R-90 and the Campaign for Safe & Healthy Youth with Catherine West
Cynthia Sheridan October 18, 2020
UPDATE: R-90 was approved in this year’s November 3rd election by 57.8%. Thank you to all who helped with this success!
On Saturday, October 10th, our co-president Lynn Dissinger welcomed members and guests to our third program held via Zoom. She introduced the two UW students we sponsored to attend an AAUW-sponsored program, the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL) held May 29 – June 1st of 2019 at the University of Maryland. From inspiring keynote speakers to informative workshops, NCCWSL provides great networking and learning opportunities for all attendees.
Sosna D. Woldemariam, a fourth year Public Health student, shared that she was still connected to attendees she met at NCCWSL. She was even able to utilize her new leadership skills to help form a Women In Medicine group for pre-med and other students to connect.
Hielen Enyew also attended NCCWSL and shared that she met like-minded women who shared her goals. From good advice shared by NCCWSL presenters and a NASA engineer, she learned to focus on her goal and see her journey more clearly. Since returning, she was inspired to join her physics teacher’s team and encourage others to join the team as well. She is also doing volunteer tutoring.
For our guest speaker, Katherine Cleland introduced Catherine West, a Legal Voice staff attorney. Catherine shared her background as the first in her family to attend college.
She also presented information on Legal Voice’s purpose and several recent cases that Legal Voice has taken on, some successes and some still in progress.
Catherine then went on to explain that Senate Bill 5395, a bill requiring that age-appropriate sex education be taught in public schools, passed through Washington State legislature, but was put on hold due to Referendum 90. She presented the contents of the bill, the importance of healthy sex education to students, and that voting “approve” would allow Senate Bill 5395 to go into effect. We also learned that we could help support the Campaign for Safe and Healthy Youth by phone banking, writing letters to the editor, and participating in literature drops.