August 21st 2017 



Spotlight Speakers!
Jacklyn Wynn
VP and Director, Veterans Affairs, Center for Enterprise Transformations
Mitre
Barbara Williams
Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
NetApp
Register for the Million Women Mentors Summit and Awards HERE


Pleasse make hotel reservations at one of the following hotels:
MWM-Minnesota hosted a Trailblazers event in June for female high school and college students. Panel members from UnitedHealthcare, Optum Technology, Merrill Corporation, Prime Therapeutics, Wells Fargo, Keygot, C.H Robinson, and Target shared their experiences and offered inspiration. 
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Proven Strategies to Prepare Students for CS Careers
On August 9th at 11:00 AM, four incredible educational thought leaders spoke on their signature statewide and other initiatives to help prepare students for the 21st Century Workforce. This webinar focuses on the importance of computer science and career awareness for students.

Moderated by: Former US Congressman Zach Wamp
Speakers Include:
– Dr. Kathleen Airhart, Deputy Commissioner of Education,  Tennessee DOE ,  Drive to 55
– Ruthe Farmer, Chief Evangelist,  CSforAll Consortium
– Balaji Ganapathy, Head of HR Workforce Effectiveness,  Tata Consultancy Services
– Johnny Key, Commissioner of Education,  Arkansas DOE

Mentors Needed!
Our valued MWM parter, Mentored Pathways, is looking for additional mentors to help serve a number of students across the United States. Utilizing a vast network of middle and high school educators, Mentored Pathways provides the opportunity for mentors to match with students focused on specific projects to help boost their understanding and desire for the STEM path. You may find more information by going to their website - MentoredPathways.org
AUSTRALIA: Time for Liberals to Take Female Representation in Parliament Seriously, Party President Nick Greiner Says
Mr Greiner told delegates at the party's state conference in Tasmania the number of women voting Liberal had dropped since 2001.
"It's actually time to improve the results and the results simply mean having more women in winnable positions," he said.
"I do hope that around Australia the party will at last take this seriously and take it seriously in terms of outcomes."
There are just 18 female Liberal parliamentarians across the two houses of Federal Parliament.

CANADA: University of Toronto's Molly Shoichet on Getting More Women into STEM
U of T's Molly Shoichet discusses how to boost female enrolment in STEM with CTV News.
The  university professor in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering is the 2017 Killam Prize winner. She is a Canada Research Chair in Tissue Engineering, recognized for her work in regenerative medicine, tissue engineering and drug delivery, for everything from curing blindness to strokes. She says more women should be hired in leadership roles and female students should be actively recruited.

AUSTRALIA: Wollongong Businesswoman Accepted into National Mentor Program with High Calibre Mentors
Illawarra businesswomen have not had to wait long to find out if they have been selected among the recipients of 100 mentoring scholarships for business owners in Australia.
In being selected Diana Foye and Michelle Forte this week received phone called to say they have been recognised as helping to drive economic impact in their region.
More than 300 submissions were received from women who met the criteria for the Inspiring Rare Birds initiative.
Ms Forte, of  Austinmer Dance Theatre , and Mrs Foye, of Foye Legal, were both excited because it means they will each receive a year-long mentorship with a high calibre business mentor.

INDIA: Google Memo Shows US is a Tough Place for Woman Techs. Is India Better? We find out!
Last week, Google was in the news for all the wrong reasons! An engineer, James Damore, sent out a 10-page  anti-women ra nt  on how the company’s diversity policies may be harming it. And boy, did he make some people very angry. Here’s what stood out –
“Differences in distributions of traits between men and women may in part explain why we don’t have 50% representation of women in tech and leadership.”
“Neuroticism (higher anxiety, lower stress tolerance).This may contribute to the higher levels of anxiety women report on Googlegeist and to the lower number of women in high-stress jobs.”
Unlike the U.S., where computer science is unfortunately labeled as a “male” field, India sees it open to both men and women.
The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), an industry lobby group, says that roughly 35 % of the workforce in the Indian IT industry are women, making the sector one of the country’s largest employers of women.

