Thanks to AAUW California for hosting our December event, a webinar featuring Meghan Kissell, Senior Director of Policy and Member Advocacy, AAUW:
“Higher Education at Risk – How You Can Protect It”
Category Archives: Event
September 2025 AAUW SV Kick-off
We heard some of the Tech Trek 2025 campers we sent to Camp Hopper at Santa Clara University tell of their experiences. The girls attend middle schools in Los Altos, Mountain
View, and Palo Alto and are now sharing their experiences with teachers and friends. They were thrilled to have the hands-on experience afforded by Tech Trek. Our inspiring speaker was Molly Mudgett, who has been involved with Tech Trek since attending as a camper in 2013. Over the years, she has returned to camp as a 
counselor, workshop presenter, core teacher, and just completed her second year as co-director. Tech Trek entirely changed the course of her life and inspired her to pursue a career in STEM. In 2022, she graduated from Northwestern University with both a bachelor and masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering. Molly currently works in the Acoustics Prototyping team at Apple, where she designs and builds acoustic prototypes and test fixtures. No wonder she has been perfect as Camp Hopper co-director in Summer 2025.
We also connected with new and longtime members from AAUW Silicon Valley Branch and shared at our first time Member Exhibit – learned about our members’ avocations. We found business cards from members who are authors, design crafts, and provide services.
May 2025 – Preview of Tech Trek Summer Camp
Our May 2025 event was focused on AAUW Tech Trek summer camps. We gathered the middle-school girls being sponsored by our branch to attend a Tech Trek camp (in-person or virtual) and engaged them in a STEM-related activity. They attend five schools, so this was a chance to meet one another. Here’s the smiling group, getting ready to create carmine red dye from cochineal insects. The activity was led by branch member, chemist Dr. Natalie McClure.
Jan. 22, 2025 – Reproductive Rights webinar with Emily Bazelon
Our Branch Marked the 52nd Anniversary of Roe v Wade on January 22, 2025 with a ZOOM webinar featuring Emily Bazelon of the New York Times speaking on
Reproductive Rights: Where Do We Go From Here?
Over 180 people attended. Thanks to AAUW California for their assistance in the presentation and now for hosting the recording.
View the recording and read the transcript now
See our list of Reproductive Justice Websites.
Emily Bazelon, journalist, is a noted staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, a senior research fellow at Yale Law School, and co-host of the Slate podcast Political Gabfest. Bazelon is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.
Her work as a writer focuses on law, women, and family issues. She explores shifts in American jurisprudence — for example, how the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe impacts people seeking abortions.
A recent article “America’s Split Screen on Abortion” (New York Times, November 22, 2024) can be read here.
December 4, 2024
“AAUW Priorities in Light of the Election Results” Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 4 PM, PST, The AAUW Silicon Valley Branch hosted a Zoom meeting featuring Meghan Kissell, Senior Director of Policy and Member Advocacy at the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Meghan who spoke about post-election priorities for AAUW particularly as they relate to social justice issues, including reproductive rights, childcare, secure food and housing, voting rights, and more.
Thanks to AAUW California for hosting the Zoom session. See the webinar now posted on the AAUW-CA website: Thanks to the many who attended and shared their questions.
September 2024 AAUW Kick-off with guest speaker Tempe Javitz
Sunday, September 15, 2024, 3:00 pm-4:30 pm
Neutra House, 181 Hillview Ave, Los Altos
We heard from the Tech Trek 2024 campers from Los Altos, Mountain View, and Palo Alto middle schools and our National Conference of College Women Student Leaders – Amit Freikorn and Nicole Nguyen.
Our speaker, AAUW SV member Tempe Javitz, grew up on a cattle ranch in SE Montana and graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, California. After retiring as an insurance agent in 2007, Tempe spent six and a half years preserving her grandmother Jessamine Spear Johnson’s photo legacy—34 boxes of images from the early 1900s through the 1950s. The photos document her life as a rancher’s wife in SE Montana and NE Wyoming. Learn about Jessamine’s original glass plate camera and then her progress from 1908 forward. She even bought a movie camera at one point. How Jessamine did it is related in Bighorn Visions, the Photography of Jessamine Spear Johnson.
