And we are finally getting it NOW!
Click here for a great video: What AAUW does Be proud!
The gender pay gap won’t close until 2119 at the current rate of change.
AAUW is doing something about it. Take action now!
Empowering women since 1881
January, 2021
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President’s Message, Beverly
Welcome 2021 and with that I hope we are all in great health and looking forward to exciting happenings within our Branch and our new government.
As the year ended for 2020, I experienced snow for the first time at our home in La Mirada. For me this was extremely exciting as we have never had this in the fifty-eight years we lived in La Mirada. The home and grounds were covered for four days and I took several pictures.
Assemblywoman Quirk-Silva reached out to Lauree Goodman and nominated the La Palma-Cerritos Branch of AAUW to the Women in California Leadership organization and we were awarded a grant of $1000.00 to provide opportunities for women and girls in our local communities. Marilyn Forsstrom wrote a thank you letter on behalf of our Branch to Assemblywoman Quirk-Silva. If she is your local representative, send thanks, too.
As is her style, Edna Ethington, wrote and sent articles to La Palma Mosaic, Cerritos News and Orange County Breeze to keep the community informed of our activities and invite them to participate.
Our next Board Meeting will be Thursday, January 7, 2021 7:00PM.
May we all look forward to Sweet Memories in 2021 by being well and healthy, staying home and being safe.
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Su Casa Holiday Giving
For many years members of our branch have supported Su Casa at holiday time by collecting toys , games, books and nice personal items for the residents at Su Casa. Of course, all that was not possible this year due to Covid restrictions. The shelter cannot accept such gifts right now. The director requested that donations be made in cash or in gift cards. Suggestions include Target, Wal-Mart, Ralphs/Food 4 Less or other local Groceries.
Update 12/18/20: Our branch members contributed $600 in holiday donations and gift cards to Su Casa this year. They are very grateful to us.
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January, Human Trafficking Awareness Month, Norma V. Williamson, Public Policy Co-Chair
Human Trafficking is the trading of human beings for forced/child labor, sexual slavery or the commercial exploitation of sex. An estimated 27 million people, world wide are trapped in this version of modern slavery. Most victims are women and children (75%), minorities, runaway teens and foster care/emancipated youth.
Did you know that:
- human trafficking is the 3rd largest criminal global enterprise after drug dealing and arms trafficking?
- unscrupulous people, even in nice suburban communities can keep housekeepers and nannies against their will?
- traffickers coerce their victims by making them drug dependent, trapping them in debt bondage, inflicting violence, threatening blackmail, etc.?
SUGGESTED ACTION:
- CLEMENCY for Lisa Montgomery – Lisa was born brain damaged to an alcoholic mother. Since the age of 11, her mother beat her incessantly and trafficked her to a string of stepfathers who gang raped her repeatedly along with their friends so that Lisa could “earn her keep”. She began to disassociate from reality in order to survive her daily trauma. In this state of severe mental illness (which plagues her to this day), she committed the kidnap and horrendous murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett in 2004 and was sentenced to federal death row. During her jury, her federal prosecutors did not present any evidence of her years of sexual abuse and child prostitution. Her federal prosecutor was inexperienced with death penalty cases and with victims of sex trafficking. She will be executed on January 12th, 2021 in Terre Haute, Ind. Scores of human rights campaigns and the United Nations are working feverishly to petition for her clemency. She has expressed remorse for her crime and has accepted full responsibility. Call President Trump at 202-456-1111; call Department of Justice, William Barr at 202-353-1555 and ask both for clemency of this victim of human trafficking.
- Purchase Slave Free & Survivor Made Products – Visit these websites:
- Report abuse by calling either –
- National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888
- S. Dept. of Justice Hotline: 1-888-428-7581
- Shop at Fair Trade Long Beach Retail Collective, 4105 Bellflower Blvd. Unit B, Long Beach 90808, (626) 372-5285. Visit fairtradelongbeach.com Fair trade products, are certified to be free of child/forced labor & are produced in developing countries in improved social/environmental conditions & provide fair prices to producers.
Please welcome and support your new officers. Remember that their job is to lead and encourage other members. Please offer to help them when they ask.
Reminder to members: As is written in your directory, the AAUW mail/email list is to be used for AAUW business only. If you wish to share something personal with selected members, please verify with the members first, if they want to be included. Members who find themselves receiving email they do not want should feel free to ask to be removed. We’re all friends here.
