Once upon a time in our modern history of the region schools were exclusive for men only. In 1911, the Al Mubarakiyya School was established as one of Kuwait’s modern educational institutions in Kuwait and 15 years later—in 1926, the first informal school for girls was inaugurated. Sadly, even after more than 100 hundred years, higher education is easily accessed and obtained by men than it is for women in the Middle East.

This above fact seems to be proven wrong by the incredibly talented, smart, kind and ambitious women I have met through my Journey in the Silicon Valley. Starting from Muyesser Eddin who is in charge of this challenging trip; scheduling each day to be a perfect learning experience to all students. A “women in charge” could sound like a strong statement headline from the New york times newspaper but once you get to take a look at some of its ‘behind the scenes’ you would get to be introduced to the true meaning of having a supernatural light inside the person’s heart which gives him this strength to reach his fullest potential regardless of the uncountable challenges. You would not believe how hard it is to take care of 30 students, rearrange with bus shuttles, coordinate with chaperones and most importantly get appointments from those big companies to have us at their secured edifices, including responding to calls, texts and emails and what not, yet she would make sure we get the maximum knowledge, best food and best site-seeing but forget about her self! From her I’ve learnt that a women is up to great challenges and beyond when surrounded by great caring spirits. From her I have seen what a true Arab women leader looks like.

The second Inspiring women I met in this Journey is Marwa Mabrouk who works at google. Marwa’s story summarizes many similar stories of women in the Middle East following their passion, and the struggle of convincing their families to let them pursue those dreams alone; as parents would always use religious reasons to keep their daughters in front of their eyes out of love and overprotectiveness. Marwa wanted to pursue her dream as entrepreneur, please her mother and follow her religion. And so with a single call to Al-Azhar she got to achieve all those three goals seamlessly and now she is at Google; thebiggest company in the world! I have learnt from Marwa’s story that when you seek a dream with good intentions then the whole universe will conspire in helping you achieve it.

The third inspiring women I met in this journey is Muneera al-Qahtani who is a student with us in this trip. Muneera is a hardworking phd student and a mother of a toddler whom she brought with her in this trip; she gracefully has the ability to multitask and take care of all her responsibilities as a mother, student and aspiring entrepreneur and also takes the role of the ‘camera man’ behind each group photo yet never even once I’ve heard her complain! I have learnt from Muneera that a women can be everything she wants at once and that”lack of time” is an mere illusion of the mind

And I can’t wait to meet more inspiring women tomorrow who will remind me of the powerful perseverance of women in the tech world.

Dalal

8:59 a.m.

5th March 2018

San Francisco, CA 

The accelerator that invested in Canva, Udemy, and many more famous start-ups. It is 500 Startups. For those who have not heard of 500 Startups before, they are a venture capital firm. They run an accelerator program that runs for 3-4 months a cycle. You may visit their website here. In this post I want to focus more on the experience I lived during visiting their firm in Silicon Valley.

I had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with Marvin Liao, a partner at the firm, Christine Tsai who is a founding partner, as well as Sharif El-Badawi who is a partner in the MENA region. Each of the speakers had a unique story to share. 

It was admiring to see how Marvin, who is a History major, learned on his own and became an expert in what he does by gaining knowledge from the resources at his disposal. He stressed on the value of 'self-learning'. You don't have to have a degree in a particular subject to know about it. Everyone nowadays can access books, e-books, online courses, or even just search the subject on the web.

Sharif gave us one of the most valuable, and practical career advises I have heard in a while. His advice was that go find a job (at a good place), stick with it for couple of years, then later you can move on and do something else (a start-up). His reasoning behind that is that if things go wrong with your start-up, you will have your resume to back you up. To be honest I like that advice because it ends the constant battle I have within me. I am always confused whether I should seek a job that I like at a good company (and earn the privileges and the prestige that come with it) or to follow an idea that I have and have my own start-up (and all the freedom that comes with it). 

Another very important point that he mentioned was the fact that not everyone has to be the founder. You can still work with start-ups, but in the team under the founder. That is really smart as you will have less to be stressed about when not being the 'big boss'.

11:59

5th March 2018

Mountain View, CA

How often do you get the chance of being in the headquarters of the MOST valuable company in the world?Today I got that chance and visited the dream company of this generation, Google.

During the visit I got to listen to great three speakers and Google employees, walked through the campus, visited the souvenir store, and even made new connections.

Whom did I meet?

I met three incredible employees, Rayman Aryani our host and program manager, Marwa Mabrouk who works as a product manager, and Sami Haija who is a machine learning researcher. I value people from all backgrounds and nations, but I felt particularly proud that the three of them have middle eastern origins. Not only that made me feel directly connected to them, but it also gave me faith that anyone can do it even if they come from the other half of the world.

