How did I get to know GHC and get accepted as GHC19 Scholar from AnitaB.org
Grace Hopper Celebration — let’s envision where half of the world techies are women.
In early January 2019, I applied as a Mentor in the STEM Sister Cambodia project. STEM Sister Cambodia is a project by STEM Education Organisation for Cambodia in partnership with the British Embassy Cambodia and with the invaluable support from the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport.
STEM Sister Cambodia is 8-weeks program of STEM Clubs led by girls and starting NOW in schools all over Cambodia. Discover real STEM careers available to you here in Cambodia.
Meet local female STEM professionals through video interviews, have fun doing hands-on STEM activities and discover all that Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths can offer you.
By joining as a STEM Club Leader, you will become a ‘STEM Little Sister’ (female high school student) and receive support from ‘STEM Big Sisters’ (studying STEM at University like me 😉) and ‘STEM Pro Sisters’ (Cambodian Professional Women). Your STEM Brothers can also join as STEM Club Members in your club.
So I applied as STEM Big Sister, along 8-weeks program, I got matched with STEM Pro Sister. My mentor was a Grace Hopper Celebration 2017 Scholar, Front-end developer, Monyrath Buntoun, and she’s now getting her master scholarship pursuing Computer Science degree focus on Machine Learning in United State. Along with our 8-weeks mentorship program, we share a lot in common, tech, entrepreneurship, women empowerment, how girls could get exposure to tech or STEM-related subjects, and my mentor is someone who introduced me to Grace Hopper Celebration which is the largest world tech conference for women technologist, there will be giants tech companies gather in the expo like Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM etc… keynotes speech from inspiring female in tech field (I watched live in 2018, it was so inspired by PhD. Fei Fei Li, a professor at Standford University and a lead at Google Machine Learning, who raised in china and later on move to the US when she was 12), hackathon, coding interview, and job/internship opportunities.
GHC scholarship is very competitive, while it is also a long process. The application opened since 16th January 2019, and I applied on 5th March 2019 ( a day before the deadline 😉) and waited for 2 months till the acceptance as GHC19 scholar on 8th May 2019.
Since Cambodia and US were different for 11hours, can you imagine waking up in the next morning on 9th May (Cambodia time), and seeing the email alert “Congratulations! GHC 19 Student Scholarship Acceptance”
It was during my semester holiday, so I was at home. I can’t wait to tell my mom while she’s still at the hospital, so I only tell my sister because we were home together. But she was so super excited than me, and she phoned mom while she still at work.
GHC19 is only 2 months away, and still lots of things to prepare. Since Cambodia need a nonimmigrant VISA to enter the United States, so I start processing my visa application since the end of May, and in early 3rd July, my visa got approved.
The GHC 19 Resume Database is open and a great way to boost visibility and gain exposure as sponsors have started receiving access to the resumes. Also, there is a mentorship program before GHC19 coming in 8-week. AnitaB.org is piloting an 8-week Career Advancement program on Facebook Group, GHC Scholars, open to both current and past scholars go through the full 8-weeks’ worth of modules.
