele, glad to hear you and Mark are paired up! -AnnaLise

on Nov. 27, 2012, 4:58 p.m. in reply to Anonym
Jo said:

Hi,

I am looking around for Technovation Challenge teachers! My name is Jo, and I have never done this before, but it seems well worth it. I am a very different type of person, I have been told...nerdy, geeky, sometimes loud, and high energy. Like Kamilah, I also work at LinkedIn in Mountain View, CA, but as a Web Developer. Kamilah and I will be working together as the South Bay Regional Co-ordinators. I was Chair of the Society of Women Engineers in college, and I love seeing brilliant girls and women thrive in technology.

About Me: I love CSS with a passion. I love my job. And I love life. I am doing what I love with wonderful people, and I couldn't ask for more. I also love photography, snowboarding, buckyballs, archery, anime, and gaming (and so much more!) I have worked as a webdev/webmaster throughout college, then at E*TRADE Financial, CafePress, and now LinkedIn (my LinkedIn profile).

Feel free to message me or email me at jochou at linkedin dotcom.

I can't wait to get started, but I am having a hard time finding teachers near my job. I live in San Francisco, and work in Mounain View, so I am looking for teachers around Mountain View, so I can easily come to the school after work. If deadlines cut close, I will look to San Francisco, where I live.

Looking forward to hear from you!

~Jo

on Nov. 26, 2012, 6:52 p.m.
Kamilah said:

Hi! My name is Kamilah and this will be my first year participating in Technovation! I live and work in Mountain View, CA and am looking for an awesome group of 5 girls to mentor in the South Bay. I have a background in computer science, robotics and math, and I'm currently a Software Engineer at LinkedIn. Let me know if you're still looking for mentors!

on Nov. 26, 2012, 6:32 p.m.
Matt said:

Hi All,

My Name is Matt and I am teaching at an International School in Jakarta, Indonesia. Looks like we might have up to 6 teams of girls joining Technovation this year but we are desperately short on Mentors. So far we have only one possibility and she hasn't yet been able to commit. If anyone has any contacts in the Jakarta area that might be interested please let me know, or alternatively if anyone out there is willing to be a distance mentor it would also be a lot of help

Thanks

Matt

on Nov. 26, 2012, 5:42 p.m.

TahaniZ said:

Hi Matt,

It's nice to meet you! We are so excited that you're participating in Technovation. We are doing some research and reaching out to try and recruit some mentors in Indonesia. I will keep you posted.

Thanks!

Tahani

on Nov. 27, 2012, 12:44 p.m. in reply to Matt
Emily Lam said:

Hello all,

My name is Emily! This is my first year participating in Technovation! I am super excited!! I live in the South Bay area, and I am still looking for 5 super awesome girls to mentor! I am 26 years old, and I graduated 4 years ago with CS and Math degree. I am currently working for Google as a Google Apps technical specialist. Please let me know if you are still looking for mentors! :)

Happy post thanksgiving!

-Emily

on Nov. 26, 2012, 1:21 p.m.

App Divas said:

Hello Emily, I have a group of super awesome girls looking for a mentor. We have the team, the teacher (me), and the enthusiasm. We just need a mentor. We live in Georgia, is that a problem?

on Nov. 26, 2012, 1:25 p.m. in reply to Emily Lam
Emily said:

Hi,

My name is Emily Will and I am mathematics teacher at Needham High School in MA. This is our first year participating in the Technovation challenge and we are looking for a mentor, preferably in the Boston area. We already have a group of very excited and motivated students ready to start this program.

Thank you!

Emily

on Nov. 25, 2012, 5:13 p.m.

TahaniZ said:

Hi Emily!

Welcome to Technvoation, and we're excited to have you this year! I am helping teams in MA, so let me know if you need help finding mentors. Email me at Tahani at iridescentlearning dot org

Thanks!

Tahani

on Nov. 27, 2012, 12:48 p.m. in reply to Emily
Sean Morris said:

Hi Folks,

Sara Oremland and I, Sean Morris, are still looking for three more mentors at Albany High School in Albany California.

Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving,

Sean

on Nov. 23, 2012, 1:16 p.m.
Meg said:

Hi all,

I'm a software engineer with 2 years of web development experience, and before that, I was a chemist. This will be my first year with the Technovation Challenge, and I'm excited to work with a group of girls/ young women and help them to get excited about science and technology!

