November 13th 2017 
Million Women Mentors Summit & Awards Recap
STEMconnector CEO, Leslie Cruz, announced a new partnership with MENTOR which will exponentially increase our mentoring organization database while creating an effortless experience for new and existing members. Chief Business Development Officer Lorena Fimbres shared the release of the 100 Corporate Women Leaders in STEM publication, showcasing female leaders in STEM professions across the country and Chairman and Founder Edie Fraser announced the completion of the Women in Insurance white paper, illuminating areas of opportunity and highlighting existing progress for women in the insurance field. Million Women Mentors heard from national and state leaders including former United States Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith and Ohio Governor Kim Reynolds on how to ensure that young women have strong STEM mentors, and dug into how Million Women Mentors create powerful mentor relationships on the ground through panels and breakout sessions. Closing the event, awards were presented to several leaders in this space for the work they are doing every day to empower women in STEM.

Indiana Conference for Women
MWM-IN participated in the annual Indiana Conference for women on November 7th.
The Indiana Conference for Women is dedicated to the educational and professional development of women in Indiana and the Midwest. It is one of the largest gatherings of professional and women entrepreneurs in the Midwest, and was designed to reach all women from all professions and levels of career along with women entrepreneurs.
The 2017 event featured actress and author Diane Keaton, New York Times #1 bestselling author Gretchen Rubin, former Chanel global CEO Maureen Chiquet, and co-founders of the career site The Muse Kathryn Minshew and Alexandra Cavoulacos.
Sponsored by Ivy Tech Community College and Rolls-Royce, MWM-IN presented the Indiana MWM Stand Up for STEM Award to recognize and celebrate the work of companies, individuals and organizations in Indiana that have contributed significantly to advancing women and girls in STEM careers through MWM and mentoring.
Indiana’s Honorary Chair of Million Women Mentors, Dr. Sue Ellsperman, President of Ivy Tech made the presentation to Indiana State University and Bev Bitzegio. 
The Indiana State University College of Technology has employed strategies over the past 15 years to increase the enrollment, persistence, and success of women in engineering and technology fields. Two of the most significant efforts have been closely connected with mentoring: the Females in Technology, a student organization in its 12th year that supports and connects female students in technology and Destination Success, a career readiness program started last year. These efforts have helped the ISU College of Technology increase female enrollment from 5% to nearly 12%. More importantly than the increased enrollment numbers is the influence mentoring has on the students to encourage other young women to explore options in STEM career fields.
Dr. Ellsperman, herself was also recipient of the national MWM Transformational Educational Leadership award at the recent MWM Summit in DC.
M WM-MD Hosts First Annual Maryland Women in STEM Summit
MWM-MD hosted its First Annual Maryland Women in STEM Summit on November 6 at the BGE Smart Energy Hall Conference Center in Baltimore. 
The summit included a networking event, two panels, and remarks from the Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford. 
The summit was put on by Million Women Mentors-Maryland. Their goal is to build a mentoring ecosystem to motivate girls and young women to pursue careers in STEM.
MWM-MD says mentorship is the key to encouraging young women in Maryland to explore STEM. 
"We have to make sure that young girls understand that this is a career path, a rewarding career path. Something that the can appreciate," said Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford.

BP and MWM-TX Make STEM Exciting For Houston Students at Energy Day Festival!
On October 21st, a record-setting 30,000 people attended the 7th annual  Energy Day Festival  in Houston, Texas. The free event, hosted by  Consumer Energy Alliance  (CEA) and the  Consumer Energy Education Foundation  (CEEF), focused on educating attendees about STEM opportunities in the Houston area through over 55 interactive exhibits, many of them featuring companies from Houston’s energy sector. This year, a particular focus was made on the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey on area schools, culminating in a $10,000 check being presented to Pasadena Independent School District.

Women Who Code Announce Winners
Women Who Code  (WWCode), the world’s largest nonprofit organization working to support the success of women engineers, is proud to announce the winners of the 2017 #ApplaudHer Awards. This honor was bestowed upon women in 13 categories and was given in recognition of their contributions and accomplishments within the technology industry.
The winners were announced last night at the  Second Annual Women Who Code Awards  2017. Over 100 people were in attendance to celebrate the event and support Women Who Code in their work to inspire women to excel in technology careers. Sponsors for the ceremony included  Github Samsung Hired Plex Capital One VMWare Saint Archer Brewing Hova Labs Peroni , and Galvanize .

