Branch Activity of the Year Award – 2021

What is it? 

The Branch Activity of the Year Award is the recognition of a signature branch activity presented during the period of one year ending on March 1, 2021. The program provides branches an opportunity to showcase and share an activity that is novel, inspirational, reproducible, and promotes AAUW’s mission and image. The activity may be a one-off program or event or a sustained recurring project for which the branch is known. Note: the application deadline has passed.

Awards!

The Marin and Fremont branches were recognized for their winning submissions at the 2021 AAUW California Annual Meeting on April 17, 2021.

Projects submitted

Click on the title to view the description and contact information.

Since 2015, the Atascadero Branch of AAUW has nurtured an interest group for memoir writing. Our facilitator is a member whose background includes a master’s degree in education with an emphasis on the teaching of writing, as well as many years of teaching experience. Members meet monthly to share focused memoirs about childhood events, challenges we have faced, important people in our lives—moments when we made important decisions. The group has provided a supportive environment in which we improve our writing skills and, more importantly, revisit the pivotal moments of our pasts. In November, 2020, working with an experienced book designer and producer, the group created a memoir collection, Pivotal Moments: Memoirs from Boomer Women. The book is available for purchase on Amazon and the proceeds from all sales will benefit the Atascadero Branch.  

The Shelter-at-Home situation due to COVID-19 created a perfect setting for our virtual branch to present an online auction on our branch Facebook Group page. With no physical contact and no fees, we were able to offer 75 items for bidding and raise over $1200 designated to the Greatest Need Fund.

We all agreed to read the book White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. We then held a group discussion by email about the book. I broke the discussion into topics and we had a different topic or question for each day of our discussion. Many insights were shared as well as lessons learned.

The Fremont Branch held a new shoe drive for the homeless. We placed a collection box at a local bank, advertised in the local newspaper, on Facebook, and in our AAUW newsletter–encouraging the community to donate to the project. The city printed an article about the project in their monthly newsletter that goes to every Fremont household. A Step in the Right Direction aligns with AAUW’s mission because homelessness impacts women and without these new shoes the women would be offered flip-flops or used shoes from the shelters. This project worked because it was a collaboration with the City of Fremont, a local Bank of the West, the Ohlone College Foundation, and our branch  members, as well as members of the Fremont, Newark, and Union City communities. Together we collected 171 pairs of brand new, quality shoes. 

AAUW Fremont members who are also members of the local LWV and Washington Township Museum of Local History published a coloring book of women’s histories. AAUW members researched women who influenced the community and culture of the Tri-cities area. We narrowed the choices to create a diverse and representative collection. We collated data, wrote the copy, and created line drawings (with help of an artist) of the women’s images and published the coloring book and short biographies. A link to the coloring book was distributed to members of women’s organizations, FUSD board members, and Fremont City council. The link was made available free to distribute to any users through our organization websites, but also sold as books from the museum for $5. We strove to ensure that cost would not be a barrier to accessing these herstories.

When we received the heartbreaking news that Tech Trek 2020 had been cancelled due to the coronavirus, we needed to rethink how to inspire our high-achieving 8th grade girls to pursue STEM education and careers. For over 20 years, AAUW Healdsburg sent our Tech Trek scholarship winners to AAUW’s Tech Trek Camp Curie, a one-week residential STEM camp at Stanford. Since middle school is the age when girls significantly lose interest and reduce their participation in STEM, it was critical to offer the girls selected to attend Camp Curie 2020 an exciting alternative STEM experience.

Tristan Higgins, JD, Founder and CEO of Metaclusive, LLC, spoke at a branch Zoom meeting. An internationally recognized  leader, speaker and consultant on diversity and inclusion, workplace equity and how to create a metaclusive  environment where everyone feels they belong, she spoke about  gender and how to understand,  adapt and use inclusive language. .This hits the education pillar and the governance, and sustainability pillar which addresses our branch’s interest in inclusion. Click HERE to watch the session.

The AAUW LPD Branch developed a new program, “Career Talks for High School Girls.”  We hosted three of them during January and February 2021. The programs acquaint high school girls with young professional women and their paths and advice – from what courses to take in high school, to the college experience and professional success. Each of the three programs had a different focus: Business, Science, and Technology. 180 girls from all five area high schools attended these free Zoom events. Two of the speakers had PhDs and seven had other advanced degrees, and they came from a variety of professions: • Sr. Director – Legal • Sr. Director – Product Marketing • Sales – Business Applications • Sr. Director Controller • Epidemiologist • Archaeologist • School Psychologist • Genetic Counselor • Sr. Consulting Biologist • Product Marketing Manager-Internet Security • UX Product Designer • Public Relations, Multimedia • Multimedia Design. This program deals with gender equity and economic security. This program is not only effective, but it is easy and economical for any branch to offer. It reaches a large number of girls, and increases AAUW recognition in the  community. We encouraged the young presenters to join AAUW. We plan to continue it next year. 

