Today I summoned the courage to finish my registration and mentor training on Technovation Girls.
Technovation is a global tech non-profit that empowers girls between ages 8- 18 years old to become techprenuers and leaders. They get assigned a mentor for 12 weeks and will help the girls through the process of building an innovative application. More details here Technovation Girls
Over the years I have helped people with resources to learn and put them through in one way or the other but I've never been in a situation like this before. It's very typical of me to run off whenever opportunities like this present themselves, maybe due to imposter syndrome or fear of not being good enough. Today I completed the registration, filled in my bio, and went through the mentor training slides and I was impressed, but I still had a bit of doubt as to whether I wanted to do it or not.
As soon as I finished I started checking for teams on the platform without mentors and based on my location which is Lagos Nigeria, all teams had mentors, ..I guess this isn't for me. I decided to check for more teams outside my location but within Nigeria, I saw a few and sent invitations. I checked further globally and stumbled on a team of 5 girls in the senior division(ages 16-18) from Morrocco named Trial 2, there was no information as to what they intend to build, just 5 amazing girls who want to change the world. I sent an invitation and in less than a minute I was accepted. I realized at the point I was in it but I can decide not to introduce myself and they get another mentor, right?
I took deep breaths, summoned the courage to send the mail to the girls introducing myself, sending a parental consent form and a calendly link for our first meeting with open slots so everyone can pick a date that's convenient for them, and based on popular date and time, we'll fix our first meeting this week.
At the moment I have 3 responses, hopefully, the other girls send in their slot before Tuesday. If they like me I could actually give this a shot.
Fingers crossed 🤞🏽.