The magic of mentorship

• She is one of three distinguished ladies worldwide, who have been picked for top honours at Fortune’s most powerful women’s summit -- an invite-only event that hosts big names in the corporate and entrepreneurship world.
• The forum, through the awards, seeks to empower 10,000 women to take up leadership positions in their communities.
• Each award winner will receive $50,000 to finance the proposals that are picked on the basis of their potential benefit to women.
• Catherine booked herself the big ticket through her business, STEMAfrica – a science, engineering and mathematics project that seeks to grow the number of students pursuing careers in sciences.
• STEMAfrica hosts monthly mentorship programmes for women students aimed at helping them make informed career choices in science, mathematics and engineering.
• The list of Kenya’s high profile mentees are Eva Muraya, the founder and managing director of Brand Strategy and Design, and Phyllis Mwangi of Edge Consult.
• Eva and Phyllis, who have won the prestigious award and have been mentored by Fortune 500 women leaders, were in the inaugural 2006 programme and also shared the monetary reward.

Catherine Nyambala can barely contain her excitement as she prepares to travel to the US to receive the Fortune Goldman Sachs Global women leaders’ award.

She is one of three distinguished ladies worldwide, who have been picked for top honours at Fortune’s most powerful women’s summit -- an invite-only event that hosts big names in the corporate and entrepreneurship world.

The forum, through the awards, seeks to empower 10,000 women to take up leadership positions in their communities.

“We are going to share the award but each one of us has to submit a proposal,” says Catherine, 39.

Each award winner will receive $50,000 to finance the proposals that are picked on the basis of their potential benefit to women.

Catherine booked herself the big ticket through her business, STEMAfrica – a science, engineering and mathematics project that seeks to grow the number of students pursuing careers in sciences.

Catherine, who has appeared more than once on the Business Daily’s annual list of Kenya’s women to watch (The Top 40 Under 40), is among the few women professionals who have been mentored by high-flying business executives that are currently running some of the world’s top corporations.

The list of Kenya’s high profile mentees are Eva Muraya, the founder and managing director of Brand Strategy and Design, and Phyllis Mwangi of Edge Consult.

Innovation

Catherine’s excitement with career mentorship programmes touched a new peak last month when her mentor, Merissa Mayer, was appointed the chief executive of technology giant Yahoo!

Merissa, then vice president at Google, hosted Catherine in her Silicon Valley residence for a one month mentorship programme in 2010.

Catherine had landed in the world’s centre of technological innovation on the advice of a woman she met in Nairobi during one of the mentorship sessions that the US State Department had hosted in Kenya.

“She advised me to go for the Fortune Goldman Sachs Global women’s programme and I immediately sent an application,” says Catherine. “I could not believe it when the two line mail came in, saying I had been matched with Marissa Mayer.”

For the entire month Marissa not only lived with Catherine but also worked with her daily – showing her how to tap her full potential in the arena of work and entrepreneurship.

When it was all done Catherine came back to Nairobi and registered STEMAfrica as an NGO. She has since used the organisation to host monthly mentorship programmes for women students aimed at helping them make informed career choices in science, mathematics and engineering.