- Good afternoon. Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service. I'm Steve Wicks,
- and I'm honored to serve as your president this year. Please silence your electronic devices. Did anyone
- have a hard time getting a parking space today? I would like to take credit for that, but I did not
- send all the students home for Thanksgiving. On this day in history, November 20th, excuse me,
- November 25th, 1920,
- The first Thanksgiving Day parade took place in Philadelphia. And now Martha Wales will share today's
- reflection. Well, there is a new test for citizenship. And it just came out in October.
- some background for those of you who are not particularly familiar with how things work. Most visitors
- to the US come as tourists, or they may come as students, or they may come as workers in various kinds,
- but they are non-immigrants. And then there are immigrants who are also known as people with green cards
- or permanent residents, and then
- Some people go on and become US citizens. Some people just remain as permanent residents. And I would
- like to start with a story about Moya Andrews. You remember her for Focus on Flowers, and we had some
- memories of her, gosh, earlier this year. So here's my story. I was riding my bike to work one day.
- And she called me over, she was walking a dog with some friends. And she said, I just had my citizenship
- test and I want to tell you about it. She had had three questions that she, well, she'd had more questions
- asked as part of the test. Um, but she told me three and I only remember two. The first one was how many?
- original colonies were there in the United States. And she said, 14. And he said, no, fewer.
- And she said, 12. And then she got 13. The other question that I remember was, what were the last two
- states to be taken into the US? And she said, Alaska.
- and Puerto Rico. And he said, no, but it is an island entirely surrounded by water. And so she nailed
- it on Hawaii. He did pass her, which I'm not sure what happened now, except that she had been a permanent
- resident forever.
- At the end though, he looked at her and he shook his head sadly. And he said, and you teach at Indiana
- university. So anyway, that was, that was the story. Now to the test, the Washington post had a nice
- piece on this, which is where this mostly comes from.
- The applicants are asked 20 questions that are chosen at random from 128 questions that are given out
- with answers to prepare from. That's a study guide. That's larger pool than the previous test was. And
- some of them, there's supposedly a greater focus on American history and some revised questions require
- longer answers than before.
- They published 10 questions based on the study material, two from the old test, and eight from the new
- one. Applicants must now speak their answers. The other one was multiple choice, and you studied multiple
- choice. You still probably had to speak it. But now all you do is you're asked a question.
- and you have to answer it. So it's harder, and particularly if your native language is not English.
- So I will read the questions, the 10 questions that the post published. I'm not going to wait for answers,
- but I think you might be interested in whether you would need to study for this test.
- Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? Actually, I should do what Steve does. Raise your hand if
- you know. All right. And second, name a power that is only for the federal government. Third, what amendment
- says all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are U.S. citizens?
- That one we've had a lot of newspaper reporting on and other kinds of reporting recently. Four, the
- American Revolution had many important events. Name one. Five, why were the Federalist Papers important?
- Six, James Madison is famous for many things.
- Name one. Seven, when did women get the right to vote? Eight, why did the United States, and that was
- not all women, by the way. Anyway, eight, why did the United States enter the Persian Gulf War?
- Nine, name one example of American innovation. 10, what is Memorial Day? And you know, right, people
- send comments. They have an AI summary of the comments that were sent. The comments express significant
- criticism of the new US citizenship test.
- particularly its focus on historical trivia rather than civic understanding. Many commentators argue
- that the test includes questions that are irrelevant to assessing a person's ability to be a good citizen,
- such as specific dates or historical figures, rather than focusing on the structure and functioning
- of the US government. There is also skepticism about whether prominent figures
- including President Trump, would pass the test, with some suggesting that the test should be required
- for all elected officials. Overall, the sentiment is that the test should emphasize understanding of
- concepts over rote memorization of historical facts.
- I think this would be kind of a fun thing to do at your own Thanksgiving dinner. You can find this quiz
- and the answers recommended on the web. And I think if you have people on both sides of our current
- divide, it's something that is more or less subjective and I think might be kind of fun.
- Thank you, Martha. Lynn Schwartzberg will introduce our guests today. Well, welcome, Rotarians. We have
- a wonderful list of guests today. When we call your name or I call your name, I'm not a we. Please stand
- so we can recognize you. First, we have Annabel Watson, a guest of Judy Witt.
- We have Linda Stroman, the daughter of our dear Ellen Stroman. Dwight Thompson, who is trying to channel
- Jim Bright and also is a guest of Jim Bright. Kevin Gerhardt, the father of Megan Gerhardt. Jess Smith.
- who is also a guest of Jim Bright. Welcome, Jess. I believe Jim Bright has solidified his first place
- in bringing guests to Red Rings. And Rachel Hems? Hems? Yeah. And that is a guest of Megan Gerhardt.
- Do we have any guests online? We do. We have Melanie Gerhardt, Megan's mother. Oh, wonderful.
