Prepare to be inspired as Dr. Tara Chklovski, founder and CEO of Technovation, shares her remarkable journey from growing up in India to building the world's largest female tech talent network. Against the backdrop of a culture that traditionally prepared girls for marriage rather than careers, Tara's extraordinary family defied norms – her grandmother founded a school at 65, her mother became an army doctor at 43, and her father taught her mechanical skills from childhood.
This foundation of strong role models and hands-on technical experience propelled Tara from aerospace engineering to founding Technovation, which now reaches 400,000 people across more than 160 countries. What makes her approach revolutionary? Rather than simply teaching coding skills that might quickly become obsolete, Technovation focuses on real-world problem-solving through entrepreneurship and cutting-edge AI education.
The results speak volumes – 76% of program participants go on to pursue STEM careers, an unmatched success rate Tara attributes to meaningful mentorship. When paired with a mentor, girls have a 95% program completion rate compared to just 10% for typical online courses. This human connection makes all the difference in a girl's technological journey.
Looking ahead, Tara shares her bold 15-year strategic vision to reach 25 million young women worldwide – a plan informed by her research showing AI education for girls represents a $200 billion opportunity for the global economy. Her insights on innovation, relevance, and the courage required to pursue ambitious goals offer valuable lessons for anyone seeking to make lasting impact.
Want to be part of this transformative movement? Become a mentor and help shape the next generation of female tech leaders while gaining hands-on experience with entrepreneurship and AI. Your involvement could be the difference that changes a young woman's life – and perhaps the future of technology itself.
Tune in to this inspiring interview and reach out and let me know what you think.
Resources:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarachk/
https://www.technovation.org/
Thank you to our supporting partner:
Learn more about AnitaB.org
When you subscribe to the podcast, you are supporting our work's mission, allowing us to continue highlighting successful women in a variety of careers to inspire others helping pay our wonderful editor, Chris, and helping me in paying our hosting expenses. 🎉
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mary Killelea (00:01):
Hi there, my name is Mary Killelea.
Welcome to the To Be Bolderpodcast providing career
insights for the next generationof women in business and tech.
To Be Bolder was created out ofmy love for technology and
marketing, my desire to bringtogether like-minded women and
my hope to be a great role modeland source of inspiration for
my two girls and other youngwomen like you, encouraging you
(00:22):
guys to show up and to be bolderand to know that Thank you for
tuning in, sit back, relax andenjoy the conversation.
Today, we are joined by Dr.
Tara Chklovski.
She is the founder and CEO ofTechnovation.
Technovation is reshapingopportunities for young women in
(00:43):
technology.
Inspired by her experiencesgrowing up in India and working
as an aerospace engineer, shedeveloped a widely adopted
education model that combinesmentorship, hands-on learning,
and entrepreneurship to preparegirls to thrive in tech the next
(01:05):
generation of AI innovators.
She has built Technovation intoa movement reaching 400,000
people across more than 160countries.
Her research shows that AIeducation for girls could unlock
a $200 billion opportunity forthe world economy.
Through Technovation and the AIForward Alliance, she's
preparing 25 million young womento lead in AI innovation and
(01:27):
tackle global challenges.
First off, I'm so inspired bywhat you do.
It truly is amazing and anhonor to have you on the show.
Thank you for joining us.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (01:37):
Thank you, mary, and thank you for all the
encouragement.
Definitely need it, now more sothan ever.
Thank you.
Mary Killelea (01:45):
Absolutely, Absolutely Okay.
So your journey from growing upin India to becoming an
aerospace engineer and thenfounding Technovation is, like I
said, truly inspiring.
Can you share how your earlyexperiences influenced your
passion for empowering youngwomen in technology and kind of
walk us through kind of how yougot there I know you talked
(02:07):
about earlier like it's been 20years in the making.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (02:11):
Yeah, I think I grew up in India and it
was an interesting experiencebecause India as a culture is
not very encouraging andsupportive of girls.
But it's a very complex culturebecause there's also it's a
(02:31):
it's a poverty riddenenvironment as well.
Things have definitely improved.
I'm since when I was born it'sbeen, but I spent my first 21
years over there, which weresort of the shaping years, and I
think the big message that theculture at that time gave to
(02:51):
girls was that you don't matter,your voice doesn't matter, your
role is to support the men inyour life, whether it's your
brother, your father, yourhusband, and a girl is kind of
prepared for marriage.
And so, just to give you asense of it, I think from sixth
(03:14):
grade onwards I went to an allgirls school.
We were taught home science,where you learn how to run a
house for your husband all theway until 10th grade.
So that is a robust five yearsof two, three, sometimes four
(03:34):
hours a week that you'respending learning how to cook
food and iron lace right.
The boys, on the other hand,were given computer science, so
that right away, like we didn'thave an option.
So this kind of gives you whatthe sense of what the culture is
.
(03:57):
But the really unique experiencethat I had personally was that
in my family women were theprimary breadwinners, and it was
highly unusual, and part of itis that we are a minority.
We were Christians.
And so my grandmother started aschool at the age of 65.
And that school is stillrunning today, and so she was an
incredible sort of a verypowerful woman role model.
