Happy May and Happy Mother’s Day to all you nurturing women.

As I glance back over the past several months of 2025 (and it is merely a glance for obvious reasons), I recognize the significance of being an educated woman in this time of our lives. I watched someone recently use the term A1 as opposed to AI and I thought “that is absolutely par for the course.” We are in a tumultuous time as women, most specifically educated women with what I call a real purpose. We should use whichever platform we have to stand firm in our convictions about equality for all and never allow anyone to silence our voices even if we feel as if we are the minority in our stance. I often find myself in the minority in many instances and I still remain firm in my stance. Please remember to remain diligent and vigilant and do not allow anyone to make you waiver in your stance. 

Just Breathe and Keep Smiling. 

Claudia L. Walker, Ed.D. 

President

AAUW San Antonio

2024-2025 Branch Leaders

Executive Committee

President

Claudia L. Walker, Ed.D.      

President Elect

Vacant  

Vice President Membership

Debbi Sochia                        

Vice President Programs

Martha Steele             

Secretary

Debbi Sochia    

Treasurer

Kathy Dicke

Parliamentarian

Vacant

Standing Committees

Public Policy

Pat Sanford

Finance/Budget

Kathy Dicke

Scholarships/NCCWSL/CU

Jeanette Pierce

AAUW Funds

Vacant

DEI

Dre Andrepoint

STEM

Vacant

Governance

Jeanette Pierce

Appointed Positions

Membership Outreach

Adrien Frank

Community Coordinator

Claudia L. Walker, Ed.D.

Reservations

Martha Steele

Publicity

Michelle Burk

Historian

Rachel Skelley

Communications

Malinda Gaul

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN

SAN ANTONIO BRANCH MEETING

FIESTA CELEBRATION!

MAY 3, 2025

11:30 AM

Our May meeting is your opportunity to learn about the endowments that fund the graduate school scholarships that our branch awards each spring. You know, from our fundraising events, how we cover the awards to undergraduates of $500 scholarships for textbooks. But do you know how graduate school scholarships are funded?

Our main speaker will be Bryan Thompson of Edward Jones, Inc., who manages our endowments. These funds, endowed by Mildred Magee, Irma Gesche, Gladys Morgan, Orlene M. Olsen, and Jean Longwith, yield the funding for our graduate scholarships. Malinda Gaul will speak about the women who funded the endowment. This year, we awarded two $2,000 scholarships for local students, which were presented at last month’s meeting.

Put on your Fiesta wear and join us for lunch!

Luncheon

Panchito’s Mexican Restaurant

4100 McCullough Avenue



Menu: Fajita Buffet

Beef and Chicken Fajitas — corn or flour tortillas

Sides of Spanish rice, charro beans and guacamole

Vegetarian Option

Roasted veggie fajitas with sides as above

Specify this option when you RSVP.

This is not a regular offering of the buffet, so we need to submit a count.

 Cost: $32.00

Cash bar available.

Payable at the door

Or

Pay in advance with Zelle to

aauwsatx@gmail.

Deadline: April 26

RSVP to

Martha Steele, steelemar@gmail.com

Don’t forget—we need a count of vegetarian selections.

This is not a regular buffet offering.

Recap of April Meeting

At the scholarship luncheon on April 5, a brief business meeting was held, and elections for next year’s officers was conducted by Nominating Committee Chair Malinda Gaul.

The slate of nominees announced at the March meeting is:

President: Claudia L. Walker

Vice-President for Programs: Martha Steele

Vice-President for Membership: Debbi Sochia

Secretary: Debbi Sochia

Treasurer: Sharon Parson

President-Elect: Martha Steele

Martha asked for recommendations for programs for next year.

There were two announcements from Interest Groups.

Martha thanked Debbi Sochia for reviving The Movie Group. For the past several months, Debbi has proposed movies currently playing in San Antonio theaters, and all members of our AAUW reply with their preferences. The favorite is announced by Debbi, along with the location and time that we’ll meet to see the movie.

Sallyann Rigdon will take on some of the duties of facilitating the Book Discussion Group, which has been helmed by Diantha Perelli for many years. Debbi Sochia has also volunteered to help facilitate the discussions.  

Martha Steele

AAUW San Antonio

Program VP

Scholarship Celebration

April 5, 2025

What a great day we had on April 5th! Our branch celebrated with our 2025 AAUW San Antonio Branch Scholarship recipients and their guests at Pompeii Grill. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and topped the event off with cake as befits a party.

Many members contributed to our success including Martha Steele who made arrangements, coordinated details, and conducted the meeting in the absence of President Claudia Walker who was unable to attend due to family bereavement. The scholarship committee including Dr. Patricia Tucker, Dr. Cheryl Davis, Rachel Skelley, Pearl Eng, Ali Heller, and Diantha Perelli were recognized for their commitment and hard work in selecting our recipients. In addition, Patricia Tucker distributed certificates and checks while Ali Heller took photos and Rachel Skelley helped serve the cake. Our champion fundraisers were recognized, as well-- Ruth Lyle for the gift card prize drawing, Malinda Gaul for Champagne and Chocolate, and Brian Thompson, our Edward Jones advisor, for his advice and service. Thanks also to Adrien Frank for providing the cake and to all our members who were able to join in this most important of opportunities to meet our mission.

Four of our recipients were the stars of the party as they shared their stories with us. Ms. Okeke and Ms. Villasana were unable to join us.

