The Irvine Rotary Club was host to AAUW Laguna Beach Co-President Lesley Danziger and Tech Trek Coordinator Esther Hessong, at their February 24th breakfast Zoom meeting.  Lesley gave an overview of AAUW LB, its mission and its many service-based projects, highlighting the wide-range of students we serve not only in age, but in geographic area.  Like us, Rotary Club is also supporting students to prepare for the work force, so they were interested in our Start Smart salary negotiation workshops and the online Work Smart program.

Rotary Club members were very impressed with the presentation Esther gave on Tech Trek and especially, her description of the influence Tech Trek made on her journey from being a seventh grade Tech Trekker to becoming a Ph.D. student in Materials Science.  Esther continues to give back to Tech Trek by serving as a camp counselor and now as our LB Tech Trek chair.

In sum, we have much to share with other service organizations about the phenomenal work we do in Laguna Beach and the cities and school districts where many of our members reside.  For a fuller report and Lesley’s impression of the meeting, click here.

From artist Sara Vonogas, illustrator, Laguna College of Art and Design

Our 12^th annual Art Salon, which took place on February 21st,  was virtual this year, but with our Zoom windows set on “Speaker View,” the attendees had front row seats to an exhibition by three talented young artists from the Laguna College of Art and Design: Melissa Malory, Jennifer Schmidt and Sara Vonogas, . While sharing their work with us, the artists described their journeys, explained their points of view, and engaged the audience in a lively Q&A session.  One illustrator and two fine artists, their work encompasses a broad spectrum of themes and media, yet a common thread emerged in  all three, as they described how profoundly their identity as women inspires and infuses their art.

On February 3, 2021 from 4-5 pm, AAUW Laguna Beach hosted a Town Hall meeting to discuss a proposed bylaw amendment that would eliminate the degree requirement for AAUW membership.  Members shared their support and opposition to the amendment which will be voted on in April/May.  Members interested in more information before the vote can check out AAUW National’s talking points at https://www.aauw.org/app/uploads/2021/01/Membership-Requirement-full-talking-points.pdf.

AAUW Laguna Beach’s College Scholarship Appeal raised $27,253 for scholarships for a special group of deserving women.  

We thank all of our contributors.  Now 13 more deserving women who want an education and are not able to afford it, will be getting help from AAUW-LB to realize their dreams.

On June 28th, AAUW Laguna Beach installed its new board in a Zoom meeting hosted by Lesley Danziger and Farie Momayez, our co-presidents. Watch this short video of Lesley Danziger going over the mission and goals of our branch.