(04:20):
Then my mother she was trainedas a doctor.
She tried to set up her ownpractice, but that was very hard
.
Then she had us.
She had to sort of step awayfrom the workforce, but we were
struggling financially, and soshe joined the army at the age
of 43 as an army doctor.
And so I had these very, verypowerful women in my life.
(04:42):
But full credit to my dad.
He really brought me up to be avery technically minded girl,
which was a highly unusualexperience, because I think some
of some of it.
Yeah, I was just lucky that myfather and my family did not
(05:03):
believe what the culturebelieved, and so so I grew up
like we didn't have too manysort of financial resources.
I had no dolls, but I grew upplaying with engines and I
learned how to drive a car atthe age of eight, because my dad
was like you need to learnthese skills, and so I learned
(05:27):
yeah, I learned to kind of dothings with my hands and and so
mechanical things were very itwas.
It was a fun space to be in, andI wanted to grow up to be a
pilot like my dad, and so that'show sort of the family values
(05:49):
and culturally education isdeeply valued because that's
what gets you out of poverty,and so these kinds of values
shape your identity.
And when I came to the US, Iwas just so shocked to see
tremendous gender disparitieseverywhere, and to me, the most
(06:09):
powerful nation in the world notopening doors to 50% of the
population was a very shockingthing, and so that's a problem
to be solved, and I stepped outof my PhD program because it
didn't feel as if that was theway to make the most impact, and
(06:31):
I started this nonprofit.
Mary Killelea (06:33):
That's such an incredible story and it helps
really, I guess, define who youare and why you are the way you
are, and how fortunate you areto have had such strong women
role models.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (06:48):
But also male supporters.
Mary Killelea (06:50):
Oh, you know, and thank you for bringing that up,
because allies are huge andwhether they're in your family
or outside your family, alliesalong the way are tremendously
important.
So you were interested inaerospace engineering, which you
know.
Sometimes that's an incrediblethought itself.
(07:10):
And then you transitioned to,you know, developing this
nonprofit.
What in your brain, beyondhaving those role models of
older women in your life whowere able to do such impactful
work late in their careers, whatempowered you to believe it's
possible?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (07:32):
I think there is a model of
self-efficacy, right, andsuccessful CEOs, I think, have
three character traits that setthem apart.
I think number one is beingvery risk tolerant, right.
Number two is openness to newideas.
And then the third is that youhave a very strong locus of
control where you feel that youcan make a change.
(07:52):
And I owe a lot of that to gainto my parents, especially my
dad.
Like, I think, in theself-efficacy model, a very key
part of building your sense ofself-efficacy that you can do
big things is havingcheerleaders, um, who have very
high expectations of you and, um, you may not know that yourself
, that you get capable of doingthat.
(08:14):
But if somebody is constantlybelieving you and say you're
destined to do big things, thenyou start to believe that
rhetoric right, and and I thinkthat's what my dad did for me
where just have very, very highexpectations and as human beings
we are geared to please otherhuman beings.
(08:35):
And so I think as you start todo harder things and you're
successful, that just builds avery nice kind of snowball
effect, because then you're likeokay, I can're.
Like, okay, I can do more, Ican do more.
And so I think, building onthat as from childhood, doing
really hard things succeeding,and then, um, yeah, I was like I
had a big ambition to do thingsthat help a lot of people
(08:59):
around the world and um, and sothat was a long journey of sort
of figuring out the education isa very powerful lever to help
ease the suffering of manypeople, and so that's what sort
of got me onto that path.
Mary Killelea (09:12):
What advice do you have for people who don't
have that support infrastructure, who are listening to this and
say that's great if I had it,but where do I find those people
?
How do I In books, Everybodyhas access to books, I get.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (09:26):
So I learned , I've taught myself almost
everything I know from books,and my sort of modus operandi is
I study everything I can lay myhands on about a particular
subject and then I identify whoare the world's experts in that,
and then I reach out to themand I tell them, like, this is
(09:47):
what I'm trying to build, andalmost everyone will come and
support you so you can buildyour own support network.
There's no such thing as oh, Idon't have this, you don't need
to have a deficit mindset.
Mary Killelea (09:59):
I love that.
I love that.
That's such a huge quote.
You don't have to have adeficit mindset.
Let's talk about the impact ofAI.
Obviously, you've been workingon AI education long before it
became a hot topic in the news.
What's the opportunity here andwhat are you working on with AI
and training and education withthe girls?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (10:20):
Yeah, Um, I think it's a moment of deep
reckoning, actually, where Ithink humans, if you have to
survive and if you want tothrive in this age, you have to
over all the prestigious whitecollar jobs, and the pace of
(10:53):
change is something that Ihadn't expected, nobody had
expected, and so I think thatthe humans are the bottleneck
here, and our abilities toprocess change is a huge
bottleneck, and so I think thatin the past, usually I spent
about three to four yearsstudying a space and kind of
(11:17):
like I was saying like reallyread everything about it and
then figure out where we areheaded, and so that's why I
started studying everythingabout AI back in 2016, so almost
10 years ago and pilotingprograms and understanding what
is our role.
