Sehreen is a growth strategist working with education businesses and focusing on client, prospect, and employee loyalty, who had also managed the Department of State's Fund for Innovation, implementing education programs across the Middle East. She is also the founder of EdTechWomen (edtechwomen.com), a network of 2,500 women and their supporters in edtech with several global chapters, whose objective is to connect women to build relationships, develop careers, and change standards, in ways that increase and improve leadership opportunities for women in education technology.
Sabina is the founder of Hello World (helloworldstudio.org), a computer science program that partners with K-12 schools to provide computer science classes in Austin, TX and Mountain View, CA.
For both women, the need to foster leaders in technology is clear and urgent. Sabina says, “An abundance of statistics points to the paucity of women, African American, and Latino students in technology fields. In 2015, less than 10 girls took the Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science exam in eleven states.” This trend, if not reversed, runs the risk of having fewer women in the workforce in these fields. This, in turn, could make it harder for other women to advance. Sehreen adds that for women in education technology, “It seems that one of the biggest obstacles is navigating unconscious bias to get to the senior most positions.”
Programs such as Hello World, with courses modeled after Stanford and Rice Universities’ college and graduate-level computer science programs, are instrumental in increasing interest in computer science, a field which will continue to change the world—from artificial intelligence to 3D printing. Sabina notes that 88% (~1,100) of the program’s students (including girls, African Americans, and Latinos) who are underrepresented in technology fields and participated in Hello World for at least one semester have changed their responses to the question: “I can see myself as a computer scientist in the future” from “strongly disagree” or “disagree” to “agree” or “strongly agree.” The team hopes to make its curriculum the gold standard for computer science in grades K-12.
While Sabina targets younger age groups before they enter the workforce or even college, Sehreen focuses on leveraging city-based chapters, conferences, and social media to spread its message and enable women to connect with and learn from each other. EdTechWomen “wants the world to see the impact women have as leaders, decision-makers, and experts, and the power they have as a network.” The organization has spread its message wide and far—even reaching Tokyo, Japan. EdTechWomen was awarded the “Change Makers of the Year” award at the annual South by Southwest Education Conference and Festival.
As female founders in tech—a phenomenon which is still, sadly, a rarity—both Sehreen and Sabina are chipping away at the glass ceiling for themselves, and for generations to come.