CAMBODIA: At Global Competition, Girls Push Frontiers of Technology
A group of Cambodian girls who recently traveled to California to compete in a mobile app competition offered inspiration for other girls worldwide to consider careers in technology.
Their pitch in Silicon Valley wasn't a bid to be the next billion-dollar company. Instead, they want to help their country with a mobile phone application to address poverty.
"Let's fight poverty by using our app. Don't find customers for your product, find products for your customers," said Lorn Dara Soucheng, 12, who led the team that created the app, Cambodian Identity Product.

Mathematics Professor Dr. Talitha Washington Receives Prestigious NSF DUE Appointment
​ Congratulations to Talitha Washington, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematics at Howard University, on her prestigious appointment by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) Program Director for the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program. According to the NSF website, DUE’s programs are intended to strengthen STEM education at two- and four-year colleges and universities by improving curricula, instruction, laboratories, infrastructure, assessment, diversity of students and faculty, and collaborations.

What’s Your Science Teacher Doing in a Comic Book?
  “S.T.E.A.M. Within the Panels: Science Storytelling Through Comic Books, Comic Strips, and Graphic Novels ,” and it’s devoted to the ways the art form describes and reacts to science and technology.
STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics — takes STEM education one step further by adding creativity to the mix. That inventiveness is on full display in a show that finds science in unexpec ted places.
Featured artists include D.M. Higgins, a writer known for her “Jill Trent: Science Sleuth” books, and Rosemary Mosco, who describes herself as a science communicator, putting such things as ecology and astronomy in comic form.

Former NASA Training Specialist and MSU Alum Shares Experience with Students
Sue Darnell Ellis is in Murray and spoke with students and faculty about her nearly 25-year career at NASA working to improve STEM education. Ellis said she took a leave of absence to work on behalf of Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who died in the Challenger explosion.
“I decided that I needed to do what Christa couldn’t do and I think that January 28th, 1986 was a life changing event for me," said Ellis.

Girl Scouts Host Special Mentoring Event in November
QUEENSBURY — The Capital Region’s top female leaders will come together for Dare to Climb, a special mentoring event for girls, sponsored by the Girl Scouts of Northeastern New York, on Saturday, Nov. 18, at the Great Escape Lodge in Queensbury.
This full-day enrichment program will feature presentations, a speed-networking workshop and the opportunity to meet female leaders from throughout the region.
Open to both Girl Scouts and nonmembers, the Dare to Climb program gives girls the opportunity to ask questions and hear the experiences and advice of some of the region’s most successful women in health care, the arts and business.

Now Accepting Applications for PayScale’s 2nd Annual Women in STEM Scholarship
Are you a woman who is college-bound and focused on STEM, or a woman who is currently majoring in science, technology, engineering or math? If so, we encourage you to  apply for our annual Women in STEM Scholarship so that PayScale can help you with your tuition costs.
At PayScale, we’ve done our own  research on the gender pay gap, and know that one of the best ways to help solve this issue is to get more women interested in and pursuing careers in high-paying fields like STEM. This is why we’re awarding $2,500 to two deserving women to help launch them on their STEM careers. Thinking about applying to this special scholarship? Here’s what you need to know.

UNM-Valencia Professor Honored Nationally as a Proponent of STEM Education
University of New Mexico -Valencia Professor Miriam Chávez recently received the 2017 Inspiring Leaders in STEM Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the largest and oldest diversity and inclusion publication in higher education.
The Inspiring Leaders in STEM Award honors professionals from underrepresented groups who have made a difference in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Chávez is featured, along with 40 other recipients, in the   September 2017 issue  of the magazine.
Inspiring Leaders in STEM Award recipients were nominated by a colleague and selected by INSIGHT Into Diversity based on their efforts to inspire and encourage a new generation of young people to consider careers in STEM through mentoring, teaching, research, and successful programs and initiatives.