- as well as online. If you have any questions about Rotary or if you have more interest in learning about
- our club or perhaps joining our club, please speak to someone at your table. Thank you. Thank you, Lynn.
- I'd like to take a moment to say a bit more about a couple of our guests. Jess, can you stand up? So
- our club has endorsed Jess Smith in her quest to become the next All-Indiana Global Scholar.
- Originally from Rochester, Indiana, Jess is the first member of her family to graduate from college.
- She is currently a master's of public affairs student at Indiana University's O'Neill School of Public
- and Environmental Affairs. Jess hopes to attend Seoul National University in South Korea, where she
- would study and develop policies that strengthen women's leadership, workforce equity, and community
- well-being. Jess, good luck.
- And then Dwight, if I get you to stand. So we also have with us Dwight Thompson, who is the president
- of the Brown County Rotary Club. And he is our All Indiana Global Grants Scholarship Committee Chair.
- And Dwight was recently recognized by District 6580 for becoming a Rotary major donor. So through regular
- giving to the Rotary Annual Fund over the course of many years, Dwight has given a total of $10,000
- to the Rotary Foundation.
- So Dwight, congratulations and thank you for your generosity and your continued service for Rotary.
- Rotary birthdays, 26, past club president Ron Barnes. 27th, our current community services committee
- co-chair, Michelle Cohen. And on the 30th, our scholarship committee chair, Jeff Richardson.
- Anniversaries, we have a number. On the 29th, two. Tim Riffle, three years. And our programs chair,
- Michael Shermis, 14 years. And then a bunch on the first. Kay Leach, 37 years. Scott Walters, 37 years.
- Tina Peterson and Marcus Whitted from the Community Foundation, six years. And Jimmy Torrey from the
- NAACP, six years. Announcements. We still need a roundabout reporter for the month of December.
- See Marilyn Wood if you're interested. We still need three more club members to ring Salvation Army
- bells at Kroger East and Kroger South this Saturday. As of this morning, we need one volunteer at Kroger
- East from noon to 2. We need a volunteer at Kroger South from noon to 2, and a volunteer at Kroger South
- from 2 to 4. We also need a few more volunteers to serve on 12-6, 12-13.
- Jonas Chang is away this week on vacation. Dave Myers is sick. So you want to see me after the meeting.
- If you can serve, let me know or send one of those two individuals an email. Please sign up for the
- club holiday party on December 11th at the Bloomington Country Club. Cash bar opens at 6 p.m. followed
- by dinner at 6.30. Tickets are $60 each. $10 of the ticket price supports club operations.
- You can pay for your tickets outright or you can be billed by the club for the tickets. If you want
- to go, either see me in person or send me an email. My email address is in roundabout. DEI committee
- plans to meet after the club meeting on December 9th. Meeting is open to DEI committee members as well
- as club members who would like to serve on the DEI committee. We plan to have a Zoom option for those
- who can't attend in person and contact DEI Chair Patrick Smith if you have questions.
- Remember, Giving Tuesday is December 2nd. Rotary club organizational member Wheeler Mission has scheduled
- a 5K run walk, dash for shelter, Carson Farm Park on Saturday, December 6th. Please see me if you'd
- like additional information. The sign up link will be in the Rotary Roundabout. And then Sarah Loughlin,
- do you have a very brief follow up from last week's presentation?
- I guess I'll start out with just a huge thank you. We passed out last week the details about your current
- sign-ups for various Bloomington Rotary Foundation projects and Rotary International projects. And as
- a result of that, we have eight new AD20 participants, which is huge. In addition to that, we have four
- new Every Rotarian, Every Year participants.
- A round of applause. One memorial get two hundred and thirty six dollars in the hat for Charlotte and
- five hundred dollars in pledges in the forums and one hundred and fifty three dollars in the hat for
- our eye and two prospects.
- who asked us to call them about participating in the endowment. So thank you all very much. If you weren't
- here last week, you'll you probably got an email from us with the same kind of form and follow up. And
- and we'd love to hear from you. It's it's really a big part of our club to make a small contribution
- every every quarter to move our marbles forward. So thank you. I'm so proud of our club.
- Thanks, Sarah. And for those of you who weren't here last week, we passed the hat for Charlotte Zetlo,
- our recently deceased member. There's still an opportunity if you want to make a cash donation on your
- way out to donate either to Rotary International or the Bloomington Rotary Foundation. And now let's
- move to our weekly celebration of service. OK, a big week for us this past week. It was the first phase
- of our district grant
- project. Meals on Wheels was our district grant recipient, and we helped them replace some really old
- styrofoam coolers with some insulated meal bags. And here are a couple of pictures. On the left, you
- can see Donna Melinda Cedar, Mike Baker, Tracy Yovanovich, and Tina Swanson. And you can see the new bags.
