- 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.
- We have a full, full schedule today, so let me get right to it. On this day in history, May 12, 1978, the U.S.
- Commerce Department announced that hurricane names would no longer be exclusively female.
- Marcy Hibbard has today's reflection. Good afternoon, fellow Rotarians and special guests. We have a
- lot today. Today is May 12th. And for me, May 12th is a very special day. Today is my dad's birthday.
- That's my dad. He would have been 90 years old today.
- This is something, my dad's name was Robert Wanywood and he went by Wayne. My dad was a very active
- rotarian when we lived in Squim, Washington. He was very wise, kind, gentle, caring, and a very hardworking
- business owner. But mostly he was a funny man. And yes, he really did wear a monocle.
- I chose today to give the reflection to honor my dad's memory. My dad had been a member of the Kiwanis
- Club in Issaquah, Washington for many years, but when we moved to Squim, he wasn't too thrilled with
- the Kiwanis Club there, so he tried out the Sunrise Rotary in Squim. He took to the club and their four-way
- test like it was gospel.
- He would come back from his meetings and share about the happy dollars he gave because of something
- special happening in his life. By the time he joined Rotary, I was an adult with a family of my own.
- I can remember the countless times I would go to my dad with a problem or an issue. And nine times out
- of 10, he would ask me, is it the truth? Or sometimes, is it fair to all concerned?
- Often he would throw in a, will it build goodwill and better friendships? And his favorite question
- was, will it be beneficial for all concerned? And sometimes he asked me all of them. I used to roll
- my eyes, but it always made me think. That's what our four-way test does. It makes us think and act
- accordingly. My dad visits me in my heart every Tuesday
- and at the times where I spontaneously think, will this be beneficial for all concerned? I told you
- my dad was funny. And he was. A member of his Rotary wrote in his memory book, I had the honor of meeting
- Wayne through our mutual activities with the Sunrise Rotary gang. He always had a twinkle in his eye
- and most definitely a quick wit. That's why it always makes me giggle every time we end our meetings
- with, and fifth, is it fun?
- He would have loved that and wondered why he didn't come up with it all by himself. Happy birthday,
- Dan. I love you. Thank you very much, Marcy. Glenda Murray will introduce some of our guests today.
- Our speakers will introduce their guests during their portion of the program.
- And I welcome all of you who are guests with one of the students. And I celebrate that they're introducing
- you and not me. So welcome. We do have other guests. Becky Wan, who is the guest of Steve Engel and
- spouse. Colton Riggs, who is the guest of Claire Kest, who's not there.
- and my sister Betty Coffee, who is my guest. So again, welcome to all. Thank you, Glenda. Joy, do we
- have any guests online? Yes, Steve. We have joining us Eric Ost, who is a guest of Jeff Richardson.
- Thank you.
- So we have three birthdays to observe. On the 15th, Mark A. Winston and Claire Kest, who's joined us
- today there in the middle table. And then on the 17th, Marcus Whited. And a couple of anniversaries
- to observe. On the 14th, Alan Barker and Dave Meyer both joined the club 12 years ago. And boy, that
- was a good day for the club. Tyler, can you go ahead and start my PowerPoint?
- So I'll start with a somber and a sad. I'd like to observe the death of a couple of former club members,
- Roger Fierce and David Rogers. And may they rest in peace. And now moving to the happier. We have a
- little bit of service to celebrate.
- So last week, we did our club drive for the club portion of our annual scholarships. We had a goal starting
- the day at $900. And by the end of the week, after a very generous match, we raised the total of $5,000
- last week. So thank you very much. So help wanted. Our club executive assistant, Mandy Stewart, resigned
- last Thursday.
- So we're looking for a replacement. We plan to find someone as quickly as possible. Key is accounting
- bookkeeping expertise, above average aptitude for learning and operating multiple software programs,
- and usual things, personality, and character strengths. So if you know of anyone, send the person in
- my direction. We'll have a hiring committee. We're about to update the job description, which will be
- very similar to what we used last fall.
- Also help wanted, Wonder Lab Summer Blast Off. So the club executive assistant is a paid position. This
- is purely a volunteer position, and you'll be paid with fun. And what you have to do is you have to
- assemble this really cool bookmark.
- It's summer blast off, Wonder Lab trying to get kids to read during the summer. So the bookmark,
- once again, has a little light so that they can read in bed when they're supposed to be asleep. So we
- need people to work shifts this week at Wonder Lab, inside, good working conditions, and then day of.
- So here are all the different times you can work this week.
