From July 5-7, Special Representative for Global Partnerships Dorothy McAuliffe will travel to Mexico City, Mexico, to participate in the first in-person Women in Science (WiSci) Girls STEAM Camp since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. WiSci Mexico is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of State's Office of Global Partnerships and U.S. Embassies of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, alongside private sector partners Amazon Web Services (AWS), Caterpillar Foundation, Infinite Computer Solutions, Intel, Google, and TE Connectivity Foundation. Previous WiSci camps have taken place in East Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Balkans.
At WiSci Mexico, Special Representative McAuliffe will engage with over 100 high-school girl participants from across Central America, as well as with the private sector partners who made this camp possible. During the camp, these young changemakers will work as an international cohort to formulate solutions for global issues using science and technology, and their own creativity. Technology industry experts will teach a carefully curated curriculum. The camp's implementing sponsor and coordinator is the UN Foundation's GirlUp initiative. Special Representative McAuliffe and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar will both provide closing remarks at the culmination of the 2023 WiSci Mexico.
In addition to WiSci Mexico, Special Representative McAuliffe will tour the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center's (CIMMYT) "seed bank" and meet with CIMMYT leadership outside of Mexico City. This visit follows the successful launch of the Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AID-I), a CIMMYT partnership with the Office of Special Envoy for Global Food Security, led by Dr. Cary Fowler, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is assisting smallholder farmers and agriculture market actors in several African countries.