The winners of the awards were as follows:

  • Ignite Award: Vicki Cheung, Head of Infrastructure, OpenAI
  • Rise Award: Maria Kazandjieva, Engineering Manager, Netflix
  • Innovator Award: Kimberly Mach, Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft 
  • Visionary Award: Martha Arellano, Cloud Platform Architect, VISUAL VOCAL
  • Open Source Award: Erin Spiceland, Engineer, NodeSource
  • Founder Award: Fatima Dicko, Founder & CEO, jetpack
  • Phoenix Award: Lori Hill, Software Engineer, NBC
  • Localization Award: Mimi Hills, Director, Product Globalization, VMware 
  • Senior Leadership Award:Ann Yeung, Sr. Director, Software Engineering, Capital One
  • VPE Award: Dory Weiss, VP of Engineering, nCino 
  • Director of Engineering Award: Selena Deckelmann, Director of Engineering, Firefox Runtime, Mozilla 
  • Engineering Lead Award: Laurence Girard, Engineering Lead API and DevOps, GIPHY
  • Thought leadership Award: Max Whitney, VP of Engineering, Max Amalgamated


Mentors Needed!
Our valued MWM partner, 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
UNITED NATIONS: UNESCO Supports Countries to Crack the Code, Advance Gender Equality in STEM Education Worldwide
Nearly one hundred participants, including representatives of over 20 governments, the private sector and education partners joined UNESCO this morning to celebrate its efforts to advance gender equality in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) studies and careers. The event, “Cracking the code: Girls’ and women’s education in STEM” was held on the sidelines of UNESCO’s 39th session of its  General Conference  and on the World Science Day for Peace and Development.
“Girls and women are key actors in crafting solutions to improve lives and generate inclusive, green growth that benefits us all,” said UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova in her opening remarks. But she noted that “far too few girls are in school, and far too few of them pursue studies in STEM subjects. Even fewer go on to lead STEM careers.” Still today, girls and women around the world face steep challenges hindering their education opportunities. This is of particular concern in the fields of STEM, where girls and women are significantly under-represented. To support Member States in their efforts to advance gender equality in education, the event shared UNESCO’s latest findings on girls’ and women’s participation, achievement and continuation in STEM education.

AFRICA: African Women Needed in STEM to Advance Rights in AI
The African continent needs more women in science, technology and mathematics (STEM) fields in order to advance women's rights within-and through AI.
This is according to Masego Madzwamuse, team leader at the Social & Economic Justice Cluster of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).
Madzwamuse spoke to ITWeb Africa following her recent TEDxLittletonWomen talk in Gauteng, South Africa.
She said governments, companies, and society at large needs to unite to provide regulation and standards that will protect the rights of women in AI.

INDIA: #STEM4Girls Workshop Aims To Educate Around 1,500 Girl Students At Nehru Science Center, Mumbai
Covestro along with Nehru Science Center and Greenlight 4 Girls launched the #STEM4Girls, a campaign that will educate and encourage girl students between the age 11-14 years to pick up career options in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
A week-long campaign will celebrate the World Science Day for Peace and Development as well as educate and encourage girls to pursue STEM education. The #STEM4Girls initiative has been started by Covestro, Nehru Science Center and Greenlight 4 Girls and they reached out to Mumbai for the first time. The initiative had its first drive in the city and they want to eventually spread to other parts of India. The #STEM4Girls workshop aims to educate around 1,500 girl students in the age group 11 to 15 years about STEM at Nehru Science Center, Mumbai.

AUSTRALIA: Women in STEM, Australia's Science Channel
This is what a scientist looks like.. and an engineer, a mathematician, an entrepreneur, a marine biologist, coder, astronomer, doctor, archeologist, roboticist, materials chemist. Want to know how they stay motivated? How they achieved their success? Watch, read, or listen to Women In STEM. They've got a lot to say, and they're saying it loud enough to change the world.

WEST AFRICA: Adebanjo - G4T Initiative Will Address Gender Imbalance in Tech Education 
Vice President and Area Business Head, West Africa at MasterCard, Omokehinde Adebanjo, spoke with  Emma Okonji  on the organisation’s plan to train 200,000 girls globally on technology skills and Artificial Intelligence through its Girls4Tech initiative. 

MasterCard recently launched technology skills acquisition initiative for girls in Nigeria. It is an educational program called Girls4Tech, simply known G4T, which is Mastercard’s signature education program designed for young girls around the world. By leveraging our employee expertise in payments technology, our goal is to inspire girls to build STEM skills to become leaders of tomorrow.