How To Encourage Girls To Get Interested In STEM
Last week, tech star than Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google,  told teen girls that tech needs them.
"I want you to know that there's a place for you in this industry, there's a place for you at Google," Pichai said on stage at the Technovation Challenge World Pitch Summit award ceremony. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
But recent events at Pichai's own company, where  a male employee was fired for arguing in a memo that his female coworkers were less capable in tech , highlight why many women still feel shut out of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.

As Solar Eclipse Approaches, CSM Professor Prepares to Share ‘The Math of it All’
Stephanie McCaslin, a math professor at the College of Southern Maryland, missed the last total eclipse of the sun visible to the United States, which took place in 1979. But McCaslin has a starring role in the upcoming eclipse August 21. “I am incredibly excited,” she said.
“I was 4 and living in the Southwest,” McCaslin said of the last eclipse. “We were out of the path of totality [the 70-mile-wide area where the sun is completely blocked out by the moon], and it was a cloudy day. So, I’ve never seen a total eclipse.”

How Women Select Majors
Women and men are, in theory, free to choose their college majors without any interference. So why do majors -- and in turn, certain jobs and roles in society -- remain segregated?
Many women in STEM fields, for example,  have cited discrimination and discriminatory attitudes as hardships they face in academia and in the private sector , and a new paper adds another factor to the mix: feminine norms, and how women perceive and adhere to femininity.

Luz Rivas, One of 11 Women Who is Making L.A. a Better Place
Luz Riva’s fate as a STEM crusader may have been sealed by the time she was in fifth grade. It was the early 1980s, and she was learning to program computers at her Pacoima school. “I thought it was a fun toy because we didn’t have computers at home,” she says. “Most people didn’t then, no matter who you were.” By high school Rivas was game for anything that smacked of math or science, including a club for nascent engineers. A decade later the daughter of Mexican immigrants had graduated from MIT and started working as an electrical engineer at Motorola in Chicago. She eventually returned to California, where, after years of being dismayed by the lack of diversity— gender and otherwise—in her field, she decided to do something about it: In 2011, Rivas founded  DIY Girls , which offers intensive STEM education to young women in under-served communities throughout the northeast San Fernando Valley.
 
The Biggest Thing Big Business Can Teach Non-Profits
Most of what Jowita Michalska knows about business she taught herself.
"I grew up in a country where there is a lot of self-learning," says Michalska, who is Polish. "It would be better that I learn more from other people."
That's in part what inspired Michalska to start Digital University, a foundation that teaches people how to find new job possibilities for themselves and for their kids. "Can you imagine that 65% of the students today, they will be working in jobs that do not exist yet," she posits.

Advice for Building a Strong Mentor-Mentee Relationship
For women, finding a mentor who can connect you with opportunities — and who can guide you through the challenges of your job and industry, who can facilitate your growth and otherwise serve as a guide as you navigate the complex path of your career — is an important part of being a professional in the working world.
Until we crush that patriarchy, ladies, mentoring one another is one of the essential ways we make ourselves competitive in the workplace: We pull each other up.

Astrophysicist Erin MacDonald on the Science of Sci-Fi and Fictional Mentors
Today, I’m talking to Erin Macdonald, who has a Ph.D. in astrophysics. After she got her degree, though, she realized that she didn’t want to take the traditional academic path. Now she is a science advocate, public speaker, consultant for the entertainment industry, and a global education resources manager for the UN-directed World Space Week. She also  speaks at conventions  on the  science of sci-fi . And she’s here to discuss her background, nontraditional science career, and women in STEM with Fangrrls.

Beese Awarded for Additive Manufacturing Research, Mentoring
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Allison Beese, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, recently earned the International Outstanding Young Researcher in Freeform and Additive Manufacturing Award for research accomplishments related to additive manufacturing of metallic materials.
The award is given to researchers under age 35 who show potential for a successful career in the field while being a positive role model for others.
 
