GOOD NEWS: Eagle Pass student wins poster contest

Apr. 8—ALPINE — Stephanie Avila is the winner of the second annual SRSU Women's Conference Poster Contest.

Avila, a senior from Eagle Pass, is an Education major with an Early Childhood-6th grade specialization.

She is pursuing a career as a teacher.

The conference was held March 31, on the campus in Alpine.

"When I saw the contest, I did not want to do it at first due to a packed agenda, but the theme for it caught my attention. When I read the words 'rise together' I felt the need to do something even if it was just to create a poster," she said. "I think women can do so much more when we work together, and so I encourage women to do so.

"We see sometimes that it is not always the case, but like Michelle Obama once said, 'When women and girls rise, their communities and their countries rise with them.' I hope that anyone who reads this or sees the poster can understand how big an impact women have had throughout history. Let us keep rising together to create a better world.

Avila's winning submission features photos several strong woman from all over the world, including: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a childhood Cuban refugee, became the first Latina elected to Congress in 1989 as a member of the House of Representatives for Florida. She served 30 years in the House.

— Amelia Earhart, the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a solo flight.

— Harriet Tubman, who escaped from slavery though the Underground Railroad and helped many others escape enslavement.

— Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian cosmonaut and engineer. She was the first woman to travel in space.

— Hellen Keller, who lost her hearing and sight at the age of 1 1/2 from an undiagnosed illness. She learned to read, speak, and write through the instruction of Anne Sullivan and went on to a career as writer and speaker.

— Maya Angelou, a poet, writer and civil rights activist. Her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, became an inspiration for many people.

— Sojourner Truth, who was born into slavery and attained freedom in 1827 in New York. She became an abolitionist and advocate for women's rights.

— Malala Yousafza, a Pakistani activist who has spoken against Pakistan's prohibition of education for girls since her youth. At 17, she became the youngest person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.

— Marie Curie is best known for the research in radioactivity conducted by her and husband Pierre. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

— Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who worked in the early American space program in the 1950s. She and a group of other African-American women did mathematical calculations for spacecraft trajectories in the days before computers were used.

— Loretta Perfectus Walsh became the first enlisted woman in the US Navy in 1917, serving as a chief yeoman.

— Mother Teresa, an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun, founded the Missionaries of Charity, which has grown into a worldwide institution, operating hospices, charity centers and schools in 113 countries.

The poster also includes quotes from Mother Teresa, Amelia Earhart and Serena Williams.

For her effort, Avila was rewarded with a laptop computer.

Her posters is on sale at the SRSU Campus Store. Proceeds will go toward a scholarship fund supported by the women's conference.