Susan Fry facilitates a meeting where she explains the requirements for the upcoming grant round. Carley Mercedes Gomez, right, and Alexis Salcido listen as she emphasizes that we stay true to Unidas' focus.

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By Claudia L. Torres

When I walked into the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona's conference room for my first Unidas meeting, the bright florescent lights nearly blinded me. The walls, pasty and white, were bare except for a single white board. The air-conditioned atmosphere felt impersonal and chilly. Goosebumps quickly appeared on my arms. I sat down, took a sip of my iced tea, and looked around at 15 unfamiliar female faces. The young women were about my age, from diverse ethnic and social backgrounds. Some were a bit older, some maybe younger. I shyly looked over to the girl sitting next to me and introduced myself. I didn't let my fear of meeting new people take control of me. The aura around me was positive, and I felt welcomed into the promise of an environment where all these young women had come together to help other young women in the community.

Two years ago, I was called to the school office because my teacher had been handed a slip that said there was a delivery for me. The receptionist at the front office handed me a manila folder that had a newspaper ad clipping, a permission slip, and a flyer for an informational meeting about a new philanthropy group for young women called Unidas. A friend from a summer leadership conference I attended the year before had sent the packet over. The newspaper clipping she sent from the Arizona Daily Star advertised this new program, Unidas, that was sponsored by the Women's Foundation of Southern Arizona. Unidas, just like the Women's Foundation, would support groups that fund positive programs for young women and girls. My friend thought I'd be the perfect candidate to join an organization like this: I was interested in leadership opportunities, but didn't exactly know how to put my big ideas in motion.

Everything about Unidas' mission screamed female empowerment. That was just what I needed! My mother always told me to take control of my life and become independent. She didn't have the same opportunities that I have now. I didn't know what philanthropy meant, but I did know that Unidas was the feminization of "united" in Spanish. My desire was to help the community. Receiving the information packet about Unidas was like a true calling — something unexplainable.

At our first meeting, the program coordinators, Susan Fry and Hillary Rosenfeld, introduced themselves. From the moment they spoke, I heard the passion and enthusiasm in their voices. We were introduced to the world of philanthropy as a hands-on experience with their help. We learned that we, the members of Unidas, would have the opportunity to walk through an entire grant-making process — from learning about social-justice issues in our community to writing a request for proposals to reading grant applications — and eventually award $10,000 to the Tucson organization of our choice. I dedicated myself to studying and researching the issues we were considering.

In a later interview, Susan Fry explained how the process works: "The community receives the grant-making dollars, $10,000, that young women disseminate through the grant-making process. All the young women, from all parts of town, are educated about issues affecting young women and girls, about nonprofits in the community that serve those issues, and how the community in general responds to them. The goal of Unidas is that it's driven by the participants. As the leaders, they get to decide where the grant-making dollars go."

The main reason I was so excited to join Unidas was because they train young women to distribute grants to organizations that deal with issues that affect them.

My personal knowledge and life experiences, such as coming from a low-income background, have guided me throughout the intense decision-making process in our grant round. Living with financial instability has motivated me to want to help others in my same situation reach success, become empowered by having a voice and take action — in their communities, and ultimately find a way of earning money that gives them honor and pride.

My first year in Unidas, we granted $10,000 to the ELLA Group (Empowering the Lives of Latinas in America). The ELLA Group focuses its efforts on an intervention program called RAD (Rape Aggression Defense Systems). It is targeted toward Latinas, but its services are available to any woman or girl in the Tucson area. The ELLA Group is all about female empowerment, self-defense and awareness. Through self-defense classes, they teach that women do not have to be submissive: They have the prerogative to be strong and assertive. Women have the right to set their own boundaries and are entitled to enforce those boundaries.

These ideals affected me deeply because my mother was in an abusive relationship. She didn't know how to defend herself or how to make the abuse stop. Even if a woman is living in poverty or with domestic violence, there is an opportunity for her to be empowered and become successful. In my experience, when women are poverty-stricken and in abusive relationships, many of them either don't know how to get out or aren't physically able to escape the lifestyle that they're living. It bothers me so much that I want to help change the mind-set of these women and show them that there is help out there for them.

Racheal Boulio, 16, another Unidas participant I've grown to know well, agrees by saying, "My favorite part of the program is to have the chance to help teens to break free from their struggles and problems to develop a better life for themselves." Boulio is one of my best friends from the Unidas program because we have learned to trust and open up to each other about the difficult experiences we've been through in our pasts.

Susan Fry says, "I love the notion of young people learning about philanthropy. I think it is important and there aren't a lot of avenues for them to learn about it. It has given me a wonderful opportunity to be a part of the lives of a group of young women, which I love, and it's built and grown my set of leadership skills, my self-esteem and my knowledge of the community. All the benefits that the participants get, I get at the same time."

Through the grant-reviewing and -awarding process at Unidas, I have grown a strong bond with the other participants. With these young women, I can talk about boyfriend problems, fashion, and life's crazy surprises. We're like sisters. I know that we'll always be there for each other because we share a common vision: We value the need for social change.

I have gained a greater sense of the power that I am capable of holding. I jumped right into a position serving on the Board of Trustees for the Women's Foundation of Southern Arizona, which is responsible in the decision-making for all the actions made by the WFSA. Also, I am a role model for my younger siblings, two sisters, 9 and 12, and a brother, 13.

I've learned that generosity is a virtue and a key to building a better morality system both for ourselves and for the world.