Learning Programs

 

General Meetings

 

The branch holds General Meetings on the fourth Saturday of the month from September through May. We usually meet at the Allamanda Recreation Center (1515 St. Charles Place). However, October will be at Beacon College.  Please check the location in the Events Tab.

 

• Doors open at 9:15 a.m., social time starts at 9:30 a.m., and the meeting starts at 10:00 a.m.

• Each meeting includes an educational program as well as a short business meeting.

• Recent programs have included presentations by Rosie the Riveter: Florida's Women in WWII, SISters in Seeking Insights for Solutions, and our own Tech Trek campers.

 

General Meetings are open to the public. 

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Embracing Community Programs [Formerly DEI]

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This change preserves our intent to provide stimulating learning opportunities for our members around diversity, equity, and inclusion while also using somewhat more neutral terms to describe our focus. The new name also reflects the trajectory of our work over the last five years, from direct learning about racism and its impacts to learning how to address
our differences in positive and productive ways. /Sumter AAUW's Embracing Community Committee supports our branch commitment to diversity and enhances members' awareness of diversity issues by providing programs focused on those issues.

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Embracing Community Committee

 

Lake/Sumter AAUW's Embracing Community Committee is charged with supporting our branch commitment to enhancing members' awareness of diversity issues, and providing programming for members and guests to learn about other racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.

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2025-26 Embracing Community 

 

This year’s programming will feature three avenues for members to pursue learning around Embracing Community. 

• Opportunities Clearinghouse: This program, new this year, will provide listings of upcoming online and in-person
  learning events that members can pursue independently. Opportunities will be published in the newsletter each month.

  • This month, we introduce Braver Angels (https://braverangels.org/), an organization whose mission is “bringing Americans together to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic mission.” While Braver Angels’ focus is largely on political differences, the skills the group teaches apply much more broadly. Their programming includes numerous formats. Their short, free eCourses “provide an effective and ‘safe’ way to interact with people in difficult situations.” Offered online, each course takes about 40 minutes to work through. 

    • ​eCourse: Depolarizing Within (https://braverangels.org/register-for-anecourse/?ecourse=DW) This course helps you become more aware of your own inner polarizer, learn to be critical without stereotyping or showing contempt, and build skills to respond constructively when conversations turn toward ridicule or dismissiveness. 

  • Braver Angels also offers free podcasts. Public Health On Call, Episode 906 addresses Here to Understand: How Braver Angels is Orchestrating Tough Public Health Conversations is described this way: In 2016, the nonprofit Braver Angels was founded to bring together diverse groups of people to try and figure out why productive communication has become so difficult. During the pandemic, the conversations got even harder. In this episode: Braver Angels is bringing together questioners and supporters of public health to hear each other out with a goal of humanizing, understanding, and remembering that “everyone is worth listening to.” Listen to this episode here: https://tinyurl.com/5edmy7v3

• Great Reads: HINDU AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH – October is a month of Hindu American heritage appreciation and awareness. This month includes traditional holidays like Diwali, the festival of lights, and Navaratri, a nine-day festival celebrating the Hindu deity Durga. It is also the birth month of Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu spiritual
  leader. Learn more about the world’s oldest living religion by reading about unique Hindu symbols, philosophies and customs.

  • ​Why I am a Hindu (2018) by Shashi Tharoor
    Shashi Tharoor, India's leading public intellectual, lays out Hinduism's origins and its key philosophical concepts, major texts and everyday Hindu beliefs and practices, from worship to pilgrimage to caste. He is unsparing in his criticism of extremism and unequivocal in his belief that what makes India a distinctive nation with a unique
    culture will be imperiled if Hindu fundamentalists seize the high ground.

  • The Bhagavad Gita: Talks Between the Soul and God (2021) by Ranchor Prime
    At its heart, the classic Bhagavad Gita deals with the mysteries of life: the nature of the Self, the Universe/Higher Power, and the World. Spoken on a battlefield, it is a conversation between the soul and an Avatar, a Divine Being. Prime's version is distinguished by his nonsectarian approach, making the Gita relevant to those of all religions or none and emphasizing the link between spirituality and self-development. Translated into English from the original Sanskrit, this edition is one of the most accessible versions for the general public.

  • Being Hindu: Understanding a Peaceful Path in a Violent World (2018) by Hindol Sengupta
    Being Hindu is a practitioner's guide that takes the reader on a journey to very simply understand what the Hindu message is, where it stands in the clash of civilizations between Islam and Christianity, and why the Hindu way could yet be the path for plurality and progress in the twenty-first century.​​

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