- And then day of, we'll have shifts on Thursday, May 21st, some setup, some helping children assemble
- their bookmarks, or it might be children helping you assemble the bookmarks, and then teardown. And
- then you have information on your tables. And then Leslie Katsenko is chairing. Michelle Cohen is helping.
- Leslie is over there.
- So if you want to volunteer, just sign up on your table or see Leslie after the meeting. Sure. Toot.
- Next, please. Second Excel looking for sign up is for the actual event day. So two separate things.
- If you are in a parade, maybe you want to be at the greeting table. If you are.
- what to, can't make the event, but what it still helps is the nicotine. Thanks. So for those online,
- Leslie told us that there are two different signups, before and day of. The work is a little bit different.
- The day of work will be outside. They've got a canopy for us, so it'll be good working conditions unless
- it's 97 degrees. Okay, a few save the dates. So the annual refugee summer pitch in on Sunday, May 24th.
- Here are the details here. The details will also be in the roundabout. And club member Cindy Neidhart
- can help you with more details. And others save the dates. The Chamber Business After Hours. After you're
- done working your shift at Wonderlab on the 21st, go to the Business After Hours. We have Meals on Wheels
- right behind that. A couple of people on the 29th. Then the Beacon Solidarity Sleepout in early June.
- The Large Teacher's Warehouse Supply Drive.
- And then the Rotary Toast in November. And the Rotary Toast Committee is selling tables. So if you need
- any information about that, please see me. So this picture, so last week we heard from ROI, Regional
- Opportunities Initiative. And the second speaker, Jen, played a video. And this is a clip from the video.
- And one of our members online, Bill Murphy,
- watching via zoom a 55 year Rotarian notice something special about this particular part of the video.
- Bill, do you want to tell us what you noticed? Well, I was greatly pleased last week when I observed
- the video and there was my son Mark and Mark is the president of PRD. It's a plastic molding company
- located in Lawrence camp.
- in Lawrence County, just over the Monroe County line. He's also on the board of directors of ROI representing
- manufacturing. He encourages high school students to pursue careers in manufacturing by providing internships
- for them. So Vera and I are greatly proud of Mark and we couldn't get him to become a teacher like his
- parents, but we're proud of his promotion of education.
- So thanks, Steve, for showing this. So anyway, you watch Rotary on Zoom, you may see a family member
- someday. Thank you, Bill. OK, Rotary is seven areas of focus. I show this slide all the time. And then
- May is Youth Service Month, and we're here today serving some of our best and brightest youth. And go
- ahead and turn that off.
- And then one other thing on the announcements, there is one other handout on your table with about America
- 250. If you have any interest in that, Liz Fiddle has lots more pamphlets in her car. So Liz is sitting
- over on the far left, back left table. OK, if I can get Brad Meyer and Steve Engel to come to the front.
- So we haven't had enough of these this year. We're having a new member induction. This will be a little
- bit abridged because Brad, like the rest of us, really wants to hear what the high school students have
- to say. So Brad Meyer applied for membership in the Bloomington Rotary Club months ago. I'm embarrassed
- to say his application fell through the cracks. In the meantime, he occasionally attended weekly meetings
- as a guest of Steve, though finally we got organized. And in April, the club board unanimously approved
- his application.
- And today, we'll induct him into the club. A native of Brownsburg, Indiana, Brad Meyer is a seventh
- generation Hoosier. He married his high school sweetheart, Debbie, at age 18. Brad and Debbie then attended
- Purdue together, where Brad studied electronic engineering. After graduation, Brad and Debbie started
- a family. Brad began a 25-year career in local manufacturing, followed by nine years as a civilian engineer
- for the US Navy.
- A week ago, Brad won the Indiana Ninth District Congressional Primary and became the Democratic Party's
- nominee for the general election in November. So Brad, on behalf of the board and membership of the
- Bloomington Rotary Club, it is a great pleasure to welcome you as the newest member of the club. Though
- Rotary is not a political organization,
- Rotarians are vitally concerned with good citizenship and election of effective leaders to public office.
- While Rotary is not a religious organization, it is built on those highest principles that have served
- as a moral compass for people throughout the ages. Rotarians believe that worldwide fellowship and peace
- can be achieved when people work together and uphold the Rotary motto of service above self.
- Brad, you have been chosen for membership in the Bloomington Club because your fellow members believe
- you to be a leader in our community and because you possess the qualities to champion the message and
- principles of Rotary. Our community will know and judge Rotary by your character and service. Steve
- will now pin you or hand you the distinguishing badge of a Rotarian, your Rotary pin. Okay.
- All of us have limited dexterity, so we're handing him the pin. Fellow Rotarians, please rise if you
- are able and welcome our newest Rotarian, Brad Meyer.
