How did the program go?

Each participant will be assigned to one of the leading tech companies and paired with a Professional Mentor.

Host companies are Symantec, Synopsys, Juniper, Salesforce, Adobe, VMWare, LinkedIn, Meta, Google, GoDaddy, Microsoft and many more.

Some of us had two professional mentors, some of us had online internships, but there were also girls who went to the office every day. They had meetings with teams and got everyday tasks to complete.

And of course, we had an opportunity to visit each other's host companies.

Internship is project-based which means every emerging leader had a small project to complete.

Participants also have workshops and networking events.

We had workshops on leadership, team building and finding the strength of each member, stakeholder identification. Soft skills were upgraded significantly. And they were useful for preparing a social impact project.

The thing is that each country needs to find a solution for a problem in their country and pitch that project in front of a jury. Winners get seed grants to implement their project after returning home.

We had impact coaches who helped us to develop a solution and create our pitch deck.

Whom did I meet?

Each Emerging Leader is also paired with a Cultural Mentor who facilitates activities to learn more about the Bay area and culture.

Cultural events also included visiting other companies and universities. For example, we visited Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which has the most Nobel prize winners.

Those who were not assigned to Google for a mentorship had an opportunity to visit thanks to cultural mentors.

The level of people that we met with was Vice Presidents, Vice Chairmans, top management of companies.

What about entertainment?

And of course, we had some entertaining activities like going to the cinema, museums, theaters.

We had a lot of cultural events, but the page size is too small to list them all and put all photos here.

We also arranged some activities and meetings ourselves. We went to Intel hackathon, visited Plug and Play to learn about startups they invested in and listened for pitches.

Where did it end?

Our program ended in Washington DC. We had an honor to have a luncheon at U.S. Department of State and listen to a speech of US Secretary Antony Blinken there.

He announced that TechWomen is expanding its geography to Albania and Montenegro and include mentorship opportunities based in Chicago. 

Requirements to apply

Applicants must:

− to be a woman,

− have at least two years of professional STEM experience. Internships and other unpaid work experience do not count toward two years of professional experience,

− have at least a bachelor's degree/four-year university degree or its equivalent,

− be fluent in written and spoken English,

− be citizens and permanent residents of participating country (Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan or Zimbabwe),

− be eligible for J-1 exchange visitor visa,

− have not applied for a United States immigrant visa (other than a foreign-born immigrant visa, also known as a "visa lottery") in the past five years,

− not have US citizenship and not be a lawful permanent resident of the US.

Preference will be given to applicants who:

− demonstrated themselves as leaders in their chosen professional field through their work experience, volunteer experience, community activities and education,

− committed to return to their countries to share what they have learned and to be a mentor to women and girls,

− have no work experience or have limited work experience in the United States,

− have a proven track record of volunteering in their communities,

− have a demonstrated track record of entrepreneurship and commitment to innovation.

Is it worth it?

If there is a life-changing experience that allows you to find the meaning that saves lives and expands the boundaries of your thinking, then it is definitely participation in Techwomen.

You can find more here.