Zonta Club of Santa Clarita Valley – Improving the Lives of Women through Service, Advocacy and Awareness.

by | Jan 25, 2017 | Community

Zonta International (ZI) is a leading global organization of professionals empowering women worldwide through service and advocacy.  January was ZI Amelia Earhart (AE) Month and January 11, 2017 was AE Day celebrated by clubs in 66 countries.  Amelia Earhart, a world famed aviator was a member of the Zonta Clubs of Boston and New York..
Zonta Club of Santa Clarita Valley celebrated this day with speaker Colleen Marrese-Reading, a 1995 AE Fellowship recipient  while pursuing her Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan; 1992-1993,she studied in Russia.  Currently employed at JPL in Pasadena, she is involved in developing the next generation compulsion system that enhances directional changes and controllability of spacecraft. During her youth, her engineering interest was evident as she built things with Lego while other girls played with dolls.
Local Zontian, Sharon Langenbeck, Ph. D., Vice President of ZI 2016-2018, was awarded AE Fellowships in 1977 and 1978 while pursuing her doctorate degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Established in 1938, ZI today awards thirty-five $10,000 fellowships each year to expand opportunities to women pursuing doctorate degrees in the typically male-dominated fields of aerospace-related sciences and aerospace-related engineering.  The focus is to eliminate gender bias that women face in pursuing doctoral degrees in these fields as women demonstrate a progression from limited representation in aerospace-related sciences and aerospace-related engineering to becoming leaders.
A true trailblazer, Amelia Earhart was a member of the National Women’s Party, which pursued equal rights for women receiving the right to vote in 1920.  She was the 16th woman issued a pilot’s license.  Beginning in 1928, she was instrumental in the formation of the Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots; became the first woman to fly the Atlantic alone and receive the United States Distinguished Flying Cross.  In 1935, she and her husband purchased a home in Toluca Lake.  Amelia would delight in “buzzing” celebrity William S. Hart’s home, as there was a landing field where Granary Square is now located; they became good friends.
On June 1, 1937, Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, departed from Miami – to circumnavigate the globe – arriving in Lae, New Guinea on June 29, 1937 (22,000 miles completed.  On June 2, Amelia departed Lae for Howland Island in the Pacific and was never seen again.  Zonta Club of Bakersfield suggested  honoring Amelia with a scholarship that would further the science of aeronautics;  and at the next ZI Convention,  the AE Fellowships were established.
For information about Zonta contact Phyllis Walker at 661-251-1172. 

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