New $1 Million Initiative Aims To Boost Women In Biotech
Women are underrepresented in the life sciences industry. Now, a new program is trying to change that by supporting biotech startups led by women.
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and Takeda Pharmaceuticals on Friday launched Mas sNextGen -- a five-year initiative that will fund and support early stage biotech companies run by women.
"This initiative is really targeted to encourage and support more women entrepreneurs in the life sciences industry, and to also provide them the skills, the tools and the network they need to go out and successfully raise funds for their small innovative companies," said Jennifer Griffin, a VP at the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.

Hispanic Foundation Silicon Valley Focuses on STEM Education
One staggering statistic hovers over everything the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley does, driving the programs it undertakes and reshaping them as data on results come in.
In Silicon Valley — which the foundation considers to be Santa Clara and San Mateo counties — technology and the industries it has created is the king of the economy.
“Having worked in the tech sector myself (10 years in a non-tech job at Hewlett Packard), I’d say Hispanic ‘techies’ are less than 1 percent of the workforce,” said  Ron Gonzales , the foundation’s president and CEO for the last 8½ years.
It takes a moment for the significance of that to sink in for someone immersed in the Silicon Valley truths of the enormous diversity here: the 51 percent of people who speak a language other than English at home, the array of colors one can see walking down any sidewalk.

MSU Dean Honored for Championing Women in Economics
Rachel Croson, dean of the College of Social Science and Foundation Professor of Economics at Michigan State University, is the 2017 recipient of a national award honoring individuals who have furthered the status of women in the economics profession.
The Carolyn Shaw Bell Award is presented by the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession.
“Professor Croson is an accomplished scholar and gifted academic leader who has devoted an enormous amount of energy and creativity to mentoring women in economics,” the committee stated in its announcement of the award.

Girl Scouts to Raise $70M to Teach 2.5 Million Girls STEM by 2025
Young girls are often discouraged from pursuing careers in STEM — but at Dreamforce, the world’s largest software conference, it was the exact opposite.
Inspiring women, and young girls in STEM, and building future female leaders, was one of the highlights of the four-day conference which wrapped up in San Francisco Thursday.
The Girl Scouts of America — which was recently in the news for slamming the Boy Scouts’ decision to accept girls — was a visible presence at Dreamforce this year, with its CEO, Sylvia Acevedo, delivering a keynote address.
The Girl Scouts launched an initiative at Dreamforce to raise $70 million put 2.5 million girls through a STEM pipeline through 2025.

University of Illinois - Women Compete in First ‘Code Ada Hackathon’
Five all-women teams competed in the University’s first “Code Ada Hackathon” on Saturday, and were given eight hours to build anything they wanted using standard computer science tools, like python, java or C.
Fifty people signed up for the Hackathon beforehand, 18 attended the event.
The title of the hackathon, Code Ada, is a reference to Ada Lovelace, the English mathematician credited as the first ever computer programmer, and the first to recognize the potential of a computing machine.

Last week, the Boy Scouts of America announced that girls can now pursue the coveted rank of Eagle Scout, the organization's highest honor. Michael Surbaugh, chief executive of the Boy Scouts, said via press release, "We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children.”
As Boy Scouts takes a step toward changing with the times, the Girls Scouts organization announced they “will remain girls-only,” said Amanda Duquette, vice president of marketing for Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas.

Meet the Woman Behind NASA’s 360-Degree Videos
Have you gotten fired up about space exploration lately?
If so, it could be thanks to Sasha Samochina.
Her 360-degree videos and visualizations have given us Earthlings front-row seats to the Curiosity rover’s trip to Mars and  the Cassini spacecraft’s beautiful death on Saturn.
As an immersive video producer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she helps turn space science into interactive experiences using a deft combination of computers and art.
Samochina recently appeared on  The Limit Does Not Exist , a podcast that focuses on creativity and STEM education. In each episode, Christina Wallace and Cate Scott Campbell look at career paths that cross brain hemispheres, interviewing such people as ballerina/quantum physicist  Merritt Moore  and  Burr Settles , a computer scientist who makes music using  machine learning , a field that allows computer systems to learn without being explicitly programmed.

Men at Work Wonder if They Overstepped With Women, Too
It has been a confusing season for America’s working men, as the conversation around workplace harassment reveals it to be a nationwide epidemic — and many men wonder if they were involved or ignored the signs.
Consider Owen Cunningham, a director at San Francisco’s KBM-Hogue design firm. When he looks toward the annual corporate holiday party these days, he shudders.
“Cancel the holiday party,” said Mr. Cunningham, 37, adding that he means just until it has been figured out how men and women should interact. He said he considered himself progressive on gender issues but was thinking more about the behavior he had seen in the past: “What flirting is O.K.? Was I ever taking advantage of any meager power I had? You start to wonder.”

