As many of you know, opening the doors for women to thrive in STEM education and careers is a key focus for Symantec. Our work in this area is driven primarily through initiatives and partnerships managed by our Corporate Responsibility team, and supported by the volunteer efforts of thousands of employees worldwide. Our initiatives target females at all life and career stages as the challenge of increasing the number of female STEM professionals requires educating and supporting females at many points along their career development path from early education to professional career development.
As part of the Global Diversity and Inclusion team, I am involved in many of these initiatives and have the opportunity to see first-hand what a difference they make. For the fourth year in a row, this October, Symantec is participating in the US Department of State’s TechWomen initiative, whose mission is to “empower, connect, and support the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from Africa and the Middle East”. I could not be more excited to help organize Symantec’s involvement with this initiative.
Symantec has been a partner of TechWomen since the initiative’s inception in 2011. The initiative takes place over five weeks, with participants engaging in project-based mentorships at leading companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, as well as participating in professional development workshops and networking events, and traveling to Washington, D.C. for targeted meetings and special events to conclude the initiative. Over the past three years, 156 women in total have participated in the TechWomen initiative, Symantec has hosted eleven, and this year alone Symantec will host six women from Tunisia, Cameroon, Algeria, Morocco and Libya.
Our Emerging Leaders arrive October 7th and stay through the end of the month. They work with their Professional Mentors Monday through Thursday from 9am – 6pm. On Fridays, the organizers of TechWomen conduct professional development trainings for all 78 TechWomen Emerging Leaders at a centralized location. Emerging Leaders learn a variety of technical skills, leadership skills and cultural aspects of doing business in the United States from their mentors. This year, Symantec’s mentors plan on pooling their resources to run joint trainings in fields such as cloud infrastructure, IT, security and software development.
This year, Symantec’s Professional Mentors are Eileen Brewer, Senior Manager, Dell HW and LPgM Team ; Jennifer Martin, Director, Security Investigations; Shalaka Prabhune, Director, IT; Devanshi Sheth, Principal Program Manager, Norton Support and Services; Namrata Choudhury, Senior Principal, Security/Threat; Sowmya Simha, Principal Initiative Manager and Mohna Dhomse, Senior Manager, Information Development. We also have three Cultural Mentors supporting the Emerging Leaders in the evenings, introducing them to the cultural aspects of living in Silicon Valley. This year, I’m honored to be one of the cultural mentors, accompanied by Andria Bouskos, Corporate Counsel, Legal Ethics & Compliance; and Neeti Gowda, Senior Principal Business Analyst.
“This will be my third year participating as a Professional Mentor in the TechWomen Initiative and although it is a month of hard work I find it very fulfilling. The women arrive with a wish list of the technical training they would like to receive while here and many employees help us provide that training over the month of October so it’s very much a larger Symantec team effort.
In addition, I love to travel off the beaten path and in this initiative we have the opportunity to visit countries in Africa and the Middle East to interact with young women and present STEM career options. We don’t just mentor, we learn and we become better global citizens from the experiences of all these interactions.”
– Eileen Brewer, PMP, Sr Manager, Dell HW & LPgM Team, Gateway Security Group
“I have been part of the TechWomen initiative since its inception in 2011. I have served as a professional mentor for all these years and very excited and looking forward to another successful year which will begin in few weeks! For the last 2 years I have also served as a selection committee member for the initiative. Along with the Emerging Leaders who arrive from around the world this is a great opportunity to connect with other mentors, our peers from different companies in the valley. In the process of helping our mentees achieve their goals, we learn a lot from them as well as other SMEs who help with specialized trainings. This is a very humbling and rewarding experience and hence I continue to participate every year!”
- Shalaka Prabhune, Director, IT
All Symantec Mountain View employees will get a chance to meet the Emerging Leaders while they’re at Symantec at the end of October, at the Emerging Leaders Showcase, where our Emerging Leaders will present what they have learned in their month working alongside their mentors here at Symantec.
Stay tuned later this fall where we look forward to bringing you highlights from the Emerging Leaders Showcase!
| The 2013 TechWomen class. For the fourth year in a row, Symantec is participating in the TechWomen initiative and will host six female Emerging Leaders from Tunisia, Cameroon, Algeria, Morrocco and Libya. |
| TechWomen Symantec mentors and Emerging Leaders from the 2013 class close out the initiative with a visit to Washington DC for a luncheon with the US state department, including former White House press secretary and New York Times bestselling author Dee Dee Myers. |
Ruha Devanesan is Symantec's Manager, Global Diversity and Inclusion