- And then on the right, a picture of Sarah Laughlin and some Meals on Wheels volunteers. And I want to
- thank a couple of people in particular, Diana Hoffman and Sarah Laughlin. Diana Hoffman is the club
- member who pitched the Wheels on Wheels project in the spring. And she was able to convince the Community
- Services Committee that it should be the recipient for the district grant.
- And then she has followed up since then and just done a lot of legwork making it happen. So a lot of
- work on Diana's part. Sarah Laughlin is our club district grant coordinator. There is a lot of paperwork
- that goes on behind the scenes involving the district grant. So anyway, I want to thank the two of them.
- And then on the right, the club members who participated, Mike Baker, Michelle Cohen, Peggy Frisbee,
- Tracy Ivanovich, Art Omick,
- Donna Melinda Cedar, Tina Swanson, Sam Udek, Haoshi Wang. I participated, and then Marilyn Wood. So
- thank you all. The next phase of this project will be in January. I think it will involve stocking freezers.
- A reminder, November is Rotary Foundation Month. And the quote from Paul Harris, whatever it will mean
- to the world will be known by the results that we achieve.
- Happy dollar proceeds in November and December will go to the Rotary Foundation. Remember, giving Tuesday,
- December 2nd. And then I'll linger here a little bit. So here on the left is a picture of Paul Harris.
- And on the right, Paul Harris and the three other first Rotarians.
- Do me a favor when you look at these. This was taken over 100 years ago. Would you describe these four
- individuals as cool or hip or with it based on today's standards? Put up your hand if you think these
- are really cool guys. All right. We have one. Well, I think you're wrong, and we'll see why on this video.
- A lawyer, shy guy in shy town, no hot clout Start a club with four guys, no cash, just high doubt By
- trust and friendship, fellowship and truth Turn a local lunch into a forest for the good The name's
- Rotary, just a seed with a mission 1905, growing faster than tradition Four-way test, yeah, we aim with
- precision From room 711 to a world-changing vision Without a script, without a plan, they met and shook
- each other's hands A serve above ourselves, they said, and I see the banner that they spread There's
- a million strong who heed the call, fighting polio
- We stand tall from wells in Ghana to peace in Nepal. Rotary's revolution has touched us all. We the
- change makers, peacemakers, globetrotters. Clean water bringers, child health supporters. We mentor
- the youth, build bridges, knock borders. Scholarship givers and frontline reporters. Eradicating polio,
- we take the shot. Partner with Gates, yeah, we give it all we got. In war zones, flood zones, drought
- and despair, Rotarians show up!
- We lift up girls, bring literacy to the streets. Empower every voice where oppression repeats. Diversity,
- equity, inclusion, we own it. We're changing the world, don't need to postpone it. From rotary youth
- exchange to the peace fellows. Our vision rings out like a string of bolt hellos. Not just meetings
- and meals, we bring solutions. This isn't a club, it's a quiet revolution. Yeah, we built it from local
- to global scale. With a will that turns and never fails. Districts rise, zones unite. We shine the light
- in darkest nights. Service projects, grants arise, changing lives.
- your eyes and when the storm
- We'll introduce our speaker today. That was fun. Okay. I'm going to start off today by thanking you
- all for your generous support of the Rotary Foundation, which among other things helps to fund the All
- Indiana Rotary Global Grant Scholarships. Through your support,
- you make it possible for outstanding young adults, like today's speaker, to pursue graduate level degrees
- at overseas universities and to change lives. This slide shows the seven Indiana scholars we funded
- through our foundation giving. At upper left is 2018-19 scholar Aubrey Sater, also my coworker, and
- daughter of the fellow Rotarians Don and Melinda Sater. And at lower middle right is today's speaker,
- Megan Gerhart.
- Our global scholars have studied at universities in London, Tokyo, Berlin, Spain, and the Czech Republic,
- and in other countries, and they're working in places far and near to make this a better world. Previously,
- these scholarships were funded largely through our districts, the DDF, or the district designated funds.
- In 2024, we decided to take the program statewide.
- and partner with the districts in Central and Northern Indiana. In exchange for their financial
- participation, we opened up the application process to students from Purdue, Ball State, Butler, Valparaiso,
- Notre Dame, and other Central and Northern Indiana universities and communities. Today, each of the
- three Indiana districts contribute $8,000 from the DDF with $16,000 from the Foundation's World Fund.
- Now through mid-December,
- Indiana Rotary Clubs are accepting applications from students who have graduated or will graduate in
- May 2026 from a four-year Indiana college or who maintain a legal residence in Indiana. The $40,000
- scholarship will enable a scholar to study one to four years in a graduate program at any qualified
- university outside the U.S.
