My name is Hind Saeed . I am a network administrator at Total E&P Yemen Company and through the Techwomen program, I have been matched with Athellina Athsani (Director, Product Marketing) as a professional mentor at CSR. I have also been matched with Mimi Hills (Director, Software Localisation, Research In Motion) as a culture mentor who facilitates activities to help showcase American culture and deepen mutual understanding. I am really grateful for CSR, a leading technical company in Silicon Valley, for hosting me for my three-week project-based program.
Techwomen is an international exchange five-week mentoring program that uses technology as a means to empower women and girls in the Middle East and North Africa. It is launched by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2011, TechWomen builds on her vision of “smart power.” It embraces the full range of diplomatic tools, in this case technology, to bring people together for greater understanding and to empower women and girls. For more information, see http://www.techwomen.org. I heard about Techwomen program from a friend who participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program in Washington DC last year.
It was really long trip to reach California. Once l arrived, we met the other groups from different countries in the airport. It was like the dream became finally true. It was really a very warm welcoming and my feeling couldn’t be expressed.
On my first day at CSR, an email to all Sunnyvale CSR employees was sent as a welcome note and I received an email from Steve Gray (CTO) welcoming me too. I have a warm welcome also from Anthony Simon (VP Technology Strategy & Business Development). It is really great when you feel very welcomed in such strong company. It really gives me the impression that l can get a lot of experience and knowledge plus, l can achieve my objectives at CSR easily. I am getting this chance to deeply thank CSR for the time, effort and chronic support by involving me in new technical projects, tasks and interesting meetings.
At CSR, I am learning new technologies that l have never experienced before such as indoor navigation optimization. l am harvesting location information at the CSR Sunnyvale building and review the result. I really find it very interesting as this is the first time for me to work on indoor map technology while at the same time, l get to meet friendly CSR employees while l am harvesting different locations. I am also introduced to some CSR tracker devices and learning how to collect the location footprints with it. I am also involved in coming up with one or two use cases for LAAS enterprise IT solution. With this project, I am learning how to think innovatively and strategically on coming up with new ideas. Another project I am hoping to do is to talk to the CSR IS department to learn best practices.
In addition to the mentorship at host Company, TechWomen gives me the chance to attend a lot of events and formal training programs at leading companies in Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area such as Oracle, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and Symantec …etc plus, to visit a lot of social places and national landmarks which gives me an impression of the American real. We will also have a chance to attend the Grace Hopper Conference in Baltimore. Our journey will conclude by attending several educational programs in Washington, DC.
I believe that participating in TechWomen program and working at CSR Company is a great experience and l guarantee that it is a turning point in my life. In fact, this is the first time for me to write a blog! When this journey finished, it will not be the end but a new beginning for new professional life style. Thank you once again for this fantastic great opportunity.
