"If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito."
— Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
Still basking in the afterglow of Grace Hopper and She's Geeky, today I made this a three-week estrogen spree by volunteering at the Girl Summit. There is nothing like the energy of 1600 preteen and teenage girls screaming and dancing to wake a body up in the morning! The girls gathered at the San Jose Convention Center to share, have fun, and learn about creating social change together.
This fabulous event was the kickoff to the Girls for a Change (GFC) school year program. GFC is another of my favorite nonprofit organizations, with a program that empowers girls to become social change agents who have a real impact in their schools and communities. After the Summit, many of the girls join Girl Action Teams through their schools or other organizations. Last year I co-coached one of these teams, and it was great to see some of the girls from our team at the Summit. Here's a short video clip on the Girl Summit from CBS channel 5 News.
Since my last day on the job I've done several short volunteer stints: Grace Hopper, the She's Geeky registration desk, today's Girl Summit and, last Friday night, the Haunted Lake at Palo Alto's Foothills Park. Thursday, I head over to the Anita Borg Institute to get started over there.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
She's Still Geeky
I finally got some notes posted for the sessions I scribed at the She's Geeky (un)conference. But it took me quite a while because I got so wrapped up in reading all the great notes and blogs others had posted. And looking through the Flickr slideshow (yeah, I'm in a few). And some of the slides that were posted on SlideShare. Not to mention the She's Geeky confession video (no, I'm not in it):
Saturday, October 27, 2007
I See Tech Women
"Helping one another is part of the religion of our sisterhood."
— Louisa May Alcott
Providing support and empowerment to women and girls is one of my passions, although to date that has not been the work I'm paid for. I scheduled my departure from work so that I didn't have to return to the office after the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) in Orlando. Although I've only been able to attend sporadically, GHC has always been one of my favorite conferences. For starters, there is the sheer pleasure (and rarity) of being at a technical conference where we women are in the majority. Then there are always the great programs (the TechLeaders for Social Innovators workshop was awesome) and the wonderful role models (like the Award Winners and Fran Allen, the first woman to win the Turing Award!).
This was also the first time I've ever moderated a conference panel and with the help of my awesome panelists it was great fun. I came back from GHC with lots of notes, urls to check out, business cards and ideas -- so many that it will take me awhile to process them all. The Grace Hopper Celebration is a program of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. You'll hear more about them in later posts.
On Monday I was off to She's Geeky: A Women's Tech (un)Conference in Mountain View, CA. Again, a great program and more awesome female role models. This conference was much smaller (GHC had 1408 attendees; She's Geeky had an intimate 175-200). The Open Space unconference format on Tuesday, faciliated by Kaliya, was perfect for this group of women. I only wish I had a clone so I could have attended more of the sessions!
— Louisa May Alcott
Providing support and empowerment to women and girls is one of my passions, although to date that has not been the work I'm paid for. I scheduled my departure from work so that I didn't have to return to the office after the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) in Orlando. Although I've only been able to attend sporadically, GHC has always been one of my favorite conferences. For starters, there is the sheer pleasure (and rarity) of being at a technical conference where we women are in the majority. Then there are always the great programs (the TechLeaders for Social Innovators workshop was awesome) and the wonderful role models (like the Award Winners and Fran Allen, the first woman to win the Turing Award!).
This was also the first time I've ever moderated a conference panel and with the help of my awesome panelists it was great fun. I came back from GHC with lots of notes, urls to check out, business cards and ideas -- so many that it will take me awhile to process them all. The Grace Hopper Celebration is a program of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. You'll hear more about them in later posts.
On Monday I was off to She's Geeky: A Women's Tech (un)Conference in Mountain View, CA. Again, a great program and more awesome female role models. This conference was much smaller (GHC had 1408 attendees; She's Geeky had an intimate 175-200). The Open Space unconference format on Tuesday, faciliated by Kaliya, was perfect for this group of women. I only wish I had a clone so I could have attended more of the sessions!
Friday, October 26, 2007
The Leap
"Leap, and the net will appear"
-- American naturalist John Burroughs
I've just quit my high-tech management job in order to redirect my career to more meaningful work. For the foreseeable future I'll be doing volunteer work, exploring various options, and learning all I can. Family, friends and colleagues asked me to keep them posted on what I'm up to, so I've started this blog.
I have a little catching up to do since this new adventure started 12 days ago when I left the office after my exit interview. So there will be a flurry of posts while I catch up, then things should calm down a bit.
-- American naturalist John Burroughs
I've just quit my high-tech management job in order to redirect my career to more meaningful work. For the foreseeable future I'll be doing volunteer work, exploring various options, and learning all I can. Family, friends and colleagues asked me to keep them posted on what I'm up to, so I've started this blog.
I have a little catching up to do since this new adventure started 12 days ago when I left the office after my exit interview. So there will be a flurry of posts while I catch up, then things should calm down a bit.
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