History

Poughkeepsie AAUW – A Brief History

Poughkeepsie Logo

History of National AAUW

We are Celebrating 100 Years

Poughkeepsie AAUW, A 501(C)(3) Nonprofit Organization

Founded in 1925, Poughkeepsie Branch of the American Association of University Women, Inc. has been active in the areas of education, international understanding, community needs, the arts, and the status of women.

The branch continues to be involved in education both nationally and on the state and local levels. We support the AAUW Funds and the AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund through annual donations. In addition, the branch supports two yearly scholarships to graduates of Dutchess Community College who are continuing education at a four year college.  Currently we are raising funds to increase the value of these scholarships. Poughkeepsie AAUW has a long connection with DCC. From 1955 to 1957, AAUW was part of a group of organizations that laid the foundation for starting a local community college. We continue to work with DCC, Vassar College and Marist College. In 1987 the City of Poughkeepsie celebrated its 300th anniversary and AAUW produced a film, “A City on the Hudson” to highlight those years. Many other activities have continued to link AAUW to our Hudson Valley area.  Beginning in 1975 on the 50th anniversary of its founding, the Poughkeepsie Branch AAUW honored eight women for outstanding service to the residents of Dutchess County.  This has become a tradition as we honor a woman each year, with a few exceptions.

Poughkeepsie Branch AAUW sponsors several community service projects that benefit the community including:

Leading to Reading (LTR), a volunteer-run early literacy program, since 2004 donated and distributed more than 57,000 books to children from low- and moderate-income families throughout Dutchess County. LTR runs a volunteer reading program for several local Pre-K groups. They  has also collaborated with and received support from over 20 local organizations.

The Days for Girls Poughkeepsie NY team, organized in 2017, has provided over 600 sustainable feminine hygiene kits for women and girls who live in developing countries, refugee camps and for those who experience periodic poverty in the USA including Dutchess County.

Since 2015 Extending Girls’ Horizons in  cooperation with Girl Scouts has offered a variety of stand-alone monthly events and short event series in leadership development and S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) to girls in grades 6-12 throughout Dutchess County and surrounding area.

Founded in 2010, Court Watch seeks to promote greater accountability by observing judges, prosecutors, law enforcement, and other justice system personnel and to share these findings with members of the judicial system and the community in order to keep victims safe, bring about improvements in the courts, and to promote fair and equal justice for all. Court Watch partnered with the Fund for Modern Courts in 2016, collaborating for 18 months attempting to make improvements in the court system. The report from this collaboration resulted in the presentation of the Samuel J. Duboff Memorial Award for outstanding contributions by non-lawyer volunteers in improving the New York State Courts to Poughkeepsie Branch of the AAUW Court Watch Initiative.

In recent years, Poughkeepsie AAUW, Inc. has been  recognized numerous times at the AAUW New York State Convention as a “Platinum Award Winner” in various categories. These are  the highest state awards.

Past Presidents of Poughkeepsie AAUW

Below are summaries marking the highlights of our most recent years. New members will learn of the variety of our programs and groups. Long time members will be reminded of and appreciate all we have accomplished. As we celebrate our 100th anniversary in 2025, our Poughkeepsie AAUW branch has much to be proud of.

Recent History

Taken from the pages of our newsletter The Branch

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2006-2007

AAUW POUGHKEEPSIE history 2007-2008

AAUW POUGHKEEPSIE history 2008-2009

AAUW POUGHKEEPSIE history 2009-2010

AAUW POUGHKEEPSIE history 2010-2011

AAUW POUGHKEEPSIE history 2011-2012

AAUW Poughkeepise history 2012-2013

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2013-2014

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2014-2015

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2015-2016

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2016-2017

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2017-2018

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2018-2019

AAUW_Poughkeepsie_history_2019_2020

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2020-2021

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2021-2022

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2022-2023

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2023-2024

AAUW Poughkeepsie history 2024-2025

Histories from 2007 to 2019 have been archived and are available from the branch historian.