The project of a former Education School doctoral student has resulted in the presentation of a $10,000 award to the University Women's Center by a national gender equity organization.
The American Association of University Women's Legal Advocacy Fund chose the Women's Center as this year's recipient of their Progress in Equity Award last week.
Education doctoral student Cathy Barefoot nominated the center last spring after she focused on the Women's Center for an education course project.
Barefoot found information about the award on the AAUW Web site and nominated the Women's Center.
The Legal Advocacy Fund "supports women seeking judicial redress for sex-discrimination in higher education and it gives awards to institutions that advance equity," said Willa Lawall, president of the Charlottesville chapter of AAUW.
The national chapter of AAUW chose the winner and will present the award to the Women's Center.
According to a press release, the Progress in Equity award recognizes innovative programs that further gender equity at their institutions and in the community and provide diverse programs that can be emulated by other universities.
Women's Center Director Sharon Davie said the AAUW award came as a surprise to the center when they received a congratulatory call last week.
"The AAUW really were just so positive, and said that they wanted to support what the center was doing," Davie said. "They also were very positive about U.Va. Part of the publicity that they put out has really been to say that this is a really good thing that this University has been willing to support."
The $10,000 award has no stipulations as to its use. Davie does not yet know what the Women's Center will do with the money.
"It's really good to get that $10,000," said Davie. "We are partly funded by the University, but we actually raise half of our budget. That's about $250,000 a year that we have to raise."
According to Davie, about 20,000 people attend Women's Center programs every year. Five permanent staff members and a group of graduate and undergraduate interns support the Women's Center's diverse programs.
The Women's Center was established 12 years ago by a recommendation from a University task force on the Status of Women.
The Center currently sponsors diverse programs including free legal assistance for local women and counseling services to the University and Charlottesville community.
The Center also runs an interdisciplinary lecture series that brought such prominent figures as activist Gloria Steinem and author Isabel Allende to Grounds last year.
AUWW's Legal Advocacy Fund specified in a press release that the Women's Center's programs are commendable because they support a movement toward gender equity, touch women of diverse backgrounds, are adaptable to other institutions and are accessible to both the University and local community.
"About 35 percent of those receiving counseling services at the Women's Center are from the community," Davie said.
Davie said programs like the Youth Women's Leadership Conference, which allows University undergraduate women to volunteer as mentors for local middle school girls, have potential to be adapted nationally.
Second-year Women's Center undergraduate intern Lydia Chiu, who works with the mentoring initiatives at the Center, agrees that the Center is strong in that area.
"Middle school is when a lot of girls become more insecure, and the big sisters from U.Va. get as much out of it as the little sisters," Chiu said.
Lawall hopes the AAUW award to the Women's Center will spur further cooperation between the local AAUW chapter and the University.
"I have written a letter urging President [John T.] Casteen to have the University of Virginia join AAUW's special program called the College Partnership Program," Lawall said.
Representatives from AAUW will present the award to the Women's Center at a reception in Pavilion V on Wednesday. The event is open to the public, but interested parties are encouraged to R.S.V.P. to womenscenter@virginia.edu.
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