Organization Aims to Empower, Honor, and Encourage Local Women and Girls

By Misty Cryer

A local women’s organization—almost a century old—held its annual planning event recently.

An interesting tidbit shared by Angie Barrios-Testa, President of American Association of University Women-Carlsbad, is that the Carlsbad branch was organized in 1928—98 years ago—five years before the state organization was established.

The AAUW-Carlsbad is a branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), a national nonprofit organization. The local branch currently has over 50 members. According to the branch history provided, principles promoted locally through various programs and activities include encouraging women to continue their intellectual growth, furthering the advancement of women, and discharging their special responsibility to society.

“Given how things come and go, that’s really incredible that it has lasted that long,” said Rocky Rodriguez Leach, a long-term member of the local branch.

Noting that advocacy for women’s topics is part of the organization, Angie said that much of what the Carlsbad branch does is local. This includes providing educational events; encouraging, recognizing, and honoring local girls and women; granting scholarships; and engaging with the community.

“We typically try to do the same events because they have been so successful, and people are used to seeing them every year,” said Angie.

An outstanding Carlsbad woman is honored in the August celebration of Women’s Equality Day at the Champagne Brunch en Blanc event, said Angie. “This year, we have a very special lady who is going to be honored,” she said, revealing that to be Mary Sanford, who has been a member for 50 years.

Over the years, Rocky said that both widely known people and people who are quietly doing behind-the-scenes work have been recognized. “We always recognize someone in August for that type of thing, and encourage it, and hope that it is an example to others to keep working on behalf of women and girls because there is still work to be done,” she said.

“There are still disparities in pay equality. There are still issues with not enough women in leadership roles and being strong enough to recognize and take those positions,” Rocky said. “That being said, there have been a lot of strides made in the last 40 to 50 years; we’re just not completely there yet.”

About the Champagne Brunch en Blanc event, Angie said, “It ends up being a little bit of our membership drive, but it is also to inspire the ladies who are already members, plus, if they invite friends, they get inspired, and we end up building our membership that way.”

While the branch encourages all girls in what they want to do, Angie said, “A lot is focused on education and encouraging girls to get into the fields that are not typical for females.”

Every year, a STEM event is held for middle-school girls. “We have women scientists and women in the STEM field actually hold some classes for the girls during this event,” said Angie.

The branch also contributes to the statewide AAUW Tech Trek. “Typically, we are able to raise money to cover the cost of one of the young ladies from our middle schools to go to this event; it is a camp that happens in the summertime,” she said.

Throughout the year, senior girls with high GPAs are recognized each month as Girl of the Month with bios and photos featured on social media and shared with the media so they can be posted in the paper, said Angie. “We were able to get a small grant from the state branch to help us get pins for them, so they get a lapel pin,” she said.

The Wine and Tapas event is held in October. “That is our biggest fundraiser,” said Angie, adding that it is open to anybody and helps with the branch’s programs and to fund the scholarships. One scholarship goes to a high school senior, with another going to a nursing student. “We like to keep that local, so we coordinate that with our college,” she said.

Other events and activities mentioned by Angie include a Christmas party for members, a vision board event for everyone after the holidays, a scholars’ reception for young ladies in high school and early college high school with a GPA of 3.8 or higher, a fun celebration of International Women’s Month, and Art in April where the branch coordinates with an existing art group and participates as a membership to honor art in the community.

“We end our year with a membership brunch where we celebrate our successes for the year,” said Angie.

To join, Angie said interested parties can reach out to existing members or contact AAUW-Carlsbad through social media. The AAUW website (https://www.aauw.org/membership/) also gives the options of becoming a national member or joining the Carlsbad branch.