FULLERTON, Calif.—U.S. Representative Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) hosted his Sixth Annual Women Conference at the University of California Fullerton campus on March 15.
The half-day conference included several seminars to enrich women’s understanding of important life skills and understanding the various perils that are negatively affecting our families and communities.
The United States UNICEF Ambassador Angie Harman was the keynote speaker.
“Ms. Harman is not only an accomplished model and actress, but is providing important awareness to fight human trafficking,” said Royce in a prepared announcement. Harman has been traveling the world to see the effects of human trafficking in order to bring this heinous crime into to a halt. She provided disturbing trends that include children as young as 10 years old even here in the USA.
Many of the attendees were caught off-guard by this fact. Education of young people is important to help prevent sexual enslavement of our young women and children.
“I had no idea that this is going on. I don’t know what to say about this. I need to talk to other mothers in my neighborhood to make sure we can prevent this from happening to our young people,” said one mother while leaving the session.
Purple Veggies Anyone?
Chinese medicine has colors for various organs and those plants that produce fruit and leaves of various matching colors have been used for improving health and fitness for thousands of years.
Jamie Gwen, a celebrity chef, discussed new food trends that have been proven scientifically to provide better health trends and lifestyles. She addressed one food type by color: purple veggies are excellent for digestion and she cited scientific studies to confirm their value to the kidneys, heart, and liver.
A Woman’s Journey to Financial Freedom
Another session, presented by Leticia Mata of Orange County Credit Union, covered the realities of being a woman in our current society. What is different? Women have unique financial challenges. These included Earning 20 percent less than men, living longer, and that 9 out of 10 women will be solely responsible for their finances at some point in their lives.
Discussed were budgeting, savings, retirement plans, how to buy a home, and credit reports, among other things.
“I learned what brings my credit score up or what causes it to go down …when to use advisers and how to determine if their fees are fair,” said Melissa Harvey, a social work major, about the session.
She also had a new insight for budget control: “Do I REALLY NEED this?”
Cyber Safety
A session on cyber safety for the family was presented by Katherine Wang of Google’s strategy on Child Illiteracy, Eva Velasquez, of the Identity Theft Resource Center, and Family Online Safety Institute.
One major point of the session was that the recent Target stores customer identity theft incident should be a wake-up call for our entire society.
According to the Identity Theft Resource, “As consumers, you have little ability to stop or prevent identity theft. However, there are some positive steps to take which will decrease your risk.”