We don't have that kind of leadtime anymore, so I think the
(11:45):
place where I see us is againlike being open to risk, being
open to learning new things andhaving a strong locus of control
.
I think that individuals can domuch more than they ever could
possibly do before because wehave such powerful tools tools
(12:10):
but what are going to be thelimiting factors is that a lack
of ambition and a lack ofpotentially empathy, where you
are not thinking about sort ofeasing human suffering at a
global scale.
But if you have a planet size,ambition and goals to help
others, then you actually havethe tools by which an individual
can launch and do very bigthings.
(12:32):
So that kind of power was neveraccessible to us before.
But it requires a completelydifferent set of skills and ones
that schools are not at allthinking about, not at all
geared for, that schools are notat all thinking about, not at
all geared for, and so it'sgoing to cause a lot of
disruption soon where youngpeople are going to come out of
(13:01):
education systems unprepared forwhat the workforce demands.
Mary Killelea (13:04):
So let's talk about the programs that you have
in your organization and whattype of things you teach young
women, young girls.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (13:16):
I think that's one of the main reasons
why, like, we have beensuccessful because we've been
focused so much on futureskilling and real world problem
solving.
So, really focusing onreal-world problem solvings and
then teaching girls to use themost powerful technologies to
solve those, that's helped uskeep relevant right.
(13:38):
Instead of, in contrast, youcould say, oh, we're a coding
program and you teach girls howto learn Python and guess what?
That's not needed anymore,right, to some extent.
So I think that the realproblems are still there, and I
think girls when.
So we are the only program inthe world that has long-term
(14:02):
data showing that when girls gothrough this program, 76% of
them actually go into STEMcareers.
So there's no other program inthe world that has that kind of
longitudinal data and thatglobal scale.
But I think we need to keepre-evaluating that because these
(14:22):
tools are becoming so powerful.
So, over the course of threemonths, girls learn to identify
meaningful problems that sort ofalign with their values that
are big in the community.
They work in teams, they'resupported by a mentor and then
they actually launch a startup.
So it's an accelerator, becauseit's accelerating their ideas
into the real world, intoexecution, and so this journey
(14:46):
of an entrepreneur is such apowerful journey of self growth
that it's unforgettable.
And that's why, when you weresaying, what if you don't have
these mentors and people andthis experience?
This is that formativeexperience so that we want to
provide all girls with thatreally open.
(15:08):
They don't have to becomeentrepreneurs, but it's that
mindset that I can make a hugechange and I can use technology.
So I think those core elementsof expanding human potential in
very practical terms, I thinkthat's what our organization
does and at a very large scale.
Mary Killelea (15:29):
That is such a fascinating approach and one
that, like a light bulb moment,went off in my head when you
said that you know you'redeveloping that muscle of the
technology is going to bereplaced because of the rapid
(15:57):
pace of iteration andadvancements.
So I'm literally getting chillshearing the work that you're
doing and your approach in it,because I do think it is
innovative, even though you'vebeen doing it a while.
Okay, so let's talk about onething that you know I'm very
passionate about is women havingclarity on knowing where they
(16:22):
want to go, how they're buildingthemselves or carrying
themselves in their careers and,you know, developing a personal
brand along the way, Because Ithink women struggle on, you
know, articulating their voice,feeling like they add value.
Do you have advice for women orwords of encouragement on, I
(16:44):
guess, building that muscle?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (16:48):
I don't have that same view, honestly, like
I think you can have.
It's a sort of an Americanpoint of view, where, where it
is like I matter so much andsometimes we take it too far uh,
in my point of view, um, Ithink what's more important is
what you're working on, um,because that defines you and
that's what's interesting tosomebody else.
Um, because why would somebodyelse care about your personal
(17:11):
brand?
I mean, that's just my point ofmy point.
Mary Killelea (17:13):
No, and I think that is the shift that personal
brand is evolving into.
It's not that you're a thoughtleader, it's what is your voice
or contribution that can helpexpand the topic or area of
interest that a lot of peoplehold back because they fear
(17:34):
judgment on what they have ortheir skills might not be worthy
of a platform.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (17:43):
Focus on innovation, right, like focus on
what is going to help yourorganization or your company or
the problem and everything elsewill follow.
But if you focus on some of thesuperficial stuff, I don't know
, it's just adding a whole bunchof noise to the system.
Mary Killelea (18:00):
What have been some of the biggest challenges
that you've had to overcome inbuilding your business?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (18:06):
I think staying relevant right, like
when you're building somethingand you're staying so first, is
solving a really really, reallybig problem.
And then no country in theworld has gender equality and
like I think, 160 countrieslegally discriminate against
women, right?
So this is a very big, complexproblem.
(18:28):
So it's going to require a verylong term effort problem.
So it's going to require a verylong term effort, and so most
people, myself included like,after 10 years of battling, you
lose energy, you lose motivation, and so how do you figure out
what is, how do you build avision where you're innovating
(18:49):
and you're figuring out whereare things headed and where can
you position your organizationso it's relevant in another 10,
15 years?
Like that takes tremendousamount of effort.