Why Aren't There More Women in Cybersecurity?
The  lack of women in the field  has become more of a concern for companies as mounting research, including the  Gartner study , indicates that diverse teams tend to "make better decisions and generate more revenue."
So, what is holding cybersecurity back from bringing in more women and, perhaps more importantly, from elevating more women to leadership positions?
SearchCIO interviews with women in cybersecurity show that factors range from lack of education and mentoring to unfriendly working conditions. Indeed, there is no one story that holds true for the career of every single female cybersecurity professional or woman hoping to enter the field. However, women who've forged careers in cybersecurity indicate there are some common problems that can be addressed to help bring in and retain females.

Maynard Businesswoman Among Outstanding Women in Business
Maynard-based Epsilon Associates announced that Managing Principal Peggy Briggs was selected by the Worcester Business Journal as a 2017 Outstanding Women in Business.
The award remains Worcester Business Journal’s most competitive and highly selective awards. This year there were 48 nominations for 42 women, and of those only six were chosen.
Outstanding Women in Business winners are selected on their achievements and impact on the community. Briggs has done this in her own way and as such is being recognized for her achievement in and out of the work place.
Briggs has been instrumental in growing Epsilon from a company that started with just seven partners 20 years ago to a 53-employee firm grossing about $12 million annually. Briggs’ recognition comes in part for her extensive track record of successfully assisting clients through the regulatory processes combined, along with her involvement on boards and interest in mentoring other women in the field.

L'Oreal Honors Women Scientists
Dr. Sydney Schreppler was having a bad day when she got the call.
"It was in the middle of a hard day in lab, where things weren't working the way I'd hoped and I was not sure about what the next couple months in research were going to look like for me," said Schreppler, who researches quantum physics. "And then I heard I was being awarded for my work and I just reacted in disbelief."
The call was from L'Oreal, who told Schreppler she was one of five women to receive the 2017 For Women in Science Fellowship, an award that honors the work of female scientists and gifts them a $60,000 grant to advance their postdoctoral research.

STEM-UP Network Seeks to Recruit, Retain, and Advance Women in STEM
The STEM-UP Network, a social enterprise powered by Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, provides women in STEM with real-world strategies, relationships, and a strong community that support their ability to flourish, prosper and advance both personally and in their careers.
“This is not just a noble and nice thing to do. There is a strong business case here that starts with the tremendous costs of losing so many qualified and educated STEM professionals for reasons that can often be addressed and minimized,” said Dr. Bili S. Mattes, Executive Director of the STEM-UP Network and Provost and Chief Academic Officer at HU. “McKinsey Global, for example, has demonstrated through research that by addressing gender issues in the workforce, the U.S. economy alone stands to gain $2-3 trillion dollars. Globally, the economy could gain $23 trillion. ”

How to Mentor Other Women, According to One of the Most Powerful Women in NYC Government
Alicia Glen is the most powerful woman in New York City government. And she’s fed up.
“This year had felt like an ongoing slap in the face,”  Glen, New York City’s deputy mayor for housing and economic development, said at  a women’s leadership forum sponsored by the technology firm AppNexus. (The day before the Nov. 9 forum was the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.) “It’s also the Year of Harassment,” Glen continued. “That’s crazy. You can’t have a ‘Year of Harassment.'”
The flip-side to this  Year of Harassment , says Glen, is that empowering women in business is more important than ever. That goal is particularly vital to Glen, a former co-leader of Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses initiative and one of the  few women left  in New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s inner circle. To her, mentoring other women is one of the most effective means of empowering them.

A former Royal Navy engineer, a science toy and an entrepreneur using technology to help GPs pick up early signs of cancer were among winners at this year’s  WISE Awards , which recognized the outstanding contributions of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
The annual awards, which have been organised by  WISE  since 2012, aim to shine a light on women working in STEM occupations in the UK. 
Although more women work in science and engineering than ever before – numbers have increased by more than 61,000 in the past 12 months and 230,000 in the past five years - Trudy Norris-Grey, WISE chair and Microsoft managing director, wants to see that figure vastly increase.

Tech Tours!

For the last 4 months they've been on the road talking to locals and influencers about the future of work in their cities. They're getting ready for their San Francisco tour and would love to see you there!

Top 3 Reasons YOU should come to our tour stop!
 
  1. FIND A JOB. 20+ growing startups are recruiting and are looking for great talent like you.
  2. Mentoring With Megan. Need we say more?
  3. Hear incredible speakers!

Next Tour Locations!
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 | MWM@STEMconnector.org | www.MillionWomenMentors.org