Professor of EKSTU Darya Alontseva is a participant of the TechWomen 2015: 5 weeks of a unique experience in the Silicon Valley, San Francisco, California and Washington, DC, US
What is TechWomen? TechWomen (https://www.techwomen.org/) is a professional mentorship and exchange program developed in 2010. In 2015, the program has been expanded to include women from Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. TechWomen empowers, connects, and supports the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East by providing them the access and opportunity needed to advance their careers, pursue their dreams, and inspire women and girls in their communities.
In 2015, the TechWomen program brought together 99 participants from 19 countries (4 participants represented the Republic of Kazakhstan; the requirements for the participants you can see on https://www.techwomen.org) for the professional and cultural mentorship as well as the development of their social projects aimed at life improving in their countries. TechWomen 2015 gave participants an opportunity to get internship at the leading companies of the Silicon Valley: Google, Yahoo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Mozilla, Juniper Networks, Tesla Motors, etc. The TechWomen 2015 provided the Leadership and Action plan workshops as well as the Educational and StartUp workshops; it organized a meeting with the famous business leaders (e.g., Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos) and employees of the US Department of State's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs in Washington, DC. And the participants developed their social projects for implementation in their own country (we developed our action plan for Kazakhstan; it's a project to help orphans with getting of a higher education).
Professor of the sub-department of Instrument Engineering and Technology Automation Darya Alontseva has been selected for participation in the TechWomen program, her host company is Juniper Networks. Darya is a leading researcher in her research area (Material Science and Physics). She has fifteen years of research experience in developing new material and processes. Currently she is a project manager of 3 projects with state funding, 2 of them in collaboration with British scientists.
She said about TechWomen: I tried to express in one sentence the essence of my professional project: "New technologies at the service of data protection, project management, research and development as well as attracting women to work in technology companies as a factor in improving the company productivity and the society well-being".
I learned about myself during this time that I really like the style of working here and I love the diversity of ages, nationalities and characters. I think that the diversity is a key word for the life and work here and I love it. I should note that Juniper is just an amazing host company. We seemed to have become members of the big family during the mentorship, thank you so much Saura Naim, and all our mentors, I am very grateful to all of you. And I realized that I can communicate effectively in English, I feel confident and my English has significantly improved here as well as my professional and social network has been widely extended.
I believe I'll take everything I learned here and I will use it all for my professional development as well as for developing my country. I think my professional growth is obvious, and also it is very important that I can bring my experience back to my country. I became more confident and determined. The 1st thing I will do - I'll improve the management of my projects with the help of new technologies. I will mentor women scientists who will be involved in this project as well as my students. The next step will be to organize of the workshops for faculty and students, and implementing of our social project. I am very thankful and grateful to the program TechWomen and to the International Department and the administration of EKSTU for the opportunity to get this amazing experience.
I also want to express my gratitude to the Rector of D. Serikbayev East-Kazakhstan state technical university Shaimardanov Zhassulan Kudaibergenovich for his initiative and decisive action on the development of English language proficiency at the university, it is extremely important, including for the preparation of the new participants of a remarkable program TechWomen!