That doesn't come naturally,because naturally, what comes is
being responsive to externalpressures of, like, your
day-to-day your team andresponding to emails, because if
(19:11):
you focus, that's the easystuff, right.
Like it's very certain.
What's very difficult to do isto deal with the uncertainty of
the future and to try to map outwhat is going to happen, what
is big, like literally, when Istarted the AI initiative at
Technovation, there was so muchpushback from the organization
(19:31):
team itself because nobody wastalking about AI.
It feels so uncomfortable.
No funder was interestedbecause they were like this
doesn't make sense.
But so you've got to stay trueto that right, and you've got to
stay true to your own self andrecognize that this is going to
be uncomfortable.
So innovation doesn't peoplehate change, and innovation is
(19:53):
change, and so you're going toget a tremendous amount of
pushback if you're trying toinnovate.
So I would say that to me hasalways been the hardest thing
where you are trying to lookinto the future and aim an
organization to be relevant whenthe environment is changing so
much, and, of course, you haveall the usual challenges of an
(20:15):
entrepreneur.
But that's the reason why manyorganizations or many founders
step away after 10, 15 years,because they actually don't know
where they should take theorganization next, and then the
current stuff is boring.
Doing more of the same getsboring after 10, 15 years, so
(20:35):
they step away, and so then youlose the opportunity to really
make that organization intosomething much bigger.
So now currently we are thelargest female tech talent
network in the world.
That comes after reallysticking in the game for a long
period of time.
Mary Killelea (20:54):
How can companies get involved?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (20:57):
Thank you.
I think number one funding usbecause in the current
environment we just need as muchsupport as possible to enable
us to bring our AI acceleratorto as many girls as possible.
Our program is completely freeAI accelerator to as many girls
as possible.
Our program is completely freeand we provide, like world-class
curriculum, research-basedcurriculum and mentorship over
(21:19):
the course of three months,completely free to all girls.
So that just requires funding.
But number two we need mentors.
We need volunteers.
So every year we recruitroughly about 15,000 volunteers
across industry, acrossdifferent sectors.
They serve as mentors for theseteams.
(21:40):
When a girl is matched with amentor, she has 95% chance of
finishing this program and ifyou were to compare that with
online course retention numbers,that's 10%.
So it's the human that makesthe huge difference in a girl's
sort of identity journey.
So those, I would say, are thetwo most powerful ways to get
(22:03):
involved.
Mary Killelea (22:04):
So you know, obviously wanting to be a mentor
would be something that I wouldseek out.
Tell me what is involved orwhat type of training goes into
being a mentor.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (22:16):
It's a fabulous experience and I used
to be a mentor, I think, foralmost like eight or nine years,
because it is so rewarding.
So there's a training.
It's a couple of hours onlinecompletely.
You go onto our platform andbasically you can see who are
some teams in your time zone,you can list your strengths and
(22:40):
then you can.
Our algorithm will match youwith potential girls who speak
your language, are in a similartime zone and are looking for
that kind of skill set, and theneither you can meet with them
in person, depending on whetherthey are local or not, and then
you can partner with anothermentor to kind of reduce the
(23:00):
load on you, and so youtypically will meet once a week,
possibly for two hours or so,and help the girls walk through
this curriculum that we have.
You identify a problem, youbuild prototypes, you test with
users, build your business plan.
You build prototypes, you testwith users, build your business
plan and then submit the pitchvideo and the business plan and
the code.
So for most mentors, they don'tneed to know how to code, and
(23:24):
so it's the first time you arelearning how to build a data set
, how to train an AI model, soit's an incredibly engaging way
for you to get a handle on AIand how to launch your own AI
startup.
So the first woman whoparticipated in Y Combinator was
a Technovation mentor and shesaid the Technovation mentoring
(23:46):
experience gave her the courageto even apply for Y Combinator.
So it's a very powerful,upskilling, hands-on way to
learn all about AI andentrepreneurship.
But, of course, the real valueis that you're an incredible
mentor.
You're encouraging the futuregeneration.
Mary Killelea (24:05):
That's fantastic.
And what are the ages of thegirls?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (24:07):
Eight to 18.
And we will be launching anaccelerator version for 19 to 24
in a few months, so those girlswill actually be launching real
startups that will get seedfunding.
And so, if you were to thinkabout, it's a very broad age
range 8 to 24, but curriculumfor each division Fantastic.
Mary Killelea (24:29):
What does To Be Bolder mean to you?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (24:32):
I think our strategic plan was really that
where, after COVID, it was sortof a moment to take stock and I
had done like four strategicplans before, each one of five
years and each one had been sortof like an incremental growth
over the past, like project 20percent growth over the past,
(24:56):
like project 20% growth.
And it didn't feel right to dothe same because we were such a
different organization where wehave survived COVID, we have
such a huge talent network,we've learned so much.
And so I did sort of thistop-down kind of modeling well,
how many adolescent girls arethere in the world and what
would it take to bring this kindof research-based experience to
each of them and what wouldthat do to the world economy and
(25:22):
then bottom up a modeling ofwhat could we as a small
organization, how could we scaleup and what kind of scaling
could we expect?
Because there's no way that weas a small organization could
reach 600 million girls.
