AAUW San Juan (PR) Branch

Summer’s almost here.  This is the month of graduations, school ending, and here in Puerto Rico:  People leaving the island for vacations, traveling and summer home stints.

AAUW San Juan will hold a potluck dinner on May 9th at the YWCA in Miramar.  This is our annual meeting, so we’ll elect a new Program VP, Mary Ann Maldonado.  We’ll also get some updates on the events of the year and talk about plans for next.

We have an AAUW national staffer in town at the end of the month who has graciously agreed to take time from her vacation to talk with us.  Holly Kearl is one of the co-authors of the latest AAUW research report on sexual harassment in schools as well as the coordinator for LAF.  We have plenty of themes to choose from!

Let’s also plan some ideas for the summer:  Gourmet test dinners, book club meetings, movies, and parties.  What ideas can you suggest?

There will be no general meeting this month because of all the other activities that we have going on!

First: Our Annual Fundraiser Perfect pairings is scheduled for April 17th at 7:00pm at the Bistro de Paris.

Second on April 21st we will conduct our second STEM Bridge workshop for middle and high school girls interested in careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

And on May 5th, we will conduct the first workshop for Humanities Bridge for girls interested in careers built on studying the humanities.

Don’t forget Equal Pay Day on April 17th too!
There is more on all these activities in the links provided! See you there.

Details will be in the next newsletter – watch for it in your email! Our March meeting will be another informal, working meeting.

First, we’ll have updates on the actions being taken since the trafficking presentation in January and our brainstorming session in February. We will also request that all members working on the BRIDGE workshops plan to meet to iron out details for those events in April; the fund raiser committee will work out details for that event coming at the end of April…All ideas and people with ideas are welcome to join us!

AAUW San Juan will meet Wednesday, February 8th at 7:00 pm at El Piropo Tapas Restaurant near the market in Santurce.

This informal meeting will give us a chance to discuss all we learned from our Human Trafficking presentation in January and brainstorm ways that we can help combat this problem. Over tapas and beer (if you wish) we will “brew” up some concrete projects, like creating a road show and volunteering for organizations already helping victims and children. Come at 7:00. We’ll get down to work about 7:300. All are welcome. This meeting is open to public, as are all our meetings! There is parking at the restaurant, Car pool for fun and the environment!

Welcome to a 2012!  A New Year always means resolutions … I hope your first resolution for 2012 will be to get involved in AAUW – whether that is attendance at meetings, donations to the San Juan Endowment, participation in the books club, the movie group, Great Decisions, the International Women’s Issues discussion group, serving on the planning committee for the fundraiser or even just commenting, sharing and “liking” our posts on Facebook.

Our first big event of 2012 is the presentation on human trafficking in Puerto Rico on January 19th.  This is a really important meeting:  Human trafficking DOES exit in Puerto Rico.  That it is right under our noses may be a surprise.  Don’t miss it.  Bring everyone you know and especially invite young people – high school students – this is a problem that affects every generation in our society.

Also, be sure to stay tuned for information about our luncheon meeting planned for March in celebration of Women’s History Month, and International Women’s Day.

We also are planning another “Perfect Pairings”  dinner in May to raise money for the San Juan endowment of the Education Foundation of AAUW (our scholarship fund).

In between these big events, we will continue with our schedule of monthly programs, cultural outings and interest groups.

A resolution to get more involved – and all these options for doing it – It’s home run!

Let’s be Merry and Kick off the Holiday Season Together!

December 9th at 7:00pm

Check the events tab for all the details!

November promises to be another active month for AAUW San Juan. We have a program planned for November 9th that you won’t want to miss on “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything.”

On the 17th join friends at Carmen Hammel’s for a pot luck luncheon and as always, interest groups (Books, Movies and International Women’s Issues) will all be meeting and welcoming additional members.

Be sure to watch your email for the newsletter!

Good feedback on last week’s activities. The museum trip was very well received – we had a good turn out and everyone was so impressed with the quality of the museum and the exhibits. Thank you to Mary Anne Maldonado who set that up!

Saturday morning, the International Women’s Issues discussion group met at the YWCA. The group decided to focus on a single topic: Trafficking. This is a timely topic because of our general meeting in January that features Cesar Rey of the Ricky Martin Foundation and covers this very topic. The group will be reading Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book “Half the Sky” for the next meeting, which is November 19th. Additional assignments will begin to round out our knowledge on this subject.