- The program is open to exceptional scholars dedicated to pursuing a career in an area of great humanitarian
- need and who demonstrate a long-term commitment to measurable, sustainable change. And now it's my pleasure
- to introduce a wonderful goodwill ambassador to Rotary, the state of Indiana and the USA,
- Rotary Global Scholar, Megan Gerhardt. After graduating from IU Bloomington with degrees in international
- studies and in tourism, hospitality, event management, and a certificate in informatics, Megan was selected
- to be our district's global grant scholar for 2023-24. Megan participated in an intense two-year Erasmus
- Mundus joint master's degree program in global development policy that took her to the Czech Republic,
- France, and Italy. And Megan graduated at the end of June
- Rasmus Mundus Masters are prestigious international master's degrees designed and delivered by a group
- of higher education institutions in the UK and in Europe.
- They involve at least three institutions from at least three different countries and multiple associated
- partners from the academic and non-academic world. Megan is the only Indiana scholar accepted into this
- prestigious program. Originally from Roanoke near Fort Wayne, Indiana, Megan is a former Rotary Youth
- Exchange ambassador to Kaohsiung, Taiwan District 3510. And in 2019, Megan co-founded the current IU
- Bloomington Rotaract Club, serving as president
- president and in other leadership positions, and she completed a certificate as the new generation positive
- peace builder through a Rotary Zone Grant in 2021. While pursuing her master's degree, Megan attended
- Rotary meetings across five countries, participated in Road Rack UN Day, gave a keynote at the Rotary
- Youth Exchange Pre-Convention in Calgary on engaging the next generation, and co-hosted a discussion
- on peace building in Rye. Eventually, Megan wants to work in an organization
- where she can help communities, governments, and organizations create sustainable growth plans and policies
- that balance economic consideration with the environment. And for those who have been here longer than
- a couple of years, we all know how much we really enjoy and appreciate seeing Megan in the live,
- in the flesh. So please join me in welcoming outstanding Rotary Global Grant Scholar, Megan Gerhart.
- Hi, everyone. It is really nice to be back in Bloomington, Indiana. It's a little bit different here.
- I don't know if any of you have actually thought about how much it's changed, but in the two years I've
- been gone, it's very different than it was. So we're going to start. Ha ha, there's my face. You all
- have to see it.
- To start, I'm actually gonna give you guys a little bit of a recap. I know a lot was said in
- that introduction, but I love any opportunity to show you guys pictures from all of my Rotary journeys.
- So these are all photos from my youth exchange in Taiwan. To give you a note, it has been 10 years since
- I started my involvement with Rotary Youth Exchange. It was 2015 in the fall. I was an outbound in 2016,
- and that is a three-year process. So I have officially been involved in Rotary for a decade.
- And I'm 25. Now, during my time here at IU, I not only participated in Rotaract getting that off the
- ground, but I also had opportunities to help out with RYLA. It was a lot of fun. Even with the fun of
- COVID interfering with our fun times at Bradford Woods, I had a wonderful opportunity to get to know
- many Rotarians, but also a lot of young leaders in the area. And during my master's degree,
- I didn't just study in the classroom. I also did a ton of Rotary activities, both in and outside of
- my academic realm. So I attended a Rotary camp, but it's for Rotaract age students. And that one was
- actually in Taiwan and it was a photography camp. I used it a little bit as an excuse to go back for
- the first time since my exchange, but it was also a wonderful opportunity to meet Rotaractors from around
- the world.
- I got to attend meetings in the Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Philippines, Geneva, so UN headquarters.
- I got to meet the Geneva International Club that is actually does their meetings from the UN. I can't
- imagine the headache of going through security every single time they wanted to go into their meeting.
- But all of these things impacted my experience. And I have a couple of things that I want to share with you.
- One of which, I don't know how many of you know who that is in the center, but the center is Rotary
- International president from Italy this year. About two weeks before the convention, he found out he
- was going to be our president. And I met him in the airport in Frankfurt. I had spent the night at the
- Prague airport. I was in my sweatshirt and my sweatpants. I probably stank to high heaven and back.
- And I met Hassan.
- He is a sergeant at arms. He's been a sergeant at arms for Rotary International Conferences for the
- last four years. And he was so nice. He's like, you look lonely. I see your rotary logo. I'm going to
- talk to you. And in the middle of a conversation, he stops absolutely everything. And he goes, we need
- to go say hi to somebody. And he turns me around and he goes, hello, Mr. President. And I go, oh, I'm
- not ready for this. I'm not dressed for this.
- And everyone was very nice, but it reminded me that airports, just because you're traveling and you're
- in your comfy clothes, doesn't mean you don't have to be ready to represent Rotary at every step and
- turn. And it was just one of several opportunities that I had to be very uncomfortable.