So the two modelings resultedin the strategic plan, which is
like a 15 year strategic planand it is to reach 25 million
(25:42):
girls.
So that required so muchcourage Because to firstly get
everybody on the team adjustingto this absolutely crazy, bold
vision.
But secondly, to begin tobelieve because if you don't
believe, then don't do it thatthis is possible to do, and so
(26:03):
it has taken boldness andcourage at every step of the way
.
Mary Killelea (26:07):
Fantastic.
It has been an extreme honor tohave you on the show.
I loved learning about yourorganization.
I will include a link to it, sothank you, thank you, thank you
for what you do and thanks forbeing a guest on To Be Bolder.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (26:24):
Thank you, Mary.
Mary Killelea (26:29):
Thanks for listening to the episode today.
It was really fun chatting withmy guest.
If you liked our show, pleaselike it and share it with your
friends.
If you want to learn what we'reup to, please go check out our
website at 2BBouldercom.
That's the number two, little b, bouldercom.
Hi there, my name is Mary Killelea.
Welcome to the To Be Bolderpodcast providing career
insights for the next generationof women in business and tech.
To Be Bolder was created out ofmy love for technology and
marketing, my desire to bringtogether like-minded women and
my hope to be a great role modeland source of inspiration for
my two girls and other youngwomen like you, encouraging you
(00:22):
guys to show up and to be bolderand to know that Thank you for
tuning in, sit back, relax andenjoy the conversation.
Today, we are joined by Dr.
Tara Chklovski.
She is the founder and CEO ofTechnovation.
Technovation is reshapingopportunities for young women in
(00:43):
technology.
Inspired by her experiencesgrowing up in India and working
as an aerospace engineer, shedeveloped a widely adopted
education model that combinesmentorship, hands-on learning,
and entrepreneurship to preparegirls to thrive in tech the next
(01:05):
generation of AI innovators.
She has built Technovation intoa movement reaching 400,000
people across more than 160countries.
Her research shows that AIeducation for girls could unlock
a $200 billion opportunity forthe world economy.
Through Technovation and the AIForward Alliance, she's
preparing 25 million young womento lead in AI innovation and
(01:27):
tackle global challenges.
First off, I'm so inspired bywhat you do.
It truly is amazing and anhonor to have you on the show.
Thank you for joining us.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (01:37):
Thank you, mary, and thank you for all the
encouragement.
Definitely need it, now more sothan ever.
Thank you.
Mary Killelea (01:45):
Absolutely, Absolutely Okay.
So your journey from growing upin India to becoming an
aerospace engineer and thenfounding Technovation is, like I
said, truly inspiring.
Can you share how your earlyexperiences influenced your
passion for empowering youngwomen in technology and kind of
walk us through kind of how yougot there I know you talked
(02:07):
about earlier like it's been 20years in the making.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (02:11):
Yeah, I think I grew up in India and it
was an interesting experiencebecause India as a culture is
not very encouraging andsupportive of girls.
But it's a very complex culturebecause there's also it's a
(02:31):
it's a poverty riddenenvironment as well.
Things have definitely improved.
I'm since when I was born it'sbeen, but I spent my first 21
years over there, which weresort of the shaping years, and I
think the big message that theculture at that time gave to
(02:51):
girls was that you don't matter,your voice doesn't matter, your
role is to support the men inyour life, whether it's your
brother, your father, yourhusband, and a girl is kind of
prepared for marriage.
And so, just to give you asense of it, I think from sixth
(03:14):
grade onwards I went to an allgirls school.
We were taught home science,where you learn how to run a
house for your husband all theway until 10th grade.
So that is a robust five yearsof two, three, sometimes four
(03:34):
hours a week that you'respending learning how to cook
food and iron lace right.
The boys, on the other hand,were given computer science, so
that right away, like we didn'thave an option.
So this kind of gives you whatthe sense of what the culture is
.
(03:57):
But the really unique experiencethat I had personally was that
in my family women were theprimary breadwinners, and it was
highly unusual, and part of itis that we are a minority.
We were Christians.
And so my grandmother started aschool at the age of 65.
And that school is stillrunning today, and so she was an
incredible sort of a verypowerful woman role model.
(04:20):
Then my mother she was trainedas a doctor.
She tried to set up her ownpractice, but that was very hard
.
Then she had us.
She had to sort of step awayfrom the workforce, but we were
struggling financially, and soshe joined the army at the age
of 43 as an army doctor.
And so I had these very, verypowerful women in my life.
(04:42):
But full credit to my dad.
He really brought me up to be avery technically minded girl,
which was a highly unusualexperience, because I think some
of some of it.
Yeah, I was just lucky that myfather and my family did not
(05:03):
believe what the culturebelieved, and so so I grew up
like we didn't have too manysort of financial resources.
I had no dolls, but I grew upplaying with engines and I
learned how to drive a car atthe age of eight, because my dad
was like you need to learnthese skills, and so I learned
(05:27):
yeah, I learned to kind of dothings with my hands and and so
mechanical things were very itwas.
It was a fun space to be in, andI wanted to grow up to be a
pilot like my dad, and so that'show sort of the family values
(05:49):
and culturally education isdeeply valued because that's
what gets you out of poverty,and so these kinds of values
shape your identity.