I live in San Francisco, so somewhere in the city or Northern Peninsula would be great :-)

Looking forward to it!

Meg

on Nov. 23, 2012, 11:23 a.m.

Rori Abernethy said:

Hi Meg, I have a team of 5 girls ready to go at Oakland High. I know it's a little far. Let me know if you are interested. Rori Abernethy On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 8:23 AM, megdesko <

on Nov. 26, 2012, 6:35 p.m. in reply to Meg

Meg said:

Hi Rori,

Sorry for the (super) late response- was out of the country with little email.

Do you still need mentors? I may be able to swing Oakland, depending on times, etc.

Meg

on Nov. 30, 2012, 2:32 p.m. in reply to Rori Abernethy
Nada said:

Hi all,

I work as an IT instructor at the university since 2007 in Yemen ,I have taught students computational thinking ,I work with undergraduates and deploma students . I also like to work with teenagers and women .I have few activties to empower youth on using technology to develop udserstanding and enhance their social life.

This is my first participation in Technovation ,I'll be happy to be a mentor ..

Glad to meet you all!

Nada

on Nov. 22, 2012, 1:21 a.m.
girodichatterbox said:

Hi all,

I am a web UI engineer with 12 years of experience in Silicon Valley, working in startups and for established companies like Apple, Yahoo!, and LinkedIn. I am currently a web development lead at LinkedIn. I am looking for a team to mentor in the Mountain View or Sunnvale, CA area. I am looking forward to my first group mentoring experience.

-Sarah Clatterbuck

on Nov. 21, 2012, 5:33 p.m.

Rori Abernethy said:

Hi, We have been looking for mentor but we are at oakland high. Is that too far? On Nov 21, 2012 2:33 PM, "secadv" <

on Nov. 21, 2012, 6:55 p.m. in reply to girodichatterbox

Amy Chen said:

We have a big group of mentors at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Last year we mentored Albany High and Berkeley High. Oakland High is in the area.

Amy

on Nov. 21, 2012, 8:47 p.m. in reply to Rori Abernethy

girodichatterbox said:

Hi Rori,

Yes, I would recommend working with folks from Lawrence, generally. There are also a few tech firms like Ask.com in the area. I mostly get around by bike, so Oakland is too far for me to travel weekly.

All the best,

-Sarah

on Nov. 21, 2012, 9:31 p.m. in reply to Rori Abernethy

imelda_uli said:

H rori. It is so far. I am living in indonesia. am non technical mentor. I teach business studies. Sent from my Nokia phone

on Nov. 21, 2012, 9:31 p.m. in reply to Rori Abernethy

Pearsonovation said:

Hello Rori,

We were wondering if you were from Ontario, Canada.

Too all mentors out there, our technovation team from Toronto, Canada are looking for 2 mentors near our location to mentor us.We would prefer if you could come to our school personally but we are also willing to communicate through other means like skype, oovoo, facebook, twitter, msn, factime, textplus, kakaotalk, viber, etc.

Thank You,

I hope everyone gets this message.

on Nov. 26, 2012, 12:03 p.m. in reply to girodichatterbox

Rori Abernethy said:

Hi Sarah, Thank you for responding. If you know anyone who is interested, send them my way. The girls are bugging me regularly about it. I'm getting worried we won't find someone in time for the deadline. -Rori On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 6:32 PM, secadv <

on Nov. 26, 2012, 3:20 p.m. in reply to girodichatterbox

Rori Abernethy said:

Hi, Could you send a mentor our way. I sent messages to everyone on the map, but they had already found teams to works with. The girls keep bugging me about it and I'm afraid we are going to miss the deadline. Thanks for responding, Rori Abernethy OHS Math Department Chair On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 5:47 PM, iminchen111 <

on Nov. 26, 2012, 5:24 p.m. in reply to Amy Chen

Anonym said:

Hi AnnaLise, Could you please help Rori? Thanks, Nidhi On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 2:24 PM, rori <

on Nov. 26, 2012, 5:27 p.m. in reply to Rori Abernethy

Amy Chen said:

Hi Rori,

I am your mentor. Please send me an email: IMAChen@lbl.gov.

