Franchesca Sterling
Antiguan National Completes Prestigious Program in Global Governance in GermanyAntigua and Barbuda national, Franchesca Sterling, has successfully completed an intensive program in international politics in Hamburg, Germany on August 26, 2024.
Ms. Sterling was one of 55 participants from 32 countries selected from approximately 300 applicants by the prestigious Bucerius Summer School in Global Governance to participate in its competitive global governance program carefully curated for young professionals in politics, law, defense, corporate finance and other areas of international activity.
The theme of this year’s program was “Threats of a Bipolar World”, and it covered a range of topics from European Union affairs, China in Geopolitics, North to South cooperation, Democratic Backsliding, War in Ukraine, Peace in the Middle East and other challenges facing the global community. Interactions were led by high-level officials from the German Federal Government, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), practicing and former politicians from developed and developing countries, as well as university professors.
Ms. Sterling who is 32 years of age, said that the program was an invaluable opportunity to explore current international issues with some of the finest global thinkers, as well as younger persons, such as herself, who are professionally engaged in international relations. She was the only participant selected from the Caribbean.
Ms. Sterling was recommended for participation in the program by Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, whom she serves as his advisor in areas related to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) affairs, climate change, reparatory justice, democracy, access to rights and equity, and other Western Hemispheric matters.
She has participated in OAS Electoral Observations Missions in Colombia (2022 General Elections) and St. Kitts and Nevis (2022 General Elections) as an international observer; and in Dominica (2022 General Elections) as a political finance specialist. During the 2023 electoral crisis in Guatemala, she participated in the OAS Special Transition Mission led by Secretary General Almagro, former Vice President of Panama, Isabel de Saint Malo and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for the United States State Department, Liliana Ayalde. The OAS Special Transition Mission frequently travelled to Guatemala between July 2023 through January 2024 to hold meetings with high-level government officials, judges, indigenous community groups and other relevant electoral authorities in order to accompany and observe the peaceful transition of power to newly elected President Bernardo Arévalo and Vice President Karin Herrera. Ms. Sterling is presently engaged in an OAS Special Observation Mission that initiated its work in June 2024 in Guatemala to observe the elections for Judges of the Supreme Court of Justice and Courts of Appeals in Guatemala set to take place in October 2024.
She was the principal author of the OAS Climate Change Report (Climate Change: Life, Democracy, Freedom, Justice, Equality) released in October 2022 by the General Secretariat of the OAS.
Franchesca Sterling graduated with departmental honors from the College of New Rochelle in New York in 2013 where she double majored in Political Science and Spanish Literature. In 2011, she attended the University of Alicante in Alicante, Spain for a summer semester concentration in Spanish studies, and attended L’Institut de Touraine in Tours, France for a summer semester concentration in French studies in 2012. She obtained her MBA from American University – Kogod Business School based in Washington, DC, focusing her studies in International Business, International Negotiation and Anti-Corruption Law.
Prior to the OAS, she worked for approximately nine years at Whiteford, Taylor and Preston, LLP based in Washington, DC as a litigation specialist. She had an opportunity to work as a junior analyst on a venture capital project in Nairobi, Kenya in 2019 where she developed an investment portfolio with her peers, analyzing the viability of the coffee, tea, and tourism sectors in Kenya. She volunteers her time as a child advocate for unaccompanied immigrant children who journeyed to the US at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights in Washington, DC since 2018.
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