- So my degree program is a little bit interesting. It's a little bit different than most people's because
- I did a joint degree, which means it was issued by three different universities. And rather than try
- and explain them all to you, I figured I'd put them up here on the screen so you can kind of see what
- I did because it's a little bit hard to describe. So I went to school for the first semester at Polotsky
- University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. It's in southeast Czech Republic, about three hours north of
- Vienna and about two and a half hours southeast of Prague.
- During that time, I studied with very interesting professors from both all over the Czech Republic and
- several very interesting PhD students from places like Morocco. In France, we joined a cohort of existing
- students from everywhere, Ghana, Chad, Burkina Faso, Haiti. We had classmates who were from France,
- though very few.
- We had classmates from all across the francophone speaking world. And although our classes were in English,
- it was a lesson in how much French is different based on where you learn how to speak it. And to be
- fair, I want to start because this is an important concept. And I know it's a little bit, some of you
- might have heard this term, but the Institute for Economics and Peace has actually separated out the
- concepts of positive and negative peace. And Rotary International,
- partnered with the Institute for Economics and Peace and actually has a training course on the Rotary
- Rotary website. So if you guys are interested in learning more about positive peace and the way that
- that has impacted, I know you have a massive champion in Aaron Davis in this club. But positive peace
- is the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies. It allows
- us to be resilient in the face of challenges and issues and conflicts within a community.
- And this is important to my degree program because I was one of 22 students and I was the only American.
- My classmates came from a variety of places. From Germany and Italy and Spain and the Netherlands to
- Egypt, Malawi, Botswana, Rwanda and South Africa. I had classmates from Nepal and Cambodia, Bangladesh,
- India, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil and Afghanistan.
- Being an American in the room with all of these people from all of these countries is an exercise in
- being uncomfortable. Whether it was in a classroom where we had to sit and listen to lectures, ask questions,
- and my classmates tell their firsthand experiences of all of the things that have happened to them,
- the histories of how their governments came to be, the personal experiences of their families having
- to flee one region or another for various purposes.
- It's really hard to be the person in the room where they'll say, yeah, so this US exercise caused this
- thing and everyone goes, oh, she'll have an opinion. And so the first thing I want to share with you
- is that being uncomfortable is important. I had a professor from Kazakhstan, he flew in from almighty
- to teach us for a week about poverty and the impacts of poverty and the environment in Central Asia
- and why we as a group of people
- who were not from Central Asia should care. We had professors from Columbia come in and talk about peace
- and conflict and the role of the government in bringing societies together after a challenge, after
- guerrilla warfare and all sorts of things that have caused civil conflict. But also that the government
- can have a very negative role when the government doesn't think about things like identity or the fact
- that they contributed to these conflicts to begin with.
- And I sit in the room as the only American, a little midwesterner, trying to navigate these
- very uncomfortable conversations. And I learned more in that discomfort than I did sitting in a room
- where everything made sense. I learned that sometimes I didn't need to have a response, that sometimes
- just shutting up and acknowledging that I was uncomfortable, but acknowledging that it was important
- to talk about was okay.
- My classmates never blamed me. It was never, you are who your country is. You are not the actions of
- your country and your history. But when you are the only representation that they have ever met, what
- you do and how you respond to these uncomfortable discussions is important. And this is important for
- Rotarians. And you as Rotarians at Indiana University have the opportunity to meet people from all over
- the world.
- Indiana University sends students on exchanges, more than 70% of students go. You guys have faculty
- from every corner of the globe here at this university, which means that your community is made up of
- people from all over the world. And some of the people in your community may not have had good experiences
- with the government of our country.
- They may not have had good experiences navigating visas, which let me tell you is a headache even on
- the best of days. I had to get a visa for every place that I went to. Whether I wanted to just pretend
- like I was a normal person or not, my German classmates had it much easier because they didn't need
- a visa for France or Czech Republic or Italy. However, my experience was still much better than that
- of my Afghani classmates. My Afghani classmate
- was the last person to receive their visa to Italy. And when I say the last, I mean, he applied in March
- and he did not get his visa until June after our cohort sent an email saying, we know that the Italian
- government would never do something xenophobic or racist, but we are wondering if you could help explain
- to us why our classmate, the only person in the program who hasn't gotten their visa yet is still waiting.
- It took two days after that email was sent. Now, whatever the reason it was, whether it was intentional
- or unintentional, whether it was political or not, we were able to impact change. And it started not
- because we got angry, although I think several people were, but because we were willing to engage in
- dialogue. And dialogue doesn't just happen inside the classroom. Dialogue happens
- in grape vineyards and at the UN. It happens in fields and on hikes up mountains with volcanologists
- who, let me tell you, are not Star Trek fans. They study volcanoes. And we had one, I know. It was a
- little disappointing to find out he wasn't just a Trekkie. But our volcanologist professor,
- his name was Ben, and he was actually from the UK. And you would think, why is he in France?
