Women STEM Leaders Unite at Alumni Thematic International Exchange Seminar in Cairo, Egypt
Written by Megan Turner, a VSFS Intern with the U.S. Department of State. She is currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Roselyne Mariki speaking during Alumni TIES: Cairo. Photo by Emily Rand
Forty-seven ExchangeAlumni women with expertise in science, technology, engineering, and math convened at the Alumni Thematic International Seminar (Alumni TIES) around "Women's Leadership in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)" in Cairo, Egypt. The seminar, which took place October 9-13, 2023, was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and featured presentations from STEM leaders, workshops, and networking opportunities.
Among the panelists who presented at the seminar, we spoke to four trailblazing alumnae who shared their work expanding STEM education access in communities across Africa and the Middle East.
Roselyne Mariki
Roselyne Mariki has over twenty-five years of experience as a STEM educator and is the Tanzania Country Manager for So They Can, a non-profit organization working to advance access to quality education in rural schools in Tanzania. She chose to attend Alumni TIES to connect with other female STEM leaders. Since the seminar ended, she has been in contact with several alumni she met in Cairo and is planning collaborations with them to amplify So They Can’s positive impact on girls’ education in Tanzania.
In her role at So They Can, Roselyn establishes collaborative partnerships with local governments and other NGOs to advance the organization’s mission, providing schools across Tanzania with teacher development programs and the physical infrastructure needed to make them safer and more inclusive to girls. The organization also teaches students critical skills in leadership and business, technology literacy, and STEM.
“We are seeing children raising their voices, speaking up for their rights. We are seeing schools that are safe. We are seeing collaboration with different stakeholders who are standing for children's rights,” Roselyne said.
Shirley Gladys Nakyejwe
Shirley Gladys Nakyejwe is a senior information and communication technology (ICT) officer and intellectual property specialist at the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance in Uganda.
When asked about her motivations for attending Alumni TIES, Shirley emphasized the value of learning from other STEM leaders: “There were very many lessons to pick from what other people are doing. And then, of course, things that I can borrow and add on to what I am doing so that it can enrich my initiative,” she said.
Shirley had the opportunity to meet several women with whom she plans to partner as a part of her initiative, Extend Impact, to further expand access to quality STEM education in her country.
Outside of her role at the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, Shirley dedicates a significant amount of time to Extend Impact. This program teaches girls STEM, vocational skills, and critical lessons in leadership. With this initiative, Shirley introduces girls to foundational computing concepts, teaching them to navigate computer systems before they begin building advanced skills in developing applications and websites. She then advises girls through the process of business matchmaking when they have successfully built tech solutions, providing mentorship as they embark on a career in STEM and offering the communication skills and pitch session education necessary for effectively promoting their product.
Dr. Temiloluwa Adeshina
Dr. Temilolouwa Adeshina co-founded Readland Global, an organization expanding literacy and digital skills for over 50,000 children in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Zambia.
While at Alumni TIES in October 2023, Dr. Adeshina enjoyed collaborating with women who are also deeply committed to expanding access to STEM opportunities in their communities. Reflecting on her work founding and expanding Readland Global, she said there are moments when she questions if she is having the greatest impact possible through her work.
At Alumni TIES, the work of the women she met reminded her that she is making a difference in her community. It inspired her to continue working hard to expand education access across Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Zambia.
Reflecting on what inspired her own love of learning and passion for education, she said, “I lost myself in the world of books when I was 8 years old. And I guess at that age, I discovered the world.”
When her initial goal of becoming a banker did not come to fruition, she applied for a teaching job, was accepted, and quickly fell in love with teaching. While she cherished this role and the impact she was having on her students’ love of learning, her drive to and from work every day continually revealed a glaring inequity she could not ignore – children playing in the streets who were not going to school.
Wanting to expand access to education and introduce critical reading skills to the children in and around her community, Dr. Adeshina quit her job and decided to start Readland. She gathered community members, spoke with the mothers of children not enrolled in school, and assembled a group of volunteers in her community. She and her husband then cleared the furniture from their sitting room and invited 46 children into their home for a day of reading. She continued to host these reading sessions every Saturday and saw the group of children in her home grow from 46 on the first week to over 1,000 over the course of the first two years.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Readland Global expanded its education offerings to include computer literacy and coding skills and, due to the organization’s widespread popularity, expanded its programming to serve communities in Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Zambia. Under the guidance of Readland’s mentorship and education opportunities, children from communities across Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Zambia have won various coding and robotics competitions.
Imane Berchane
Imane Berchane, an industrial engineer and ed-tech consultant, is the co-founder of Play & Code Academy and of Robots & More. Imane attended Alumni TIES to share her work empowering girls in rural areas of Morocco through STEM.
While at the seminar, she had the opportunity to meet other like-minded STEM leaders. When asked about her takeaways from the seminar, Imane stated:
“I was able to connect and form meaningful connections that I am able to pursue after the seminar. So far, I have been able to work on partnerships with at least four of the participants from the program.”
In her home country of Morocco, Imane consults schools on how they can best integrate technology to bring their classrooms into the 21st century. In her consultant role, Imane also helps schools build STEM curricula linked to the national curriculum and trains teachers to improve student engagement in the classroom.
She also works to raise STEM awareness across Morocco, advancing sustainable development goals, sex equality and access, and geographic and social access to STEM education and solutions. She works with funders and Morocco’s Ministry of Education to deploy STEM programs in underserved populations like public schools, specifically in rural areas, and increase girls' access to STEM education and solutions. She has trained over 500 public school teachers across ten different cities on the benefits of robotics.
Reflecting on some of the most memorable moments in her career, Imane is particularly proud of her work with robotics teams in Morocco. Recently, an all-girls team went to Egypt to compete internationally and won an award for their robots. When the girls returned home to Morocco, many of their parents recognized for the first time that their daughters could have a future outside of being a housewife or teacher. Experiences like this are opening doors for countless girls to pursue careers in STEM.