First Cohort Of HerNovation Wentees Graduate

Building a community that nurtures women in technology everywhere is one of the driving forces that keeps wentors going. And seeing this vision gradually take root in the heart of other amazing women in technology has been heartwarming.

Friday, April 30, 2021, marked the end of our International Womens’ Day mentorship cohort, our second and largest cohort so far. This feat wouldn’t have been possible without exceptional women who share and believe in our vision. Thank you to all our wentors and especially our wentees who entrusted a vital role in their career development to us.

The Cohort officially began in March 8, 2021, the International Womens’ Day, and as part of our efforts to mark that special day, we set out to provide mentorship for 1000 women in technology across the world.

The IWD We-Discover cohort is the first of its kind in both size and structure and all the feedback that poured in as the cohort rounded up with the e-networking and Graduation Ceremony on Friday being the event that closed the cohort, was a reassurance that our vision to nurture women in technology everywhere is shared and our passion to see more women participate in technology is supported.

Paying it forward is a big deal for us, and providing guidance and support to other women in technology is how we have chosen to give back.

“Transitioning from a Non-IT field to an IT field has been a bit of a challenge. My current role is Customer Interfacing and it’s usually tiring to have to read and know something about everything so I can discuss it and proffer solutions or redirect to the Subject Matter Expert.

Now, through the Wentorship platform, I have been able to streamline where my strengths are exactly. I did not know I had the strengths I had until my Wentor made me do the exercise. I believe I am more confident now having identified my areas of interest”. Olamide Oluwatise had this to say about her Wentor Georgina Odhiambo, a wentor provided by one of our partner communities, HerNovation.

We are immensely grateful and proud to have communities and organizations who share in the vision to see more women participate in the technology industry with us.

Another wentee, Ivy Wainaina, described her experience with another wentor from the HerNovation community as “Authentic, engaging, mind-opening and practical with great opportunities to not only share with each other but learn as well”.

An add-on to this cohort was our soft-skill training sessions, where we invited subject matter experts on Impostor Syndrome, Communications and Personal Branding to train members of the community. We strongly believe in addition to technical skills, soft skills are a very important add-on and they are pivotal to your growth as a woman in technology.

Currently we are a community of over 1000 women in technology and moving forward, we hope to be able to impact even more women in technology around the world.

As an outflow of the cohort, we have made available technical courses on relevant fields in technology and we also designed a masterclass on Personal Branding with Personal Branding and Reputation Management Expert, Lida Citroen. Further details on this are available on our website.

As a community we remain focused on nurturing women in technology everywhere, fostering and encouraging participation of women in the technology industry.