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Meeting & Program, Karen, Nancy & Mary Ann
We will have a program on Racism by Whitney High School’s Black Alumni speakers Mrs. Megan Ashley-King Mitchell, M.ED, from the ABC Unified School District and Jennifer Booker, MBA, Senior E-commerce manager and Community Advocate. This will be on Thursday Jan 21 at 7pm. Their program has been presented at many local associations including HHHumphrey Democratic club and is well received. Please register with Tobi Balma, Zoom Manager, prior to these meetings to receive confirmation to attend.
Public Policy, Sondra & Norma
Local Efforts to Combat School Based Racism
By Norma Williamson, M.A.
As Melissa Maceyko, AAUW CA Public Policy Committee, states in her article entitled: “Increasing Equity for Black Women and Girls”:
“In 2020, a widespread protest movement has emerged, clearly and loudly demanding greater racial equity through systemic change….Anti-racism is the active practice of calling out racism when it is encountered, which may include having uncomfortable conversations about race and racism in everyday life”.
It might come as a surprise to some branch members, that the quiet, economically comfortable City of Cerritos witnessed its own locally organized protest on June 12th, 2020, against expressed racism in the ABC Unified School District. Several hundred students accompanied by some of their teachers and even a couple City of Cerritos Community Safety Center staff, marched the 1.5 mile route that started at the Cerritos Library and ended at the ABC USD offices on Norwalk Blvd.
Marchers were protesting the decades long “anti-blackness, implicit and explicit racism” at Whitney High School and throughout the school district. The organizers of the march, Whitney High School Black Alumni Association (WHSBAA), addressed a letter to the Whitney High School Principal John Briquelet, Assistant Principal Larry Natividad, ABC Superintendent Dr. Mary Sieu, Director of Schools Dr. Crechena Wise, ABC Board President Dr. Olga Rios, and all ABC School Board members that vividly described their grievances and demands for change (to see the article from the Los Cerritos Community Newspaper, click on this blue hyperlink):
http://www.loscerritosnews.net/2020/06/08/letter-from-black-alumni-association-corroborates-racism-allegations-at-whitney-high/
In the letter, WHSBAA criticized the annual mock slavery simulation that has for years distressed black students and their parents as well as the most recent overt racist incident perpetrated by an honors student who was videotaped recently phone calling a local black church and hurtling racial insults at them.
In their “Call to Action letter” dated June 14, 2020, WHSBAA has demanded diversity and inclusion training for staff as well as the implementation of black history and an anti-bias curriculum which would support all minority students including the LGBTQIA student community. The letter states: “Accurate teaching of Black history should be infused in the curriculum year-round, not just during Black History Month, and not just during units that cover the Atlantic slave trade”. Instead of perpetuating racial stereotypes of Black slaves, Black history should celebrate the accomplishments of Black mathematicians, chemists, artists, etc.
The annual mock slavery simulation of the Atlantic slave trade is how Whitney High received the dubious honor of landing on the Trevor Noah televised Daily Show: https://youtu.be/H4MR9QR1eAI
A few days later, on June 16th, 2020, the entire ABCUSD School Board voted unanimously, 7 to 0 on a resolution to confront systemic racism, provide education resources for ethnic studies and unequivocally state that “Black Lives Matter”. Visit ABC USD Facebook post to read the resolution: https://www.facebook.com/ABCUSDStories/posts/dear-abcusd-families-stakeholders-and-staff-earlier-this-week-the-abc-unified-sc/3939794799395790/
For more information on Whitney High School Black Alumni Association, visit their website: https://www.whsblackalumni.org/
Membership, Joan F., Diane M.
AAUW Fund, Esther, Thea
Your donation to the AAUW Fund advances AAUW’s mission by sustaining all our programs and activities. It helps incubate and disseminate programs that:
- above all, advance equity for women and girls
- strengthen AAUW’s role in the global community
- respond to and eradicate the persistent challenges facing women and girls
- leverage new opportunities and attract new audiences to our mission
We hope that everyone had a happy and healthy holiday and is looking forward for a better new year. 2020 was a difficult and scary year where everyone was facing the possibility of getting this Covid disease. It is our hope that we will remember many of the things that we could not do and you would be willing to help us by donating to the AAUW Fund.
Your invitation to donate to this year’s non-event fundraiser “Share Your COVID Savings” will be arriving in your mailbox shortly. Donations can be sent to Marilyn Forsstrom, in the addressed envelope included with your invitation. Please remember that this year, because of Covid, you have saved money by not doing fun things and taking vacations. Your donations to AAUW Fund are 100% tax deductible.