CDN’s Mentor of the Year Award winner: Carrie Davis-Sydor
The CDN Mentor of the Year Award is going to an outstanding role model who exemplifies the ideal image of a mentor. Not only does this individual have an established track record of mentoring others within their organization, within the channel as a whole, and within the broader community, they also have a lengthy track record working in the channel.
Carrie Davis-Sydor, the vice president of sales and alliances at  Cimpl , a Quebec-based telecom and IT expense management software company. She says, "“everyone has something to teach and to learn,” regardless of skills or titles, she tells CDN. And in a sector predominately driven by men, Davis-Sydor believes it’s important to foster women and champion diversity in the channel and IT industry."
 
What the Science Actually Says About Gender Gaps in the Workplace
Former Google engineer James Damore was hardly the first person to argue that biological differences between men and women determine career outcomes. Many people — even smart, science-minded ones — have asserted that biological differences can explain the gender gap in math, engineering, and science. A 2005  Gallup poll  found that 21% of Americans believed men were better than women in terms of their math and science abilities (though 68% believed men and women were about the same). The fact that this argument keeps coming up means that we need to engage with it and clarify which claims are supported by evidence and which are not.

How Social Entrepreneurs Are Shaping The Women Of Tomorrow
I ( Kamentha Pillay ) am a qualified electrical engineer, I've recently completed an M BA and have held a corporate job for nine years with the same company who awarded me a bursary during my studies [one of the most significant petrochemical companies in the country], whilst being married and raising two busy kids under five; and somehow IG models have helped to devalue all my accomplishments.
The question that we should be asking to our employers is: how do I, as a woman who has toiled and laboured through a STEM field, convince myself and my daughter that the work I do is of true value? In a world where a person's value is measured by the number of likes on a social media account, where a woman without a degree but armed with a camera and a makeup bag can command an army of women to dunk their faces in a bowl of cold water based on its superiority in setting their foundation.

Redefining Female Innovation: Sustainable Fashion
I feel a great responsibility as a female innovator, as I find that people don’t often associate a woman of my style with the word “innovation”. I have always had wonderful support from female role models throughout my journey with Piñatex®. I learned about perseverance from Sonja Landweer, a friend and artist in Ireland who taught me to trust my own process. The Head of the Design Centre Philippines in the 1990s believed in my ideas to develop innovative products using natural fibres and local skills, and encouraged me to take these ideas further.

In a recent Gallup study, only 11 percent of corporate executives perceived that college graduates had the skills they were looking for. How can we better prepare the next generation for the jobs of tomorrow? 
In her new book, Teach to Work: How a Mentor, a Mentee and a Project Can Close the Skills Gap in America (Taylor and Francis: March 28, 2017) mentoring expert Patty empowers professionals – whether they are bankers, lawyers, architects, accountants, engineers, IT specialists or artists – to bring their real-world experience and her project based mentoring model into the classroom. 
Compelling and insightful, the book reveals how professionals can embark on a journey to transform lives, mentoring one student at a time. 
“You have made a difference in the lives of these kids, and most likely you have made a difference in the lives of their kids as well. They have grabbed hold of your light, because they feel your encouragement and kindness, and maybe because they had no other. Thank you for your important leadership in this role.” 
— Chris Gardener, Author of The Pursuit of Happyness, 2010 NFTE Dare to Dream speech 
For more information visit  www.teachtowork.com
 
Women’s Quick Facts brings to life insightful data on the impact of women that everyone should know. From purchasing power, to how efficient women owned companies are with respect to capital compared to men, this book takes the pulse on women in today’s modern economy. Not only does each page compile a broad spectrum of the most current data, it also brings the numbers to life in bite size, easy to read content.

Million Women Mentors | STEMconnector | 202-304-1964 | [email protected] | www.MillionWomenMentors.org