And when I came to the US, Iwas just so shocked to see
tremendous gender disparitieseverywhere, and to me, the most
(06:09):
powerful nation in the world notopening doors to 50% of the
population was a very shockingthing, and so that's a problem
to be solved, and I stepped outof my PhD program because it
didn't feel as if that was theway to make the most impact, and
(06:31):
I started this nonprofit.
Mary Killelea (06:33):
That's such an incredible story and it helps
really, I guess, define who youare and why you are the way you
are, and how fortunate you areto have had such strong women
role models.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (06:48):
But also male supporters.
Mary Killelea (06:50):
Oh, you know, and thank you for bringing that up,
because allies are huge andwhether they're in your family
or outside your family, alliesalong the way are tremendously
important.
So you were interested inaerospace engineering, which you
know.
Sometimes that's an incrediblethought itself.
(07:10):
And then you transitioned to,you know, developing this
nonprofit.
What in your brain, beyondhaving those role models of
older women in your life whowere able to do such impactful
work late in their careers, whatempowered you to believe it's
possible?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (07:32):
I think there is a model of
self-efficacy, right, andsuccessful CEOs, I think, have
three character traits that setthem apart.
I think number one is beingvery risk tolerant, right.
Number two is openness to newideas.
And then the third is that youhave a very strong locus of
control where you feel that youcan make a change.
(07:52):
And I owe a lot of that to gainto my parents, especially my
dad.
Like, I think, in theself-efficacy model, a very key
part of building your sense ofself-efficacy that you can do
big things is havingcheerleaders, um, who have very
high expectations of you and, um, you may not know that yourself
, that you get capable of doingthat.
(08:14):
But if somebody is constantlybelieving you and say you're
destined to do big things, thenyou start to believe that
rhetoric right, and and I thinkthat's what my dad did for me
where just have very, very highexpectations and as human beings
we are geared to please otherhuman beings.
(08:35):
And so I think as you start todo harder things and you're
successful, that just builds avery nice kind of snowball
effect, because then you're likeokay, I can're.
Like, okay, I can do more, Ican do more.
And so I think, building onthat as from childhood, doing
really hard things succeeding,and then, um, yeah, I was like I
had a big ambition to do thingsthat help a lot of people
(08:59):
around the world and um, and sothat was a long journey of sort
of figuring out the education isa very powerful lever to help
ease the suffering of manypeople, and so that's what sort
of got me onto that path.
Mary Killelea (09:12):
What advice do you have for people who don't
have that support infrastructure, who are listening to this and
say that's great if I had it,but where do I find those people
?
How do I In books, Everybodyhas access to books, I get.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (09:26):
So I learned , I've taught myself almost
everything I know from books,and my sort of modus operandi is
I study everything I can lay myhands on about a particular
subject and then I identify whoare the world's experts in that,
and then I reach out to themand I tell them, like, this is
(09:47):
what I'm trying to build, andalmost everyone will come and
support you so you can buildyour own support network.
There's no such thing as oh, Idon't have this, you don't need
to have a deficit mindset.
Mary Killelea (09:59):
I love that.
I love that.
That's such a huge quote.
You don't have to have adeficit mindset.
Let's talk about the impact ofAI.
Obviously, you've been workingon AI education long before it
became a hot topic in the news.
What's the opportunity here andwhat are you working on with AI
and training and education withthe girls?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (10:20):
Yeah, Um, I think it's a moment of deep
reckoning, actually, where Ithink humans, if you have to
survive and if you want tothrive in this age, you have to
over all the prestigious whitecollar jobs, and the pace of
(10:53):
change is something that Ihadn't expected, nobody had
expected, and so I think thatthe humans are the bottleneck
here, and our abilities toprocess change is a huge
bottleneck, and so I think thatin the past, usually I spent
about three to four yearsstudying a space and kind of
(11:17):
like I was saying like reallyread everything about it and
then figure out where we areheaded, and so that's why I
started studying everythingabout AI back in 2016, so almost
10 years ago and pilotingprograms and understanding what
is our role.
We don't have that kind of leadtime anymore, so I think the
(11:45):
place where I see us is againlike being open to risk, being
open to learning new things andhaving a strong locus of control
.
I think that individuals can domuch more than they ever could
possibly do before because wehave such powerful tools tools
(12:10):
but what are going to be thelimiting factors is that a lack
of ambition and a lack ofpotentially empathy, where you
are not thinking about sort ofeasing human suffering at a
global scale.
But if you have a planet size,ambition and goals to help
others, then you actually havethe tools by which an individual
can launch and do very bigthings.
(12:32):
So that kind of power was neveraccessible to us before.
But it requires a completelydifferent set of skills and ones
that schools are not at allthinking about, not at all
geared for, that schools are notat all thinking about, not at
all geared for, and so it'sgoing to cause a lot of
disruption soon where youngpeople are going to come out of
(13:01):
education systems unprepared forwhat the workforce demands.
