When you were a teenager, did you have a female mentor or role model who showed you that girls can grow up to be programmers, entrepreneurs, and leaders?
By Dara Olmsted (Director of Development, Iridescent)
Help the next generation of girls learn to code and start companies – sign up to be a Technovation Challenge mentor today. This year, Technovation is going global and we have hundreds of teams from around the world who need strong, female mentors like you to inspire and lead them. No experience necessary – we will train you.
Whether you are in Silicon Valley, New York City, or Des Moines, we need you! And who knows, you might just learn a bit yourself:
“I’ve been so inspired that earlier this month I created a startup at Startup Weekend for Education in San Francisco, and I still have a team working on it, but that’s not it. I just found out I got into Founder Institute, a part-time incubator for tech startups!” – Technovation Mentor
“The [Technovation Challenge] experience was absolutely amazing, and my group of girls inspired me to start something of my own… watching my high school team code such an awesome app made me realize that I could do it too!” – Technovation Mentor (This mentor was also accepted into the Founder Institute).
Come to our Mentor Recruiting Party at Airbnb on October 16 in San Francisco!
Meet other women in technology, learn about us at the Technovation Mentor Recruiting Party on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 (6pm – 8pm) at Airbnb in San Francisco. Hear a keynote speech by Jessica Semaan, Operations Manager at Airbnb. Wine and cheese will be served. Get your free ticket to attend here.
No matter where you live – if you have two hours a week for twelve weeks starting in January – you can help out by mentoring a team of girls. You do not have to be a programmer to be a mentor – any woman in business or technology is eligible. Learn more at Technovation.
Women 2.0 readers: Do you mentor the next generation of girls in tech, business and entrepreneurship? Let us know in the comments!
About the guest blogger: Dara Olmsted is Director of Development at Iridescent, a science-education nonprofit that helps engineers, scientists and high-tech professionals bring cutting edge science, technology and engineering to high school girls and underprivileged minority children and their families. In her spare time, she writes for the Boston Globe’s Green Blog and makes sock monkeys. She currently resides in Palo Alto. Follow her on Twitter at @dolmsted.