May 15, 2024 – Tech Trek camper introduction w/Dr. Amanda Nelson
May 2024 event 
Dr. Amanda Nelson, Chemistry Librarian at Stanford
and new Tech Trek campers
Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at 4pm
Sequoia Room, Los Altos Community Center
95 Hillview Ave, Los Altos
Space is limited.
RSVP direct to c.noonan@yahoo.com by May 14, 2024.
Amanda Nelson, PhD, Chemistry Librarian at Stanford, will be the speaker at our meeting to introduce the 2024 Tech Trek campers. Dr. Nelson ran the Chemistry teaching labs at Stanford. She was a Fulbright scholar at University of Wurzburg in Germany.
After a short talk, Dr. Nelson and Natalie McClure, Tech Trek committee chair for Palo Alto schools, will demonstrate a science and art project, typical of interactive projects the girls will enjoy in July 2024. Watch the girls make electromagnetic spinning sculptures and learn about the science of magnetism.
Treats will be served.
Meet the girls we sponsor to receive high quality education in STEM fields.
Catch up with AAUW friends.
March 14, 2024 – Understand the Book Banning Controversy
On March 14, 2024, 62 members of the Silicon Valley Branch, other AAUW branches and community members listened via Zoom to Dr. Jennifer Lynn Wolf’s presentation of “School Book Banning: A Primer for Readers of All Ages.” Dr. Wolf, a Senior Lecturer in the Stanford Graduate School of Education, shared an insightful and thought-provoking presentation about the book banning movement sweeping across the country, especially in the public schools. Some thought-provoking questions were discussed, such as who should decide what young people read? When, if ever, is school book banning appropriate? And how can we best understand the reasons behind book challenges? The event dovetailed nicely with AAUW California’s School Board Project which is focused on protecting public education by defending school boards around the state from regressive members.
Jan 22, 2024 Step Up for Choice
Join AAUW Silicon Valley And the Santa Clara County Pro-Choice Community for a Virtual Event Marking the 51th Anniversary of Roe v Wade – Monday, January 22, 2024
ZOOM 1:30 – 2:45 pm
Our speaker this year is Dr. Christine Henneberg, a practicing physician and author. She earned her MD/MS in Health Sciences from the UC Berkeley – UCSF Joint Medical Program. To read about her time at the School of Public Health, UC Berkeley, click here. Ms. Henneberg will discuss the “side effects” of the Dobbs decision and how it has played out politically this year. What can pro-choice groups advocate for in 2024? What is the best role for those in ‘blue’ states?
Her book “Boundless” is a stark, honest account of an imperfect medical system and a physician who strives to hold it, and herself, to higher standards, with the goal of providing humane, compassionate abortion care.” — Julie F. Kay, author. If you wish to buy ahead of the event, go to any book store or Amazon. There also links to sources for purchasing if you click on the book image.
A Zoom link will be distributed prior to the event. Contact Claire Noonan. A follow-up report on the event appears in our March-April 2024 newsletter (access limited to branch members).
Dec. 3 Helping Single Moms
Holiday 2023 Season Is Here
Single Mothers – How to Help?
2nd Hybrid meeting
Join Us In-Person at Neutra House,181 Hillview, Los Altos
or via Zoom
Sunday, December 3, 2-3:30 pm
Holiday Snacks and Warmed Cider
Roughly 24 million, or one-third of all American children under age 18, are living with a single parent, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center analysis of US Census Bureau data. And 81% of those single parent homes are headed by a mom.
The fall-winter holidays can be enjoyable but also demanding. Imagine if you were a single mom who works and cares for her children at the same time? Does she make good wages? Is she going to school? How many children is she caring for? Are there family members who support them?
Women at lunch at CSA
What can we do right here, right now to help? Sary Del Soltero, Homeless Prevention and Services Program Director of the Community Services Center, will meet with us to answer these questions.
AAUW-CA supports “equal access to quality affordable health care, housing, and environmental justice.”