How does Google look like?

Many people wonder what does Google look like from the inside, well, I will get to say it feels like home!. Everything you can think of is provided, from free food to massage service, to a beautiful park. Everyone seemed chill and excited to be there.

What is so different about Google?

There are many great things that make them different than any other company, but what appealed to me the most was the following:

1-They invest in humans and talents.

To me that is one of the most important strategies, to focus on the employees as human beings, not as property that the company owns. Google makes sure to invest in the people's talent, because a great team is what makes everything works well.

2- They value diversity

I met three people that each one of them had a very unique background and a story. Google sees 'Diversity as an asset'. They encourage individuals to leverage their identity because each one of us is different, and can add a new value to the table. 

3- They maintain a healthy atmosphere

Competition is present in any sector in any industry, but competition can either be toxic, or be kept maintained at a healthy level. That what Google stresses on, to keep the atmosphere healthy and to make sure that their employees are not on full power all the time to the extent that it starts to reflect negatively on them and on the whole company.

 Women Power

After the 20 hour-long multiple journeys, we finally reach our destination, San Francisco, and my God, what a city. When people say, that New York never sleeps, I guess they haven’t visited the Silicon Valley yet. From the magnificent views of the golden gate bridge to the richness of modernization in the tech industry has made San Francisco, one of the top cities that I have ever visited. 

However, one of the most important reasons that this trip was a successful learning experience for me is because of these three people; Wadha, Muyesser, and Omar. I cannot think of any other individuals who could’ve done what these guys did for us. The continuous efforts they put in, shows how much they really care for us to learn and have a good experience from this trip. From getting everybody’s plane tickets ready to making sure everyone is on one of the vans every morning to even making sure that we got what we all as students demanded whether it be dining at In & Out, or shopping at the outlets malls, they gave us everything one could ask for. I personally cannot thank these guys enough, for all their efforts, and hopefully if you’re reading this, I just wanted to show my appreciation towards all your tireless efforts that you put in to make this trip one of the most memorable trip of all time.  

 Secondly, what made this trip extremely wonderful were the students I met from different Universities. These students go toUniversities in Education city. If it weren’t for this trip, I would’ve probably not met them at all. Amazing people, each and every one of them, I’m glad I met these people as these friendships will be one that lasts for long.

San Francisco was beautiful. From its breath-taking scenery, abundance of culture and innovation it is definitely a city I intend on visiting again. But what made this trip for me was the people I met.

Yes. The days are long. Yes. You will, at times, have 12 hour days. Yes. You will be expected to be punctual (you know who you are). But what you get out of this trip can change your life for the better - if you let it.

I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate the work contributed by those who coordinated this trip. Namely, Muyesser, Omar and Wadha - I personally cannot think of anyone else more capable of organizing this trip than the aforementioned. Through all of the unprecedented events they were always present, patient, and genuinely concerned for the well-being of the group. The following is in no way exclusive of them. It is as much about them as it is about the individuals we met in San Francisco.

This trip has allowed me to meet so many extraordinary people who amidst all adversity and failure continued to persevere anyway. To forge friendships which otherwise may never have  been. In this day and age of the need for everything to be instantaneous-at your fingertips-seamless, where waiting a few seconds for your iPhone to load an app can cause undue agitation, this mindset of looking at the bigger picture is lost on many (in recent years, especially myself). The people we met on this trip live and breathe resilience as well as patience. They put their lives on the line to work for something bigger than themselves instead of settling for mediocre, easy comforts.

I cannot understate how much I have learnt on this trip both in substance as well as form. Real stories of people who, under the most pressing of situations, managed to maintain a cool head and stayed true to themselves to not be swayed by the empty caress of instant gratification. To always push the envelope. Caught in the conditions of my own everyday life it is easy to lose this mindset of daring, steadfast conviction. To be able to catch a glimpse of people striving relentlessly to achieve ones potential, who look above and beyond the horizon of the next snapchat story post, the latest meme or when the next Star Wars movie will be released - is priceless. 

These people are catalysts whose lessons I hope to take and internalize to streamline my own ambitions. To quickly bounce back from my own failures. To structure my life in a way where I never stop being enthusiastic about what I’m doing. “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”

Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, will serve as the guest speaker at the opening ceremony of the 31st IASP World Conference, which will take place in Doha in October, organizers have announced.

The theme of this year’s conference, which will be held in the Middle East for the first time, is “Science Parks; Where Technology Goes to Work.”

Hurley is expected to inspire the hundreds of…