2019, Joylyn Conway pays Courtesy Call to CARICOM Secretariat

On Tuesday 20 August 2019, the CARICOM Secretariat received a Courtesy Call from Miss World Guyana 2019, Ms. Joylyn Conway.

Ms. Conway is a 20 year old Lecturer at the New Amsterdam Technical Institute and a Lab Instructor at the University of Guyana. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry with a Minor in Biology from the University of Guyana and will be representing Guyana in the Miss World International Beauty Pageant on 14 December 2019 in the United Kingdom (UK). Her platform is “Changing the perception of Girls in STEM”, which is aimed at targeting girls in rural communities of Guyana under the tagline “Guided by light; Glowing beyond the stereotypes.” She credits her successes in the path of Science to her high school Science Teacher, her parents and Church family who encouraged and supported her along that journey.

The Secretariat’s team consisted of Ms. Helen Royer, Director, Human Development, Directorate of Human and Social Development (HSD); Ms. Ann-Marie Williams, Deputy Programme Manager, Gender and Development, HSD; Ms. Michele Small-Bartley, Deputy Programme Manager, Youth Development, HSD; and Ms. Jennifer Britton, Deputy Programme Manager, Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), while Miss World Guyana 2019, Ms. Joylyn Conway was accompanied by renowned Guyanese Fashion Designer, Mr. Randy Madray, and her Mother, Mrs. Ardith Conway.

During her visit to the Secretariat, the Miss Guyana World 2019 candidate shared her passion for motivating young women and girls to utilise STEM as an avenue towards their empowerment. As the face of STEM Guyana, and under her “Beauty with a Purpose” campaign “STEM GIRL GLOW”, she is seeking to accomplish this very objective. As a testament to her continued work in STEM, she shared a sample of a torchlight which was made with recyclable materials like plastic bottle, popsicle sticks and copper obtained from stripped wires.

“STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. Rather than teach the four disciplines as separate and discrete subjects, STEM integrates them into a cohesive learning paradigm based on real-world applications.” www.livescience.com .

When asked by Ms. Helen Royer about her challenges, she stated that her main challenge would be getting persons on board with her to promote STEM and to spread the word that STEM is not just limited to robotics as it is the common perception held by many. She also spoke about interacting with young people who had never heard about the acronym “STEM” and feels that more needs to be done to promote this new discipline.

In response to Ms. Ann-Marie Williams’ question on how she sees the Pageant being used as a platform to promote STEM, Ms. Conway responded that one of her aspirations is to establish a foundation as a means through which she can continue the work in STEM. She said “My hope is that when I return home, I don’t just work for the Pageant, I work to continue after the Pageant, so even when my reign is up, this work still continues…and so my hope is to establish a foundation. But again, it comes back to having persons on board, and to have some substance for what I would have stood for, and the face I would have portrayed on the international stage.”

Ms. Michele Small-Bartley expressed her admiration for the beauty with brains as did all the other CARICOM Officials and asked Ms. Conway what motivated her to enter pageantry. She responded that since she was younger, she admired the bravery of women locally and internationally, and was empowered by the manner in which they utilised the pageantry platform to raise awareness on issues in society.

Ms. Jennifer Britton highlighted that for the past five years, the CARICOM Secretariat through its ICT4D office has been involved in promoting “Girls in ICT” with a special focus on STEM and expressed interest in future collaborations with the Miss Guyana World 2019 Queen in this stead.

The CARICOM Secretariat team which was led by Ms. Helen Royer, wished Ms. Joylyn Conway success in her pursuit of the Miss World 2019 crown, and also expressed interest in continued collaboration with her in the future as she seeks to promote STEM, since it relates to the objectives of the work programs of both the Directorate of Human and Social Development (HSD) as well as the Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D).

See Flickr Album: Miss World Guyana pays courtesy call on CARICOM Secretariat

Source: CARICOM TODAY