Rayhona – Collaboration and Education in Tech

Rayhona, TechGirls 2020, Uzbekistan

“Becoming a TechGirl was one of the best achievements of my life. The cross-cultural experience, during the virtual program, provided me with the opportunity to find an intellectually rich community of people dedicated to the life of the mind. The collaboration of girls from diverse communities inspired me to believe in the possibility of changing the world. Throughout the program, I started to believe that the word “impossible” doesn’t exist because it means “I AM POSSIBLE.” My passion and desire for the field of Computer Science grew more, which consequently brought me to the place where I am standing now. I have been accepted into several universities in the USA, South Korea, China, Russia for Computer Science and Cyber Security. Because of the TechGirls program, I became confident in myself as a woman. I started to believe in life without borders and that every girl is capable of making a global change.” 

IHT Tech Community

For her follow-up project, Rayhona created the IHT TechCommunity event. She collaborated  with two other alumni from TechGirls 2020. Rayhona invited Adison Lampert from the USA  to the Introduction to Coding and Web-Development online event where she held an amazing presentation. The other 2020 TechGirl she collaborated with was Shakhrizoda Rizakulova from Uzbekistan. Rayhona attended Shakhrizoda’s  school, which specializes in STEM subjects. Together, they held an event related to the TechGirls program and the importance of females in STEM fields for the girls at her school.

TED-Ed Event

“In January of 2021, I was honored to perform as a TED-Ed speaker in our national TED-Ed community club. I dedicated my speech to the women who experienced physical abuse. I chose this topic to share my story and to raise awareness about the topic. In my community, women tend to hide their experiences with abuse, being afraid of their reputation and what other people will think about them. I wanted to break the stereotypes of hiding the pain because of the fear of judgment of society with a strong mentality. During my speech, I tried to motivate girls to believe in themselves and never doubt their nature; not letting their pain make them lose hope. I wanted to make my community understand that abusers existed in the past, exist now, and will exist in the future. We can’t always blame the behavior of women, which caused the abuse. Women are often afraid of opening and speaking up against assault because of this judgment. It’s not the women to blame. Unfortunately, the reality is far from the ideal community. However, by taking little steps I believe that I can make my home a bit safer place for everyone mentally and physically.” 

You can check out Rayhona’s TED-Ed speech here: