Tag: women in tech

In honour of Women’s History Month, Amazon Web Services (AWS) celebrates female leaders who inspire and empower women and girls in STEM. Their stories demonstrate technical excellence, leadership, collaboration, and mentorship – values that create an inclusive culture where all can thrive. The United Nations’ (UN) theme for this year’s International Women’s Day was “Invest […]

AWS announced the launch of a new program, and the expansion of a second, to increase access to science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) educational programs and resources across Virginia and beyond. These are the most recent AWS community impact efforts that aim to increase access to tech tools and training while reducing barriers to students who are underrepresented and underserved.

In 2021, AWS announced global support for Girls in Tech, a nonprofit founded in 2007 dedicated to eliminating the gender gap in tech. Last week, AWS and Girls In Tech hosted an Evening with Experts event at Amazon HQ2 in Arlington, VA. The in-person event provided an opportunity for women in the local area to hear from public sector and public service technology experts on professional growth opportunities and partnerships to reshape the industry to be more equitable and efficient.

On March 16, I had the honor of kicking off the Build(Her) Conference in Washington, DC, a co-hosted Halcyon and AWS event, along with Kate Goodall, Halcyon co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO). First launched in 2020, the Build(Her) Conference brings together women leaders and entrepreneurs from both the public and private sectors to share ideas, network, and hear from speakers on topics like government innovation, fundraising and growing companies, resilience, and more.

In 2020, AWS and Halcyon launched the Halcyon 2021 Bahrain Women’s Intensive, which aims to foster leadership and scale early-stage, women-run businesses based in Bahrain. The program seeks to inspire female tech entrepreneurs in Bahrain—one of the fastest growing ecosystems in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for impact-oriented business—and the broader region. One of the Intensive participants is Wafa Alobaidat, founder of Women Power Network, an organization that aims to accelerate the success of women founders and professionals through networking and live events including the Women Power Summit. Here are five key entrepreneurship lessons that Alobaidat has learned through her work.

Early in your career it is important to find individuals that you respect and admire to act as mentors. I still have mentors, and I still ask questions. You need to remember that the onus is on you to use your mentor’s time. You need to be prescriptive when it comes to asking for their help. Come to them with specific questions and give them perspective on where you need guidance. Approaching a mentor with a clear understanding of where you need guidance is key to respecting their time and getting the most of yours.

AWS was proud to help sponsor the 2016 Girls Who Code (GWC) Summer Immersion Programs for 1,500 high-school aged girls. To enable their work, AWS built a custom curriculum for the Girls Who Code teams to learn and build their projects in the cloud. At the conclusion of the seven-week program, students formed small teams […]