- but I don't know if you know, there are dead volcanoes in the center of France. And he studies the impact
- of these dead volcanoes on the climate and the ability to grow produce and agriculture in central France.
- So he took us out into the vineyards and he showed us vines that had been planted 30 years ago and 20
- years ago and two years ago. And he had us try them.
- And then he talked about how climate changes, whether man-made or not, were impacting that region's
- ability to produce grapevines. It's very interesting when your firsthand experience is literally eating
- the grapes off the vine and seeing how different they taste. It's the same breed. It's the same species.
- And the only difference is how long it's been alive and the climate and the soil of the area.
- We got to go to the UN and I got to see how long it took my Pakistani classmates and my classmates from
- Chad to go through security at the UN in comparison to me. They were all very nice, but I didn't get
- a full pack down. They did. And if you're willing to engage in conversation, not a debate, it's not
- me versus you. It's not, I'm right, you're wrong. And not a discussion, which is theoretical, right?
- Discussions are how you create ideas and concepts, but dialogue is connecting me to you. Dialogue is
- an opportunity to find a way to understand others, whether or not we agree. So I would have dialogue
- with my classmates, and sometimes that's hard. My classmate from South Africa genuinely would
- have conversations where she would go, but what if democracy isn't the answer? And there's a very easy
- way to get defensive in a room.
- when someone tells you democracy isn't the answer. But if you take a step back and you're willing to
- listen, you may not agree, you may not like what they're saying, but if you're willing to understand
- their experiences and listen to their points of view, you might realize that they make a good point,
- that their history, the things that have made them into the person that they are have also given them
- the opinions that they have. And that's a foundation
- with which we can work. Rotarians come from all sorts of different backgrounds, from all sorts of different
- countries, from all sorts of different religions. We look at the world in different ways. We have different
- experiences, perspectives. We come from different social classes and hierarchies. We come from different
- professions. And all of these things impact who we are, what we believe, and how we interact with the
- world. And it also impacts who we see.
- My classmates are all very different people. Whether we're standing in a kebab shop in the Czech Republic
- because it is the only place in our town where my Muslim classmates can get meat. Whether it's in our
- dorm kitchens, these dinky little Soviet era places that our rooms are literally called cells.
- They're like, you're gonna be in cell A, room B, and you're like, why am I gonna be in a cell?
- To even sitting in the classroom watching somebody make coffee in their little like French press with
- their little thermos of water because no coffee is good enough for them unless it's from their home
- country. The people are the connection point and Rotary has the people. We just have to build
- the connections. And then there's food.
- And I know everyone loves a good food, right? We're getting ready for Thanksgiving, the best holiday
- of the year for food at least. Food is the ultimate equalizer. Food is a great way to connect with others.
- For example, I spent winter, Christmas specifically of 2023 in Finland with one of my friends from my
- exchange and I got to the door
- They picked me up from the train station. We got to the front door and they're like, oh, by the way,
- they only found out a week ago you were a girl. I was like, what? Why would you do this to me?
- They're like, well, I introduce all of my friends by the country they're from because we have friends
- from France and Brazil. We have friends from Taiwan and the US. So you were just my American friend.
- It's like next time you should probably give them a little bit more notice, just a bit.
- But while there, they taught me how to make Karelian pies, which is actually a Finnish Russian dish
- that's from the about as far east as you can go in Finland. And that's right here. There are these weird
- looking ovals and it is a rye flatbread crepe that is filled with rice porridge and baked. And then
- it is topped with egg butter. And you look at me and go, egg butter? Hard boiled eggs that are mashed
- with almost an equal parts butter
- so that it melts over the top of the fresh made pies. Sounds a little strange to us, but it's delicious.
- I got to go to a Nepalese restaurant with my classmate from Nepal who did all of the ordering. He taught
- me how to eat. And I say taught me how to eat because I mastered chopsticks while I was an exchange
- student. I never did have to learn how to eat with my hands. And he goes, I want everyone to try it once.
- So I start to go and he goes, no, no, no, not your left hand, but I'm left-handed. No, no, no, your
- left hand is dirty. Use your right. Like I'm not coordinated with my right hand. I'm going to end up
- with food all over me. Or my Afghani classmate who went home for the summer to Kabul and almost couldn't
- make it back. But when he came to Italy, he brought us a box of homemade treats that his mom and his
- sisters had made at one of the local bakeries.
- I got to try arepas and pupusas in different styles. I saw that back there, Whitney. My classmate from
- Venezuela made several and we learned about the differences between pupusas from El Salvador versus
- arepas from Columbia and Venezuela and how they're made and the differences in styles. I even made Christmas
- dinner in Italy for my Iranian roommate.
