The program organized by students from Yachay Tech University aims to promote women’s access to science, leadership, and management skills.

The ConCiencia team held the first edition of the event in the province of Santa Elena. ConCiencia is a training program for women students of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, developed by Yachay Tech students. The event consisted of a series of conferences with national and local actors in the field of science and gender and was held between August 14 and 16, 2019. This is the first edition of the event outside the university campus.

The event was managed by one of the students who was part of the second generation of ConCiencia at the University campus. She decided to take the program to her province in order to promote what women do in science and motivate more women to think of science as an alternative for their personal development. For the development of the event, the student had the support of all the ConCiencia coordination team, of the Decentralized Autonomous Government of La Libertad, the Rights Protection Council, Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena and the Ecuadorian Network of Women in Science.

The event had three days dedicated to specific topics. During the first day, there were conferences on the role of women in science. Claudia Segovia, director of the Ecuadorian Network of Women in Science, gave a conference on the ignorance of scientific characters in popular culture. She also highlighted the profiles of women who are currently developing outstanding science in Ecuador. Similarly, Patricia Rengel, a Yachay Tech student and one of the founders of the program, spoke about the development of the project and about the importance of highlighting the role of gender in the development of Academia.

The second day of the event included talks about leadership. For this, the team had the participation of several authorities and leaders of La Libertad. The ex-councilwoman María del Carmen Aquino, who also ran for mayor, gave a talk about the virtues of female leadership. On the last day, the team organized a forum where they gathered several leaders of the canton. The forum also included the participation of Ariel Cabrera, a Yachay Tech student who has been part of the program’s coordinating team since the first edition.