On December 6, 2017, the Institute of the Americas, in collaboration with the San Diego Unified STEAM Leadership Series, the San Diego Unified School System, lead sponsor the Moxie Foundation, hosted over 300 secondary students for a day of discovery, designed to emphasized the importance of education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) for future careers.
Latin American professionals shared their experience and demonstrated how their achievements and personal pathways to success could serve as practical models for students, inspiring them to achieve their true potential. Our speakers / panels of exciting and knowledgeable experts included:
· Amb. Jamal Khokhar, President & CEO, Institute of the Americas
· Marcela Celorio, Consul General of Mexico in San Diego
· Wendy Martinez, Chief Engineer, Manager, Electrical Engineering Raytheon
· Luisa Reyes, STEM Programs Manager, Institute of the Americas
· Michael Goodbody, Strategic Partnerships, San Diego Unified School District
· Steve Chapple, Exec. Director of the San Diego Unified STEAM Leadership Series
· Felipe Fernandez, Chief Operating Officer, Jelp, Software Engineering Visionary
· Guillermo Mejia, Director Tijuana’s Mind HUB, Consortium of Software and IT Startup Companies
· Gabriela Dow, Owner, Mora Dow Consulting; Director, NV5; and Co-founder, “Plug & Play San Diego”
· Adriana Herrera, Entrepreneur, Consultant/Advisor, Co-founder of GrandIntent and FashioningChange
· Miguel Marshall, Chief Executive Officer, Centro Ventures
· Adriana Heldiz, Reporter, Digital Editor, Voice of San Diego
The goal was to make students aware of the variety of business, research, academic, and not-for-profit opportunities in the San Diego / Baja California mega region. The collaboration sought to empower youth to discover their personal aspirations, set goals, and to encourage them to position themselves for the future so that they might take advantage of the richness of opportunities available in our region.
The STEAM Leadership Series is a program of Intellectual Capital Media and Kids Eco Club in partnership with the San Diego Unified School District with support from The Moxie Foundation, The San Diego Foundation, Farrell Family Foundation, SDG&E, the USS Midway Museum, Samuel Lawrence Foundation and others, including producing vendor Intellectual Impact. Now in its third year, the successful program has reached thousands of high school students from dozens of high schools in San Diego Unified. Across ten major events, the students have interacted with legendary San Diego science and high-tech executives, Nobel Laureates, inventors and entrepreneurs from a range of industries including unmanned vehicles/drones, satellite communications, biotech and green tech, video gaming, software and sports.
As a first for the STEAM Leadership Series, the main sessions and breakouts were live-streamed to a host of academic institutions in Latin and South America – including, but not limited to, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.
