<h1>Meet a Google Ambassador: Rofayda Tarek</h1>

Meet Rofayda Tarek. She is the Co-leader of the Women in Technology chapter in Alexandria, Egypt and also serves as an Ambassador for the programme.

At just 26, the list of accomplishments to her name is already impressive. She currently works as an Application consultant for the Oracle Partner UCIS, has a degree in Engineering from Alexandria University and completed a diploma in System Development.

As an Ambassador for Google Women in Technology, it’s her job to share her experiences with other women in her region and promote the benefits of going online.
Listening to her discuss her work as an Ambassador, her enthusiasm and commitment to the project are clear, as well as her desire to empower women in her community. ‘Women in Technology provides us with a dream,’ she says. ‘Lots of ladies need programmes like this and it can make a huge contribution to their lives.’

Overcoming challenges
She first learned about the Ambassador programme last year when a friend invited her to attend a workshop hosted by Google.
‘It was a really interesting workshop and I got to see what it would be like to work at Google,’ she says. ‘There were some ladies from Google speaking about subjects such as achieving the right work/life balance.’
A speaker who discussed her experience of starting her own business particularly impressed Rofayda – something she says can be ‘very hard and challenging in Egypt’.

Getting more women involved
What exactly does the Ambassador role mean to her? ‘I am looking forward to being a representative and helping to make the programme a success,’ she says. ‘We need to get as many women from the community involved as possible.’
On a practical level, being an Ambassador involves hosting events, attending meetings with other women involved in the project and also receiving training on issues relevant to Google.
So far, she has organised an event for about 35 attendees at her former university. ‘The event went very well, but it was quite challenging and involved a lot of organisation and planning,’ she says. ‘It was a new experience for me. I felt like a manager, having to organise my teams and make sure everything gets done.’
Following on from the success of this event, she plans to host more workshops in the future and meet other women in her region who would like to broaden their knowledge of technology.

Helping women achieve their dreams
So what does the future hold for Rofayda? On a personal level, she is keen to achieve a balance between her professional and personal lives, as well as juggling other projects she is involved in such as Women in Technology.
She is also optimistic of the positive impact that the Ambassador programme can have. ‘I would like to help women achieve their dreams. I would be very happy if one day a woman came up to me at an event and told me she had found the programme beneficial and inspiring.’