Mary Killelea (13:04):
So let's talk about the programs that you have
in your organization and whattype of things you teach young
women, young girls.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (13:16):
I think that's one of the main reasons
why, like, we have beensuccessful because we've been
focused so much on futureskilling and real world problem
solving.
So, really focusing onreal-world problem solvings and
then teaching girls to use themost powerful technologies to
solve those, that's helped uskeep relevant right.
(13:38):
Instead of, in contrast, youcould say, oh, we're a coding
program and you teach girls howto learn Python and guess what?
That's not needed anymore,right, to some extent.
So I think that the realproblems are still there, and I
think girls when.
So we are the only program inthe world that has long-term
(14:02):
data showing that when girls gothrough this program, 76% of
them actually go into STEMcareers.
So there's no other program inthe world that has that kind of
longitudinal data and thatglobal scale.
But I think we need to keepre-evaluating that because these
(14:22):
tools are becoming so powerful.
So, over the course of threemonths, girls learn to identify
meaningful problems that sort ofalign with their values that
are big in the community.
They work in teams, they'resupported by a mentor and then
they actually launch a startup.
So it's an accelerator, becauseit's accelerating their ideas
into the real world, intoexecution, and so this journey
(14:46):
of an entrepreneur is such apowerful journey of self growth
that it's unforgettable.
And that's why, when you weresaying, what if you don't have
these mentors and people andthis experience?
This is that formativeexperience so that we want to
provide all girls with thatreally open.
(15:08):
They don't have to becomeentrepreneurs, but it's that
mindset that I can make a hugechange and I can use technology.
So I think those core elementsof expanding human potential in
very practical terms, I thinkthat's what our organization
does and at a very large scale.
Mary Killelea (15:29):
That is such a fascinating approach and one
that, like a light bulb moment,went off in my head when you
said that you know you'redeveloping that muscle of the
technology is going to bereplaced because of the rapid
(15:57):
pace of iteration andadvancements.
So I'm literally getting chillshearing the work that you're
doing and your approach in it,because I do think it is
innovative, even though you'vebeen doing it a while.
Okay, so let's talk about onething that you know I'm very
passionate about is women havingclarity on knowing where they
(16:22):
want to go, how they're buildingthemselves or carrying
themselves in their careers and,you know, developing a personal
brand along the way, Because Ithink women struggle on, you
know, articulating their voice,feeling like they add value.
Do you have advice for women orwords of encouragement on, I
(16:44):
guess, building that muscle?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (16:48):
I don't have that same view, honestly, like
I think you can have.
It's a sort of an Americanpoint of view, where, where it
is like I matter so much andsometimes we take it too far uh,
in my point of view, um, Ithink what's more important is
what you're working on, um,because that defines you and
that's what's interesting tosomebody else.
Um, because why would somebodyelse care about your personal
(17:11):
brand?
I mean, that's just my point ofmy point.
Mary Killelea (17:13):
No, and I think that is the shift that personal
brand is evolving into.
It's not that you're a thoughtleader, it's what is your voice
or contribution that can helpexpand the topic or area of
interest that a lot of peoplehold back because they fear
(17:34):
judgment on what they have ortheir skills might not be worthy
of a platform.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (17:43):
Focus on innovation, right, like focus on
what is going to help yourorganization or your company or
the problem and everything elsewill follow.
But if you focus on some of thesuperficial stuff, I don't know
, it's just adding a whole bunchof noise to the system.
Mary Killelea (18:00):
What have been some of the biggest challenges
that you've had to overcome inbuilding your business?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (18:06):
I think staying relevant right, like
when you're building somethingand you're staying so first, is
solving a really really, reallybig problem.
And then no country in theworld has gender equality and
like I think, 160 countrieslegally discriminate against
women, right?
So this is a very big, complexproblem.
(18:28):
So it's going to require a verylong term effort problem.
So it's going to require a verylong term effort, and so most
people, myself included like,after 10 years of battling, you
lose energy, you lose motivation, and so how do you figure out
what is, how do you build avision where you're innovating
(18:49):
and you're figuring out whereare things headed and where can
you position your organizationso it's relevant in another 10,
15 years?
Like that takes tremendousamount of effort.
That doesn't come naturally,because naturally, what comes is
being responsive to externalpressures of, like, your
day-to-day your team andresponding to emails, because if
(19:11):
you focus, that's the easystuff, right.
Like it's very certain.
What's very difficult to do isto deal with the uncertainty of
the future and to try to map outwhat is going to happen, what
is big, like literally, when Istarted the AI initiative at
Technovation, there was so muchpushback from the organization
(19:31):
team itself because nobody wastalking about AI.
It feels so uncomfortable.
No funder was interestedbecause they were like this
doesn't make sense.
But so you've got to stay trueto that right, and you've got to
stay true to your own self andrecognize that this is going to
be uncomfortable.
So innovation doesn't peoplehate change, and innovation is
(19:53):
change, and so you're going toget a tremendous amount of
pushback if you're trying toinnovate.
So I would say that to me hasalways been the hardest thing
where you are trying to lookinto the future and aim an
organization to be relevant whenthe environment is changing so
much, and, of course, you haveall the usual challenges of an
(20:15):
entrepreneur.