- Christmas dinner with an Iranian is a very interesting tradition because she had no concept of what
- to expect. So I got to do whatever I wanted. I tried to make it a little traditional, a little unique,
- and also based off of what I could access. So I made gochujang roasted chicken. I made garlic green
- beans and risotto because we're in Northern Italy, of course, you have to.
- I made Hasselback sweet potatoes and Parmesan crusted Brussels sprouts. And then I was so tired of cooking
- that I just said, screw it and made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. But it's not just the foods that
- you eat because the foods that you eat are important. They tell stories. They tell histories. My classmate
- from South Africa made us buddy chow, which is
- wild to hear the name of, but Bunny Chow was actually brought to South Africa mixing South Asian traditions,
- curries, and foods with what was available in South Africa as people who were between classes during
- apartheid. So as we eat this food, which is basically curry stuffed inside of a bread roll,
- We're talking about these things like colonial legacies. We're talking about racism. We're talking about
- religion and government. We're talking about migration and mobility. We used food as a tool to connect
- with others, to talk about difficult conversations that make many people uncomfortable. And it didn't
- mean that people weren't uncomfortable, but it meant that we were still having the discussion and we
- were eating good food while doing it. And so you can't really yell at anyone with a mouthful of something
- delicious.
- And we did it in groups and one-on-one, chai with my South Asian classmates. They brought two or three
- pound bags home with them whenever they went home, and it lasted them two months. And during those two
- months, they would invite everybody, 4 PM. I was like, I can't drink that much caffeine. And they were
- like, you will drink this much caffeine. It's like, OK, great, cool. I'll drink that much caffeine.
- But we would talk about things like religion and governance. We'd talk about militaries and corruption.
- I learned that classrooms, while wonderful for learning theories and concepts, can sometimes limit what
- people are comfortable saying. Because what can't you say over a good meal? Isn't that why holidays
- in the US are known to be so contentious? I feel like it may be, because people are more open when they're
- talking through food.
- whether it's about the food or the ways we get the food. Food is truly the ultimate equalizer. So if
- you take nothing else away from anything that I've told you, I hope you know that as Rotarians, the
- things that I have learned on this wonderful journey, this wonderful masters that you have helped me
- achieve, the three things that I hope that you actually are able to use, whether here in your own communities
- or traveling,
- is that being uncomfortable is okay. Discomfort is a teacher and you don't have to like the things you
- learn, but you should appreciate them. And that dialogue is important because in order to be peaceful,
- in order to achieve resilient societies, we have to be able to communicate. And debating people doesn't
- make communication possible. Communication requires connection. So have a dialogue.
- You don't have to talk about something you don't agree on somebody with and you already know. But if
- you're willing to be open and understanding, if you're willing to learn why they think what they think,
- and you're willing to acknowledge that sometimes you're not going to agree, you'll discover you might
- agree on more than you think. And the last is that if you're not ready for those difficult conversations,
- use food, because it truly is the ultimate equalizer. Now, that's all I really had for you today.
- but I would love to answer any questions about anything from my scholarship to my time in Rotary to
- my degree or what I learned. But I hope that this was an interesting and entertaining presentation for
- all of you to learn about why I think this program is so important and how what I learned is applicable
- to you as Rotarian. Thank you.
- I enjoyed your talk, and I had a question. When you were taking classes, for instance, in the Czech
- Republic, in what language were those classes taught? Thank goodness they were in English. Czech is
- about the hardest language I've ever had to learn, and I've studied both Mandarin and Portuguese, so
- about as different as it gets. Czech is a very challenging language. I have been trying to pick it up.
- I picked up more Italian and French than I did Czech. But yes, all of my classes were taught in English, and then
- outside the classroom, we spoke in a very interesting hodgepodge of languages. Oftentimes, it was whatever
- people taught others. We did a little bit better than my exchange. I think on my exchange, I almost
- exclusively learned curse words. They love making you say something embarrassing to adults. So like,
- I think we outgrew that a little bit, so I at least learned something that was outside of that, but
- we definitely did most of our communication in English, and I recognized that I had a privilege with
- that because it is my first language. So when I was searching for words, when I was trying to figure
- out how to express my opinions, I recognized that I had a benefit that my classmates did not.
- Thank you, Megan. Welcome back. I remember the last time I saw you, you had just received the scholarship
- and I can see how transformative that experience was for you. So I'm very happy to hear that. I'm curious
- about what are your next steps professionally? So you told us about how these experiences shape you
- personally, but I'm wondering with the skillset that you acquire and those lead experiences with people
- from different backgrounds,
- How do you think that's going to change how you see yourself professionally from here on? I will admit
- it has made my professional journey much more difficult because I am much more discerning than I think
- I would have been previously on the types of companies that I'm willing to apply to and the types of
- organizations I want to work with.