Amy

on Nov. 26, 2012, 5:31 p.m. in reply to Rori Abernethy

Rori Abernethy said:

Thank you. We found a mentor! Horray! On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 2:27 PM, nidhidoshi <

on Nov. 26, 2012, 6:23 p.m. in reply to Anonym

Anonym said:

AnnaLise told me :) That's awesome!! On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 3:24 PM, rori <

on Nov. 26, 2012, 6:54 p.m. in reply to Rori Abernethy

Rori Abernethy said:

OK well thank you for responding and good luck! On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 6:32 PM, imelda_uli <

on Nov. 26, 2012, 8:24 p.m. in reply to imelda_uli

Angelica said:

Hello Toronto!

I am helping teams in Canada.

What are some tech companies and universities near you? Let me know if you would like help reaching out. Email me - angelica at iridescentlearning dot org.

Angélica

on Nov. 27, 2012, 4:58 a.m. in reply to Pearsonovation

Pearsonovation said:

Hello Angelica!

We are not really aware of tech companies around us but the closest university would be University of Toronto in scarborough. We would really like it if you could help us in our mentor search =D I didn't really understand what your email is. Could you please send it to us again or email us at tizi.ama@hotmail.fr ?

on Nov. 28, 2012, 8:17 p.m. in reply to Angelica

Angelica said:

I just emailed you. I did a quick Google search for a few potential women groups/people in the Toronto area, they are below. I shared some tips on our start a team page. You can use the email templates on our resources page to reach out. I recommend being clear about where you are located and present a few flexible scenarios for potential mentors (e.g. "we can meet on the weekends", "we could travel to your office to meet if you can provide WiFi", etc.). You can also have a mentor from the university. Email women and the head of the computer science departments. If people are not interested/too busy, try to get them to pass you on to someone else.

Good luck!

http://girlsintechtoronto.com/tag/women-in-tech/
http://www.wiredwoman.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=186

http://www.witi.com/toronto/
http://www.catawit.ca/
http://heatherpayne.ca/category/toronto

on Nov. 29, 2012, 8:49 a.m. in reply to Pearsonovation

Columbia Area Career Center "G33kyGirls" said:

Angela, Do you have any for us here in Missouri? Laura EStabrooks

on Nov. 29, 2012, 9:17 a.m. in reply to Angelica

App Divas said:

Does anyone know of a mentor for my girls in the Atlanta area?

on Nov. 29, 2012, 9:19 a.m. in reply to Angelica

Humberside CI (G. Hutchison) said:

Angelica has some good suggestions.

I have 2 teams in Toronto and I was able to line up some mentors from Xtreme Labs to support our program.

I would recommend that you start with Heather Payne from Ladies Learning Code.

http://ladieslearningcode.com/

She works alongside Mozilla and many other technology mentors in Toronto.

BTW. There are some teams at Northern Seconday also so we should all get together at some point during the program. I'm at Humberside CI. Let me know if you would like any support on ensuring that App Inventor will work in your computer lab at school (there are a few issues that you might encounter within the TDSB).

My board email is grant.hutchison at tdsb.on.ca

Regards,

on Nov. 29, 2012, 9:39 a.m. in reply to Pearsonovation

TahaniZ said:

Thanks for the awesome tips Grant!

I also did a quick search and posted some possible organizations below. You can use the same email templates and tips Angelica mentioned.

In MO:

https://www.facebook.com/GirlsInTechMidMO/info

http://womensnetworkcomo.com/

http://www.witi.com/center/regionalchapter/stlouis/

http://swe.missouri.edu/ (contact the outreach officers)

In GA:

http://www.mywit.org/home

http://www.witi.com/atlanta/

http://witi.meetup.com/cities/us/ga/atlanta/

http://www.sweatlanta.org/

http://www.ladieswholaunch.com/atlanta/

As a general rule, some great organizations to look up in your area are: Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Women in Science and Engeineering (WISE), Women in Technology Internationa (WITI), Women in Technology (WIT), Women in Computing (WIC), Women in Computer Science (WICS), Girls in Tech. You can also search on meetups website to find some women in business or CS related meetups.

