The ADDU Libraries-American Corner Davao conducted the Women in Science (WiSci) Girls’ STEAM Camp last July 4-9, 2022 at the American Corner, Ateneo de Davao University. This program was organized by the American Spaces Philippines in partnership with the United Nations Foundations’ Girl Up at the American Corners Batac, Bacolod, and Davao.
WiSci Girls’ STEAM Camps are designed for high school-aged girls to dive into the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Design, Mathematics) subjects and develop their leadership skills in a unique cross-cultural environment. Seventy (70) young women ages 15-18 years old from Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines joined the camp.
In Davao, UN Girl Up selected ten (10) girl campers coming from both private and public high schools, and two (2) female counselors served as guides and mentors for campers.AC Davao received a sub-award grant from Girl Up to cover all costs associated with the weeklong program. UN Girl Up also provided the campers with a Lenovo Ideapad tablet to help them during the six-day STEAM skills training, design thinking, prototyping, robotics, leadership development, and mentorship from U.S.-based scientists, technologists, and tech experts. Indeed, campers learned from each other across cultures, participated in team-building exercises, and presented STEM projects that provided solutions to social issues.
WiSci Camp was first launched in 2014 by founders including the U.S. Dept. of State, Microsoft, Intel, and Girl Up in an effort to engage and mobilize girls to pursue higher education and careers in STEAM. Girl Up is a global movement founded by the United Nations Foundation in 2010 as an initiative to help support UN agencies that focus on adolescent girls.