Silicon Valley Women mentor young Nigerians

A 16-member delegation of senior women technology executives and professionals from Silicon Valley, California are in Nigeria as part of the six day TechWomen programme which is ending today.

They represent organizations as diverse as Twitter, LinkedIn, Netflix, Mozilla, Autodesk, WomenCollegeTech, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Juniper Networks, as well as Fairrer Samani Group, Northgate Environmental Management, Jessica Dickinson Goodman Consulting, and the Institute of International Education.

Members of the delegation include Ms Larissa Shapiro, Head of Mozilla’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Division, and Twitter’s Senior Software Engineer, Ms. Elizabeth Deng. She is a computer science graduate of the University of Southern California co-organized “Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Programme” for the microblogging website in 2017.

Others are Dr. Leedjia Svec, Director WomenCollegeTech and former Director of Programmes at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research Centre in Silicon Valley, alongside Ms Maile Smith, Principal Geologist/ Chief Operating Officer at Northgate Environmental Management, are part of the travelling delegation.

The delegation is working with Nigerian Fellows of the TechWomen program to carry out mentoring sessions in Lagos and Abuja for young women working in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

During the programme which started last Sunday, the delegation will visit nongovernmental organizations, private and public enterprises, universities, schools, tech incubators and innovation hubs to expand networks of women in STEM teaching and learning in Nigeria.