A lot of these groups have an outreach component in their organizations too, so they are happy to help, you just need to inform them of the opportunity. I hope this helps!

Tahani

on Nov. 29, 2012, 10:53 a.m. in reply to Humberside CI (G. Hutchison)

Angelica said:

this is awesome, thank you! On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 10:53 AM, Tahani <

on Nov. 29, 2012, 11:32 a.m. in reply to TahaniZ

Northern Secondary School said:

Thanks, We did do the suggestions below a few weeks ago - we're just waiting to hear back from some potential mentors and university partners. I will look into the links you sent, thanks! Gillian Gillian Evans Teacher (Math/Physics) Northern Secondary School

on Nov. 29, 2012, 7:06 p.m. in reply to Angelica

Northern Secondary School said:

So funny, I just wrote a blog post about Technovation for Heather and she's going to scroll through her contacts for mentors! Gillian Evans Teacher (Math/Physics) Northern Secondary School

on Nov. 29, 2012, 7:07 p.m. in reply to Humberside CI (G. Hutchison)

Angelica said:

That's wonderful, Gillian! Can you post the link to the blog here when it's ready? We'll tweet it through @_technovation_.

on Nov. 29, 2012, 7:55 p.m. in reply to Northern Secondary School
Anonym said:

Hi,

I'm Nidhi and I've been a Product Manger at Microsoft for the past 4yrs. I've participated in the Technovation challenge for the last two years and am looking forward to it again this year. I've been enjoying this program and am excited to work with a new set of future engineers :)

I'm based in Sunnyvale and am hoping to find a team in Sunnyvale/Mt View.

Cheers,

Nidhi

on Nov. 21, 2012, 3:41 p.m.

Rori Abernethy said:

Hi, We are looking for a mentor. But we are at Oakland high. Is that too far. On Nov 21, 2012 12:41 PM, "nidhidoshi" <

on Nov. 21, 2012, 6:57 p.m. in reply to Anonym

imelda_uli said:

Hi i am imelda. I am living in indonesia. I have a team . I am applying as a mentor. I am still confuse about this competition. Can you help me to give information. I am a business studies teacher. Thk u Sent from my Nokia phone

on Nov. 21, 2012, 9:29 p.m. in reply to Anonym

Anonym said:

Hi Rori, Yes, Oakland high will be very far for me. I'm sure you'll find a mentor in the next few days :)

Good luck!

on Nov. 26, 2012, 3:28 p.m. in reply to Rori Abernethy

Anonym said:

Hi Imelda,

Why don't you contact AnnaLise and she could answer all your questions? She is the Program Coordinator and a very helpful person!

Nidhi

on Nov. 26, 2012, 3:30 p.m. in reply to imelda_uli
Gigi Torres said:

Hi,

My name is Gigi Torres and I am a Mathematics Teacher at Immaculate Conception Academy, an all girl Cristoy Corporate Work Study Program High School that serves only low income young women. This is our 3rd year participating and know that Technovation is a great opportunity for our young girls to be exposed to the field of technology and to find mentors in these professional women who so kindly have decided to volunteer their time in working with our girls.

We are truly looking forward to this year's challenge and hope to inspire our girls to pursue careers in the tech field.

Thank you again to Iridescent and to our mentors!!!

on Nov. 21, 2012, 2:44 p.m.

Indira Vidyaprakash said:

Hi Gigi,

Please let me know if you still have openings available in your school for a Mentor.

Thanks,

Indira

on Nov. 27, 2012, 3:17 p.m. in reply to Gigi Torres
Daniel said:

Hi. I teach robotics and programming at a prep school in NYC. We have a team of five girls who are definitely looking forward to the challenge!

on Nov. 5, 2012, 2:57 p.m.

Technovation said:

Dan participated in Hack Day (App Inventor training) in NYC last season. Dan, we're so excited to have your team participate in the Challenge!

on Nov. 5, 2012, 3:44 p.m. in reply to Daniel

Angelica said:

Dan, are you guys all set with mentors? I saw that Sara emailed you. Email me if you need any help. Angélica

on Nov. 27, 2012, 5:01 a.m. in reply to Technovation

Daniel said:

We have one. Thanks.

on Nov. 27, 2012, 9:12 a.m. in reply to Angelica