Textbook Scholars

Dulce Martinez  San Antonio College  Business Administration

Acasia Sanchez  St. Philips College  Respiratory Therapy

Chikodili Okeke  West Texas A&M University  Computer Science

Graduate Scholars

Neriah Sosa  University of the Incarnate Word Osteopathic School of Medicine

Medicine and Public Health

Erica Hollis  Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center  Physical Therapy

Marialaura Villasana  University of the Incarnate Word Accountancy in Taxation

Dulce Martinez told us about dropping out of high school, coming back to get her GED, and enrolling in college to fulfill her dreams of one day owning an event planning business. Acasia Sanchez also spoke of her dream to move from her present work in phlebotomy and pursue a career as a pediatric respiratory therapist. Erica Hollis shared her goal to help everyone with their physical and mobility needs through the interventions that physical therapy can provide. Neriah Sosa related her story of growing up in a small town near San Antonio and her desire to address the challenges those communities face today in receiving medical services.

All six recipients represent the best of our part of Texas. Each will be a shining contributor to our future well-being and will serve as an example of the power and determination of women to help each other and serve our communities.  Thank you to our AAUW San Antonio members for supporting these scholarship winners.  

Jeanette Pierce

Scholarship Committee Chair

Scholarship Luncheon

Celebration

Acasia Sanchez

Neriah Sosa

Erica Hollis

Dulce Martinez

IMPORTANT

All members: Please check to see that your Yearbook Information is correct. I am enclosing a link to the entire membership roster. If you have moved, changed phone numbers, or see any errors in your address, degree information, etc., please email me at dsochia@att.net so I can make these changes. All edits are due by June 30, 2025. After that time I will be running copies of our new yearbook to hand out at the September meeting. CLICK HERE. It will open my Google Document for you to view. (It won't allow you to make any online edits; it is view only).

Thank you!

Debbi Sochia

Membership Vice President

The Two-Minute Activist

The Two-Minute Activist is a source of information on topics relating to women’s issues. It also enhances our ability to send emails and texts to legislators to fight for equal pay, family leave, stopping sexual harassment, equality in education and more. Sign up on the AAUW webpage to get regular alerts to be able to take timely action.

You can also text “AAUW” to 21333 to get AAUW action alerts via text. 

Book Discussion

We meet during the summer and all year. If your name is not on the contact list and you would like it to be, please inform Debbi Sochia dsochia@att.net our new facilitator.

AAUW Moviegoers (Let’s All Go to the Movies!)

Moviegoers! Our last movie in March was a lot of fun! We watched the movie Black Bag starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett. This Spy Thriller was most definitely a thinking woman's film! Full of intrigue and dry wit, it's been described by critics as "a smartly drawn spy tale, as sophisticated as a dry martini." We have two more movies to attend in April and May. We meet on the last Sunday of each month.   I send out an email with a list of currently showing movies to vote on and then let everyone know the winning movie and location. Please join us! All are welcome!

Also, be on the lookout in your email for an opera or two we can attend this Spring. Upcoming live performances (shown at the movie theater) are:

Le Nozze di Figaro Saturday April 26, 2025 @ 1:00 pm

Salome Saturday May 17, 2025 @ 1:00 pm

Il Barbiere di Siviglia May 31, 2025 @ 1:00 pm

What Does AAUW National Do?

Policy Advocacy: Focuses on national issues affecting women and girls, such as education, equity, pay equity, and reproductive rights.

o   We coordinate our Public Policy Committees, participate in coalition work and partner with other prominent National organizations to raise awareness about our policy priorities (such as the YWCA for our Gen Z Town Hall in Philadelphia).

Subject Matter Expertise: We have historically produced in-depth studies on topics like the gender pay gap and women in leadership roles.

o   While we haven't produced reports recently due to limited funding - we have done high level analysis of pay gap data recently released. We are frequently asked to comment on topics related to pay equity, student loan debt and other issues related to gender equity. You can see our recently updated page on Latinas and the pay gap for example here: https://www.aauw.org/resources/article/latinas-and-the-pay-gap/

o   We have tens of thousands of social media followers across all platforms and have well over 1 million website viewers - ensuring that our brand remains prominent and relevant. CEO Gloria Blackwell has been invited to White House events on at least three occasions recently.

o   On a Global level - Gloria is AAUW's representative to the UN - and our work in this capacity provides great reputational value related to global gender equity work.

Salary Negotiation and Financial Literacy Training: Offers training and resources for women to develop skills to be financially empowered.

o   In particular our Work Smart, Start Smart and Money Smart trainings provide valuable resources and tools for women to become economically empowered. Nationally we work with organizations such as the HBCU Career Center, Tri Delta, Coca Cola Foundation, Finra Foundation, SAGE and others to bring these trainings to thousands of women across the country. These trainings were developed and are updated and managed by the National office. They have been independently evaluated by two separate entitles and continually receive very high ratings from participants.

Fellowships & Grants: We award and administer over $6 million in fellowships and grants each year to hundreds of women in the US and Internationally. 

o   We also connect our members and branches to these awardees and alumnae and have an Alumnae Relations team charged with growing and maintaining relationships with our thousands of distinguished Alumnae.

Membership Services: Provides support and resources for local branches and members, including access to national networks and events.

o   We host all aauw.net websites, process dues, support 990 filings, and maintain our history and globally recognized brand. Without AAUW National - AAUW branches would instead be independently organized entities who would not be networked with one another or have the ability to utilize the AAUW name. 

In essence, while AAUW National sets the strategic direction and focuses on broader issues, local branches implement programs and initiatives that directly benefit their local communities. Together, our aim is to work towards the common goal of advancing gender equity.

Follow AAUW San Antonio on:

Facebook www.facebook.com/aauw.sanantonio