Three seasons, three roles

Technovation is an incredible project available to school girls in Kazakhstan. It helps teenagers grow in many different ways, build confidence, overcome fears by stepping out of their comfort zone and compete on a global scale. It teaches valuable life skills of seeking solutions through collaboration with other team members, and being able to pitch and defend their idea.

My Technovation journey started in 2015 when my friend Diana Tsoy launched this program in Kazakhstan. After participating in the U.S. exchange program TechWomen, Diana got inspired to promote women empowerment in Kazakhstan, and I was happy to support her.

I saw Technovation as a great tool to contribute to our society in an impactful way by helping young girls to grow their entrepreneurial skills, see a variety of opportunities available in this world, and build their confidence.

I was very lucky to be a part of this fantastic program during three seasons and each season was new for me as I was performing different roles. During three seasons I had the roles of a mentor, a coach&judge and an ambassador.

Mentor

During the first season of Technovation Challenge in Kazakhstan 2016, I mentored a team of five brilliant girls aged 15-17 years old. I was fascinated by the level of thinking and advancement of these young ladies, who genuinely cared about solving social problems in our community.

Together we developed a mobile app Auxcity which provided an efficient platform for connecting people in need and volunteers willing to help. Even though we did not win the competition, I consider our work to be an outstanding success. Despite all the difficulties faced on the way, the girls were able to complete the project on time by demonstrating exceptional teamwork, multitasking and project management skills.

For a mentor, Technovation Challenge provides a unique opportunity to practice mentorship skills. For me personally, it was a very memorable and rewarding experience. You feel it when girls ask for your advice on their career choice or some life situation long after the program is over.

Coach & Judge

In 2017, I could not devote to Technovation as much time as in the year before. However, I was still committed and willing to contribute. Therefore, I participated in such one-off events as a speed coaching session and regional judging. During the speed coaching session, my task was to provide teams with a quick feedback on their idea, app prototype and a business plan draft to help them improve their project. Judge’s role was to carefully assess the submitted deliverables and pitches. It was an immense responsibility and a tough decision to choose the best apps. But our judge team did a wonderful job: two winning teams got into a World Pitch Summit in Silicon Valley!

Being a coach or a judge provided with a high level view on the problems that school children care about the most and on the way they deal with such problems.

It is a great opportunity to create an impact without a several-month commitment. However, on the downside, it lacks a close relationship and connection with girls as one would have by taking a mentor role.

Ambassador

This year, being familiar with both Technovation and Toastmasters, I served as connection between the two. I introduced Technovation program to the Toastmasters members and at the same time helped Technovation organizers to recruit mentors, coaches and other volunteers from the Almaty Toastmasters Club (ATM). As a result, four ATM members mentored teams and three coached during a speed session.

In addition to active participation in all the roles, ATM members held a pitch training for all the teams in Almaty to help them prepare for the regional pitch event. A crew of twelve TM members explained and held a workshop on how to structure the presentation and enhance the message with a story and visual aids. More than 40 girls participated in the training and left a positive feedback.

Beneficial for everyone

As much enjoyment and opportunities for growth Technovation offers to children, I believe it grants even more to adults participating in Technovation Challenge. The program provides plenty of benefits to mentors and other volunteers. As a basic one, you get to learn technology. For example, I did not have any prior knowledge or exposure to app developing or coding before I joined Technovation, and learned it together with the girls and even more often from the girls.

Second, Technovation provides a platform for practicing soft skills including project and team management. Leadership and mentorship are vital in today’s world and Technovation would be an ideal place to practice them extensively.

Third, you get to see and interact with the new bright generation, who I’m sure would surprise you!

I was surprised when I heard a response of a 10-year-old on a question of her big dream. Her dream was not a pool of balloons or a truck of ice-cream but as she said: “the feeling that she would get from achieving her big goal”.

On top of everything, by investing our modest time in Technovation, we get this abundant opportunity to contribute to the future of our society, which has been my great privilege of being able to do - to lead change in younger generation. 🙌🏼