The money for the fund will go to the Legal Advocacy Fund, Eleanor Roosevelt Fund, Funding for a variety of College Student Seminars and many it the advocacy and support funds. Some of the money will also go to ongoing expenses for AAUW Association.
In February our general meeting will feature Constance Iloh, an AAUW Fund scholarship winner. We will have an afternoon meeting on February 18th at 1 pm. Constance is working on a postdoctoral degree at the University of Irvine and her project is exploring college- going decisions and trajectories of low income single mothers of color.
Thea and Esther want to thank those of you who supported the Take-Out Dinner Fundraiser at Chipotle and Portillio’s. We earned $220 and $86 respectively.
The La Palma-Cerritos branch of AAUW created our own memorial fund in July 2017, called the Alberta Brose Memorial Fund, to go to women who return to school just as she did. We currently have completed our goal. This was a short time, two year fund with a goal of $5000 for completion by June 30, 2019. The branch got CA State and National recognition for completion. Final donation has gone to AAUW Fund for Career Development Grants for graduate students returning to school after 5+ year absence.
Elsie Carbajal is the recipient of our own Alberta Brose Memorial Fund. We are proud!
Career Development Grants
Name: Elsie Carbajal
Award Year: 2018-19
Award: Career Development Grant
Institution: Brandman University
Location: Irvine, California
Discipline: Education
Degree and Specialization: M.A., Education leadership
Elsie Carbajal is a seasoned special education teacher who is passionate about meeting the diverse needs of public school students with special needs. Her goal is to strategically reform outdated practices that limit the growth and progress of the unique population she services. She plans to obtain her master’s in education leadership to collaborate with stakeholders and make informed decisions to enhance student outcomes in and out of school.
Sponsors:
4431 – Alberta Brose Memorial Fund
1262 – Laguna Beach (CA) Branch/Laguna Hills (CA) Branch
1285 – San Diego County (CA) Branch/Marilyn George Poluzzi
1298 – Los Angeles (CA) Branch/Dallas Shenk
1484 – San Clemente-Capistrano Bay (CA) Branch
4105 – Redlands (CA) Branch/Bernice Black Johndrew
1491 – Somerset Hills (NJ) Branch—Science and Technology
Academic Achievement Awards, Carol
I was able to contact the Foundation at Cerritos College and talked to the woman who is now handling the applications for the students. I told her we had $2,500.00 and would like to split it into two scholarships of $1,250.00 each. One would go to a regular student that was completing the first two years of school and would be transferring to a four year college. The second one would go to a woman that had been out of school for 4 or more years and was returning to finish her education. I asked for no more than 15 applications. By a show of hands the members at the October zoom meeting approved this.
Applications will be coming in the first of the year and should close in February. Copies of their applications will be mailed to us to distribute to our committee. At this point in time I have not chosen them. We should be able to evaluate them in March and make a decision. The school usually notifies the students in May. Since we have no idea how long the covid lockdown will continue, we will have to see if it is even possible to hold a brunch. We will have to play it by ear. The school may even have to give the awards to the girls. We do have lots of time to make that decision.
If you have any questions or further input please feel free to call or email me.
Tech Trek – Celia & Edna
California AAUW recently received the following directive from AAUW National regarding Tech Trek for 2021 and sent it on to branches: “…in the 2021 season, Tech Trek camps in all states must be delivered on a virtual platform.” National also advised that student recruitment should be delayed until further into 2021. While California AAUW Tech Trek Program leaders state that they are fully prepared to continue the program by providing selected campers with a “stimulating, fun and rewarding STEM virtual experience,” our Branch Board decided at its recent October Board meeting to put our participation in Tech Trek on hiatus for 2021 and until the program is returned to its traditional, on site at colleges and universities, experience.
International Issues, Jackie Shahzadi
Women Graduates-USA
…through its global focus and reach, empowers all women and girls to create a secure and just world built on education, advocacy, friendship and mutual respect.
WG-USA is an online organization based in the United States focusing on global issues *Support and Advocacy for Refugee and Migrant Women and Girls
*Safe Access to Education
*Human Trafficking Advocacy and Action
*Women, Peace and Security
Join WG-USA at www.wg-usa.org
In 2019, Graduate Women International celebrated its 100th anniversary with a Centennial Celebration in Geneva, July 25-28. GWI was founded in 1919, by representatives of AAUW, and other international women’s groups. It used to be known as the IFUW, international Federation of University Women. Currently, Women Graduates-USA is the organization representing American women at GWI.