Robstown ISD superintendent among 8 Y Women in Career honorees

Maria Vidaurri is challenging young women in her community of Robstown and the Coastal Bend at large. 

Vidaurri, superintendent of schools of Robstown Independent School District, made it her mission to help keep young girls motivated and focused on achieving their goals by working hard every day.

Vidaurri credits her mother, who was a school teacher and a coach, for her professional success, and hopes to be a role model to young girls in the Coastal Bend, like the role model her mom was for her, she said. 

She and seven other women Thursday were named as honorees for the 38th Annual Y Women In Careers Awards. They will also be celebrated at an awards banquet in March, said Nancy Wesson-Dodd, president and CEO of the YWCA Corpus Christi. 

This year's honorees bring to 276 the number of women honored by YWCA Corpus Christi since 1979 for their success in their career field.

"These women are being honored for being a role model for young girls and being leaders in the Coastal Bend," Costley said to the crowd of friends and family, who lined the walls of the entryway of the YWCA to celebrate the women. 

Past honorees also joined the celebration to cheer on the newly honored women. Costley said the past honorees present helped pave the way for the eight who were being honored, as well as young girls in the Coastal Bend. 

"I want to help mold the next generation and be their role model," Vidaurri said. "It's our responsibility to do just that. 

"I set and reached those goals and pushed myself," she said. "Now I'm setting those goals and setting that challenge for those after me and for them to do better."

Y Women in Careers Awards Honorees for 2018

Karen Olsen Bonner, vice president of philanthropy at Christus Spohn Health System Foundation

Nina Drath, concert pianist and president of Fryderyk Chopin Society of Texas, Inc.

Deborah Fullerton, curator of exhibitions at the Art Museum of South Texas

Blanch Fernandez, president and CEO of Angel Bright Home Health, Inc.

Michelle Flower, senior manager of human resources of Valero Bill Greehey Refineries

Mary V. Gleason, executive director of Corpus Christi Library Council

Sherdeana Owens, assistant professor and health science coordinator of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

Maria M. Vidaurri, Robstown Independent School District superintendent of schools