She Built Her Path from Scratch. You Helped Her Get There.
Meet Sonia Arteaga, the inaugural Spark Award recipient at Women Who Inspire 2026
There was a moment, somewhere between motherhood and midterms and making ends meet, when Sonia asked herself a question a lot of women ask and never answer:
What if I bet on myself?
Sonia Arteaga had been working since she left high school, helping her mom pay the bills while other people her age went off to college. It wasn't that she didn't want more. She just didn't have the runway. So she worked, and she waited, and she wondered.
At 30, she stopped wondering and enrolled at San Jose State.
It wasn't easy. She was a transfer student, a mother, and someone trying to build a professional future while still figuring out what that future looked like. She knew she needed more than a degree. She needed the kind of tools and connections that don't come with a syllabus.
That's when a friend from college mentioned Dress for Success.
What She Found Here
"I was looking for a way to level up my resume and network to set myself up for the future," Sonia says.
Through Dress for Success San Jose, Sonia completed a Google Career Certificate in her field. She worked with a career coach who gave her something harder to teach than skills — confidence. And she was selected for Project Premium, a program that provides a year of free LinkedIn Premium, which opened up a professional network she had been working toward for years.
None of this happened by accident. It happened because donors like you chose to invest in programs that meet women where they are and give them what they actually need.
What Happened Next
Sonia graduated from SJSU in May.
Two weeks later, she launched her own marketing business.
One month after that, she signed her first client: a $50 million company.
"This is not a coincidence," Sonia says. "These are the resources that were available to me, and I was able to leverage them to build confidence for my own path. Through this organization I was able to work on skills necessary for my future and develop the belief that I was capable of doing whatever I set my mind to."
The First Spark
Sonia is the first recipient of the Spark Award — and the reason this recognition exists at Women Who Inspire.
We chose this name deliberately. A spark is what happens when one source of energy meets another. Sonia brought drive and determination. You brought the resources that gave her somewhere to direct it.
That is what Women Who Inspire is built on. Not a single person's success, but the connection between the women we serve and the people who show up for them.
Sonia will share her story in person at Women Who Inspire on October 22 at the San Jose Woman's Club. Join us — and see firsthand what your support makes possible.
Dress for Success San Francisco and San Jose is a leading resource for advancing women in the workplace. Our purpose is to empower women to achieve economic mobility by providing a network of support, workplace attire, and development tools for success.