- I appreciate everything that international organizations can do, and I see the benefit. But I have also
- seen the downsides. I've seen the negatives. I've heard my classmates talk about how Egypt, which is
- a country that has a relatively robust economy, is one of the most in-debt countries in the world because
- of the IMF.
- And when you learn about these things as part of your class, you obviously take it home into your personal
- beliefs and your views. And so I have been actually job hunting, and I recognize that it's a wild job
- market right now, if any of you have seen globally, not just in the US. But I am also very, very much
- looking into the backgrounds of the companies that I'm applying to, which has made my job hunt.
- probably say a little bit more challenging. I do see myself hopefully working on policy and research.
- I would like to be more behind the scenes rather than out in front. I've realized that I wanna be the
- people, one of the people talking to others and understanding how it works rather than arguing with
- others about how to get the funding to make it happen. I would rather look into the backgrounds and
- do the research and make the foundation of what is possible
- so that the next people can take it and they can fight out how to pay for it. This is a softball. Please
- stand over there and give us a full spin. I am just loving this swag, man. Thank you, Meg. So this is
- my Rotary Youth Exchange Blazer. And for those of you who have not interacted with an exchange student,
- at the beginning of your year, you are given an empty blazer.
- and you are encouraged to trade pins and mementos with the people you meet, whether exchange students
- or rotarians or otherwise, and you add them to your blazer. And then you are expected to wear it to
- and from your exchange and on the airplane. Let me tell you, going is not that bad, but this is really
- heavy. I pull this out for rotary events because it's a really cool way to show rotarians like, Hey,
- This is something that I got to do because of Rotary and it makes you ask questions. I always get one.
- But I will say that getting this through TSA is always a little bit of a question mark because they
- always have to find someone who's been around long enough to have met a youth exchange student and go,
- oh yeah, no, that's actually a thing. And not just like a weird thing full of pointy metal pieces.
- So Megan, I'm going to ask you, I'm sure you had a lot of great classmates that you spent time with,
- but were there some that stood out that were people that you'll go to their country and lifelong friends
- and you'll be with them and a couple of those that you're just like, they were great and I want to do
- more and see more and be more with them kind of thing? Oh, 100%. So it's very interesting actually,
- because with 22 people, you would think that we're small enough that you get to know everybody. You
- don't really have a choice. And especially the first
- The first semester we all lived in the dorms together. So we were all within like three buildings of
- each other. So we were hanging out all the time. But I became particularly close to my classmates from
- Nepal, my classmates from Pakistan and my classmates from Brazil, as well as Egypt and Italy.
- So my classmate from Egypt is actually back in the Czech Republic. She just got a job there and she
- has been texting me literally for the last two days, nonstop being like, Hey, when are you coming back?
- Because I'm lonely. My classmate from Nepal is actually in France right now. Their mother is a diplomat,
- which is a very interesting context to come into a master's like global development policy, because
- we got to hear a very unique perspective from him.
- And he was also a wonderful resource for me in understanding the role of dialogue and media. And we
- have stayed in very close contact because his country, if you don't know anything about world affairs,
- went through a recent series of protests and government overture. And it was very interesting to talk
- to him and his family who's there versus our experience reading headlines
- and news stories and what was reality versus what was perceived and how it was communicated. And then
- my classmate from Pakistan is one of the people I took the longest to warm up to, and yet I think we
- are probably some of the closest in the cohort. Him and my classmate from Brazil, her name is Larissa,
- and she's getting ready to start a PhD in education policy. And the two of them were
- absolutely instrumental for me both personally and education wise because Larissa helped me pass all
- of my statistics courses. I am not a math person. For those of you who don't know me, my background
- is pretty heavily like social sciences and doing statistics and R and microeconomics was one of the
- hardest things I've ever done in my life. And I cried through quite a number of those lectures.
- So they both helped me academically, and then they are some of the nicest people I've ever met, and
- I truly do believe that I will stay in close contact with all of them. Thank you very much. I'm complicated
- and interested if you want to ramp the homeless even, but I'm sure you're good at that, but you're really
- good at out front as well.
- I'd like to thank today's volunteers, John Hobson, Lynn Schwarzberg, Michael Schermes, and a couple
- of others. Leslie Vasenco, Martha Wales, Marilyn Wood, Dave Meyer. Actually, Tracy Yovanovich filled
- in for Dave Meyer today. Sarah Laughlin, also want to recognize our Zoom and audio producer, Tyler Martin Nichols,
- Our next regular meeting will be on December 2nd here in the Georgian room. Alan Boyd and Carlos Laverde
- will speak about the future of the Monroe County Airport. And happy Thanksgiving. And Tyler, if you
- would please share the graphic for the four-way test. Please stand if you're able and join me. Of the
- things we think, say, or do, first, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned?
- Third will build goodwill and better friendships. Fourth will be beneficial to all concerned. And fifth,
- is it fun?