In this inspiring and thought-provoking episode of the HumanizeHer Podcast, hosts sit down with Tara Chklovski, CEO and Founder of Technovation (formerly Iridescent). Tara shares her incredible personal trajectory, growing up in India surrounded by formidable female role models - her grandmother who built a school from scratch at age 65 and her mother who joined the Indian military as a doctor at age 43 - and learning hands-on mechanics from her father.

Tara is on a mission to transform the future of technology and innovation to empower girls and young women to use cutting-edge technology to solve real-world problems. Technovation is the world's largest accelerator for young women and now reaches over 34,000 participants from more than 100 countries, supported by thousands of volunteers worldwide. Over three months, Technovation girls partner with mentors from leading tech companies to launch real tech startups, tackling problems they see in their own communities. With nearly half a million lives already impacted and a bold mission to reach 25 million more, Technovation is proving something powerful: when you give a girl the tools, mentorship from industry leaders, and belief that she can change the world - she will. And that changes everything for all of us.

Tara discusses dropping out of a PhD program after seeing her aerospace research used in military drones, pivoting her life to address the gap of women and underrepresented groups in STEM. She details how Technovation grew from a local cafe meetup with 45 girls into the world's largest global tech accelerator for young women, impacting over 450,000 participants across 120 countries. The conversation tackles critical modern challenges, including the seismic impact of AI, bridging the gap between education and the workforce, re-evaluating diversity and inclusion strategies to bring male allies and majority groups along, and the crucial importance of building a "safe sandbox" for new learners.

Episode Highlights:

• Unconventional Beginnings: Raised in India where societal norms pushed girls toward home science, Tara was encouraged by her family to work with her hands, fix cars, and pursue physics and aerospace engineering in the U.S.

• Birth of Technovation: Spurred by the realization that many young women in the U.S. lacked self-efficacy in math and technology, Tara founded Technovation to give underdogs the tools and mindset to become innovators.

• Real-World Global Impact: From California teens building AI models to categorize invasive weeds to an Indian participant creating a road-monitoring app that led to a Google internship, Technovation builds problem-solving muscles in young girls to address community and world-changing issues.

• Scaling Through Innovation: How Technovation transitioned from in-person workshops to online curriculum platforms (with partners like UNICEF and over 16,000 global volunteers), aiming to reach 25 million girls in the next decade.

• Navigating AI Wave & DEI: Tara outlines why AI is a tidal wave to be ridden rather than feared, emphasizing the dangerous gap between rapid AI adoption in the workforce and bans in public school classrooms. She addresses how women risk being disproportionately affected by AI job displacements and advocates for project-based AI coding education for all youth.

"Find the right problem to orient your life towards, and honestly, everything else falls into place. Don't just stop at using Claude or ChatGPT - code with it. Don't be afraid; nothing will break. Find a simple problem that you have in your life and actually learn to code, because it just gives you a superpower." - Tara Chklovski

Special Shoutouts in this Episode:

Anar Simpson

Sidney Hough

Tara’s Grandmother & Mother ❣️

Listen in and join the conversation with host, Erica Lockheimer and co-host, Elizabeth Wendorf-Bloesser.

****

Timestamps:

00:00 – Welcome guest Tara Chklovski

01:30 – Growing up in India, home science vs. computer science, and strong female role models

04:15 – Working on cars with her father, studying aerospace engineering, and moving to the U.S.

05:40 – Dropping out of her PhD program and founding Iridescent (now Technovation)

08:15 – How Technovation operates as a 3-month tech startup accelerator for young girls

09:40 – Inspiring alumna stories: Sidney Hough's AI app for farmers and an Indian participant's road app

12:50 – Scaling Technovation globally using online platforms, UNICEF, and 16,000 volunteers

15:30 – AI in education vs. the workforce and the risk to women in declining job markets

18:20 – The evolution of DEI, re-evaluating merit vs. fairness dynamics, and creating safe sandboxes

22:15 – Male allies, chipping away at stereotypes, and how listeners can become virtual judges

25:10 – Tech policy work at the White House, presidential AI challenges, and apprenticeships

26:50 – ServiceNow-sponsored Tribeca documentary spotlight