But that's the reason why manyorganizations or many founders
step away after 10, 15 years,because they actually don't know
where they should take theorganization next, and then the
current stuff is boring.
Doing more of the same getsboring after 10, 15 years, so
(20:35):
they step away, and so then youlose the opportunity to really
make that organization intosomething much bigger.
So now currently we are thelargest female tech talent
network in the world.
That comes after reallysticking in the game for a long
period of time.
Mary Killelea (20:54):
How can companies get involved?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (20:57):
Thank you.
I think number one funding usbecause in the current
environment we just need as muchsupport as possible to enable
us to bring our AI acceleratorto as many girls as possible.
Our program is completely freeAI accelerator to as many girls
as possible.
Our program is completely freeand we provide, like world-class
curriculum, research-basedcurriculum and mentorship over
(21:19):
the course of three months,completely free to all girls.
So that just requires funding.
But number two we need mentors.
We need volunteers.
So every year we recruitroughly about 15,000 volunteers
across industry, acrossdifferent sectors.
They serve as mentors for theseteams.
(21:40):
When a girl is matched with amentor, she has 95% chance of
finishing this program and ifyou were to compare that with
online course retention numbers,that's 10%.
So it's the human that makesthe huge difference in a girl's
sort of identity journey.
So those, I would say, are thetwo most powerful ways to get
(22:03):
involved.
Mary Killelea (22:04):
So you know, obviously wanting to be a mentor
would be something that I wouldseek out.
Tell me what is involved orwhat type of training goes into
being a mentor.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (22:16):
It's a fabulous experience and I used
to be a mentor, I think, foralmost like eight or nine years,
because it is so rewarding.
So there's a training.
It's a couple of hours onlinecompletely.
You go onto our platform andbasically you can see who are
some teams in your time zone,you can list your strengths and
(22:40):
then you can.
Our algorithm will match youwith potential girls who speak
your language, are in a similartime zone and are looking for
that kind of skill set, and theneither you can meet with them
in person, depending on whetherthey are local or not, and then
you can partner with anothermentor to kind of reduce the
(23:00):
load on you, and so youtypically will meet once a week,
possibly for two hours or so,and help the girls walk through
this curriculum that we have.
You identify a problem, youbuild prototypes, you test with
users, build your business plan.
You build prototypes, you testwith users, build your business
plan and then submit the pitchvideo and the business plan and
the code.
So for most mentors, they don'tneed to know how to code, and
(23:24):
so it's the first time you arelearning how to build a data set
, how to train an AI model, soit's an incredibly engaging way
for you to get a handle on AIand how to launch your own AI
startup.
So the first woman whoparticipated in Y Combinator was
a Technovation mentor and shesaid the Technovation mentoring
(23:46):
experience gave her the courageto even apply for Y Combinator.
So it's a very powerful,upskilling, hands-on way to
learn all about AI andentrepreneurship.
But, of course, the real valueis that you're an incredible
mentor.
You're encouraging the futuregeneration.
Mary Killelea (24:05):
That's fantastic.
And what are the ages of thegirls?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (24:07):
Eight to 18.
And we will be launching anaccelerator version for 19 to 24
in a few months, so those girlswill actually be launching real
startups that will get seedfunding.
And so, if you were to thinkabout, it's a very broad age
range 8 to 24, but curriculumfor each division Fantastic.
Mary Killelea (24:29):
What does To Be Bolder mean to you?
Dr. Tara Chklovski (24:32):
I think our strategic plan was really that
where, after COVID, it was sortof a moment to take stock and I
had done like four strategicplans before, each one of five
years and each one had been sortof like an incremental growth
over the past, like project 20percent growth over the past,
(24:56):
like project 20% growth.
And it didn't feel right to dothe same because we were such a
different organization where wehave survived COVID, we have
such a huge talent network,we've learned so much.
And so I did sort of thistop-down kind of modeling well,
how many adolescent girls arethere in the world and what
would it take to bring this kindof research-based experience to
each of them and what wouldthat do to the world economy and
(25:22):
then bottom up a modeling ofwhat could we as a small
organization, how could we scaleup and what kind of scaling
could we expect?
Because there's no way that weas a small organization could
reach 600 million girls.
So the two modelings resultedin the strategic plan, which is
like a 15 year strategic planand it is to reach 25 million
(25:42):
girls.
So that required so muchcourage Because to firstly get
everybody on the team adjustingto this absolutely crazy, bold
vision.
But secondly, to begin tobelieve because if you don't
believe, then don't do it thatthis is possible to do, and so
(26:03):
it has taken boldness andcourage at every step of the way
.
Mary Killelea (26:07):
Fantastic.
It has been an extreme honor tohave you on the show.
I loved learning about yourorganization.
I will include a link to it, sothank you, thank you, thank you
for what you do and thanks forbeing a guest on To Be Bolder.
Dr. Tara Chklovski (26:24):
Thank you, Mary.
Mary Killelea (26:29):
Thanks for listening to the episode today.
It was really fun chatting withmy guest.
If you liked our show, pleaselike it and share it with your
friends.
If you want to learn what we'reup to, please go check out our
website at 2BBouldercom.
That's the number two, little b, bouldercom.
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