Education is a path to equity, but many high schools no longer offer extensive college  counseling. One branch member who is a retired college advisor helped develop two presentations, one for 9th and 10th graders, and one for 11th graders. In 2018 and 2019 these programs were live, and in 2020 we moved them to Zoom. Sessions included: 

• What Colleges Evaluate – coursework, grades, testing, etc. 
• Understanding the A-G Requirements and Your GPA 
• Types of Colleges and Universities 
• What to do in 9th and 10th Grade and Looking Forward to 11th Grade 
• Paying for College – The session for 11th grade girls and their parents provided an opportunity to learn the in and outs of college admissions
• What Colleges Evaluate – courses, GPA, testing, etc. 
• College Admission Requirements (UC, CSU, private, out of state) 
• Junior Year Essentials 
• Creating a College List 
• Researching Colleges 
• Paying For College

The Implicit Bias program in August 2020 followed the tragedies of the killing of Mr. George Floyd, and Ms. Breonna Taylor. We ask ourselves – “What can we as individuals, as AAUW members, and as members of a community, do to understand and prevent these atrocities from occurring?” The program was virtually attended by over 100 people, and in the post program survey,100% found the program valuable. The program was impactful to all who attended, as we examined our own biases and how we can all do better. 

We have had a year-long focus on racism and inequality. At almost every branch meeting one or more representatives of groups actively engaged in fighting racism or inequality in Marin County were invited to come and speak about their work. This started in July, the first meeting of the new AAUW year. We also have held two full branch meetings on topics related to racism: October was a panel of BIPOC young people talking about their experiences with discrimination, January was a program on racism in policing and how to reimagine policing, and we had a third program in March, co-sponsored with a women’s group at Dominican University, focused on racial discrimination against career women of color. As part of this focus on racism we also have a list of resources on understanding racism and inequality on our website which is updated every two months or so.

The Monterey Peninsula Branch hosted the Inter-branch Council meeting with the Santa Cruz Branch. Since March is Women’s History Month, we decided to have a meeting to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose legal and legislative accomplishments correlated with the mission and vision of AAUW. We invited Congresswoman Jackie Speier to be our presenter. She has been a leader and trailblazer in her own right from surviving life-threatening wounds at the Jonestown, Guayana compound to her rise to US Congresswoman. Representative Speier gave an overview of the legacy of RBG and then took questions from the participants about current legislative issues important to AAUW.

Each year we raise funds for our local scholarships, Tech Trek campers and AAUW Fund donations through an event we call “Authors Forum.” This year one of our members reached out to an award-winning author from London as we are hosting a pandemic-friendly Zoom event. This event is impactful as we are supporting women authors, we include all local college students for free and we encourage others to support our scholarship efforts. It is a great idea because each year the event has grown in popularity. We know our community looks forward to this event that takes place each year on the first Thursday of February. Our local book store supports us by bringing books in to sell. We are supporting women authors and all the money raised goes towards scholarships.

The collaboration with Phase2Careers allowed our branch to bring Work Smart salary negotiation workshops to its target audience–women seeking better benefits and pay. This mission-based program is empowering women to achieve gender and pay equity. The workshops focus on different topics, and varied audiences participate. Our two organizations make perfect partners as Phase2Careers focuses on the “over 40” workers who are exploring a career change or returning to the labor force after raising a family. These workshops are currently conducted on Zoom, but previously they were conducted throughout San Mateo County, including the constituencies that AAUW North Peninsula serves. We’re digitally linked through our websites and we have participated in their workshops, presenting Work Smart to the participants.

We are sponsoring a webinar series called “Girls4STEM.” We offer 1-2 Zoom webinars per month for high school girls. Our aim with this series is to encourage high school girls to stay in STEM classes and major in STEM fields in college by providing role models- –women sharing their educational paths, their challenges, and their own experience finding internships and jobs in their fields. Attendance at these webinars has been as high as 161. As of April 2021, we have had six webinars presented by a diverse group of successful women in various STEM careers.

We believe that exposure to women role models working in traditionally male-dominated fields can help girls develop early confidence to pursue STEM courses and interests in high school. Having held a STEM conference for every local 8th grade class of girls for the past 26 years and faced with the impossibility  of holding them in-person this year, we created two new ways to reach our community.  For our Redlands Unified School District 8th grade girls, we invited all 800 to attend one of two Zoom STEM events, with 28 speaker-led workshops live-streamed into 16 virtual ”classrooms.” In advance of the conference, each girl chose three 45-minute workshops to attend in virtual classrooms of 25 girls, the teacher and the speaker. We also are providing packets of information, workshop materials, and mementos to each girl through the RUSD Grab & Go distribution system.

We organized a WOMEN IN STEM CAREER PANEL as part of the 10^th annual Bay Area Science Festival (BASF) in October. The Festival offers several days of innovative programming to engage the public, students and their families in their discovery and appreciation of STEM in an inclusive and accessible way. 

Since 2009, the Stockton Branch has offered a mentoring program. The program was initially designed to continue the relationship formed with the girls awarded Tech Trek scholarships with the goal of fostering their interest in STEM. While we still offer ample opportunities to explore those areas, we now focus more on our overall goals which are to foster a love of learning, develop skills of success, and to be admitted into an institution of higher learning. To date, with close to 40 girls who have completed our 5-year program, we have had 100% success.

We did a Readers’ Theater presentation of the history of women’s suffrage called “When Women Won the Right to Vote.” It describes the history of women’s suffrage from the Revolutionary War to the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission international law in 1948. The presentation was recorded and edited. We uploaded it to YouTube. Participatory democracy requires persistence, participation, and patience. Educating people on the process of how women won the vote, how long it took, and the struggle that was necessary, lets them know how precious the vote is, so that they will cherish and use it.