Event: The Jornadas Fronterizas/Border Workshop: Youth Innovating for Bi-National Development where university students from Mexico and the United States will discuss novel opportunities for border-region development.
When: Friday and Saturday, Nov. 11-12 at the Student Activity Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
Background: The workshop’s goal is to inspire students to engage in entrepreneurial activities to improve border relations through economic growth and job creation.
The IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin and Espacio de Vinculación A.C. (EVAC), a youth-oriented nonprofit based in Mexico City, will conduct the workshop.
The 80 participants half from Mexico, half from the United States will focus on the region’s problems the first day of the event. The second-day focus will be on solutions.
They will hear from experts from government, industry and academia from both sides of the border. The students will address immigration and migration, security and violence, education, federal-local government relations, innovation and job creation.
EVAC has organized the Vanguardia Iberoamericana and Vanguardia Latina programs, which aim to strengthen collaboration opportunities for students from Latin America, Spain and Portugal as well as the United States.
“It’s time to strengthen the collaboration between our two countries and let our youth take the lead,” said Gaston Melo, EVAC’s president. “Americans and Mexicans are ready to move beyond policies and produce positive results; the rise of leadership in our youth in the border region will be the most promising development of the next decade.”
“The IC2 Institute has been involved in U.S.-Mexico initiatives for many years, including the TechBA technology business accelerator, which links Mexican businesses to international partners,” said John Butler, director of the IC2 Institute. “The IC2 Institute is proud to be a part of the Jornadas Fronterizas/Border Workshop, which offers a new approach to solving problems through innovation.”
