The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Despite long years of work to make women more equal in society, still today women are not completely equal and are constantly in fear of what could happen to them. The Altruistic Alliance of University Women (AAUW) are wanting to bring women together to try and make a difference.
The club was first formed in the spring of 2020 but, because of COVID-19, they had to take a break and resume club activities in fall of 2020. The members formed the club to be able to get together as women and do things for their community as a whole.
“I want people to feel that if they want to come out and volunteer they don’t have to do it alone, and that we are here to be a helping hand with any event they want to do,” said Valeria Estrada, senior president of AAUW.
The club aims to have three events each semester to help the community and the campus as a whole. This semester they had a bake sale in Yates Hall to help raise money by selling puppy chow mix. During the first half of Nov. they plan on having a purse drive called “Purses with Purpose” where people can bring in used purses which the club will then donate to a women’s’ shelter.
The group marched in the women’s reproductive rights march back on Oct. 2 and made dog toys out of old donated t-shirts.
Last semester, they were able to do a school supply drive and help volunteer in giving kids the school supplies they need at the beginning of the school year.
“It’s hard to think of COVID-19 safe events these past semesters but we’re trying and want to do the best for the community,” Estrada said.
AAUW is small, but they hope to grow more and are involved in advertising such as posting their events on Gorilla Engage and taking time on making posters to post around campus to get the word out. The group has an Instagram where they post about their events and upcoming meetings that can be found under the name psu_altrusticalliance.
They currently haven’t been able to get very hands with their events, but they have been doing lots of donation events to get the ball rolling and hope to be getting out into the community sooner rather than later.
“I joined the club last year because, as a freshman, I wanted to get more involved on campus and meet new people, and I feel that I have gotten that (experience) from AAUW,” said Ana Cisneros, sophomore in construction management. “I joined because they do community service and I wanted to help people and I am excited to continue doing more of it.”
The club is hoping to gain more new members and extends their hand to anyone who wants to join, have some fun meeting people and serving the community as a group of girls. Their next meeting will be on Nov. 17 in the Balkans room of the Student Center at 8 p.m.