- Thank you. Thank you, Brad. And welcome to the club. So this was a segment I've been trying to work
- in. And so when I found out Brad would be available today, just jumped on it. Another segment that I've
- been trying to work in is a DEI update. And club members Lance Eberly, Jim Sims, and Patrick Smith all
- serve on the Rotary District 6580 DEI committee.
- Earlier this year, past club president, past district governor, Lance Eberly, agreed to chair this district
- committee. And Lance will spend a few minutes to provide us with a rotary DEI update. Lance?
- Good afternoon, everyone. As mentioned, my name's Lance Eberle. I've had the privilege of being a member
- of this club and certainly stepping into the role of being the Diversity Equity Inclusion Chair for
- the district this upcoming year. I really just want to take a few minutes today to provide a brief update
- on Diversity Equity Inclusion initiatives within Rotary International and how those efforts continue
- to evolve. As many of you know, Rotary International recently did announce a change in terminology
- by renaming the Advisory Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to the Enhancing Participant Engagement
- Committee. While the name has changed, the underlying focus remains largely the same, strengthening
- participation, engagement, and belonging throughout the Rotary clubs. I think this is important to remind
- you that Rotary's efforts in this area have always been rooted in membership engagement and service
- effectiveness rather than politics or labels.
- The objective is to ensure that Rotary remains welcoming, relevant and sustainable for future generations.
- At its core, Rotary has always been about bringing together people of different professions, experiences
- and backgrounds to improve our communities. That philosophy aligns naturally with the idea of expanding
- participation and encouraging engagement.
- Several key initiatives with this are again expanding participation. Rotary clubs are strongest when
- they reflect the communities that they serve. That could be in professional experience, age, community
- involvement, leadership styles, certainly cultural and personal backgrounds, all kinds of things.
- Many clubs, including this club, have actively worked to attract younger and different professionals
- and emerging community leaders.
- and maintaining the traditions of Rotary, why we continue to do that. We're also continuing working
- to improve in our engagement strategy as reflected in the updated committee name, enhancing participant
- engagement that really emphasizes the involvement and connection. Across Rotary clubs, we're continuing
- to work for ways to increase membership participation and improve mentorship activities, encouraging
- newer members to become involved in leadership,
- create flexible and meeting times and service opportunities and strengthen fellowship and collaboration.
- The goal is simple, helping members feel connected and valued so that they remain active in road reach.
- Inclusion is often a big part of that as well. And it's much less about policy more than it is about
- our club culture. And people stay involved in organizations where they feel welcome, impacted, and heard.
- Rotary is long-term to sex. It continues to depend on creating that type of environment where members
- of all backgrounds and experiences levels feel that they could contribute meaningfully to the club kind
- of going forward. So plan is simple. We continue to invite newer members into projects, encourage different
- perspectives and being intentional about our mentorship opportunities and continuing to support our
- leadership development.
- So Rotary continues to evolve just as communities involve. The challenge and opportunity is balancing,
- you know, Rotary strong traditions with the need to remain relevant and accessible to all future generations.
- Ultimately, whether we call it diversity, equity, inclusion, the purpose remains aligned with Rotary's
- membership of fellowship leadership and above all service, you know, above self. So again, here in the
- district, we're continuing to
- basically march forward as we always have. And when I kind of came in, I was fortunate to be a district governor.
- As Jennifer Jones has stated, that we want Rotary to be welcoming to all. So we continue to kind of
- move forward with that and certainly would be available afterwards to answer any questions or anything
- that anybody has. But again, thank you for the time to provide you a quick update of some of the work
- that we're doing. And we're continuing as committee to move on, meeting monthly, looking for
- ways, opportunity to make Rotary more welcoming to all members of our community. So thank you.
- Thank you, Lance. At the club level, we have a DEI committee and don't see a need to change that. So
- we'll continue to roll along as we do. Rotary, we want to look like the community we serve. With a couple
- of exceptions. One, the people attracted to Rotary have to be above average in their level of care for
- the community. People who
- who want to do, want to belong to Rotary. They want to work at the polls. They want to be Little League
- baseball coaches, various things. The other is as an international organization, Rotarians have to care
- about things overseas. We need to care about polio being eradicated in Pakistan. We need to care about
- clean water in Rwanda. We need to care about education in Peru. So anyway, doesn't matter if you're
- a rock rift libertarian,
- big government democrat. If you care about the community and you care about places all over the world,
- there's a place for you in Rotary. So thank you, Lance. Jeff Richardson will introduce our four dynamic
- speakers today.
- We need more joy. We need to embrace joy, lift up joy, and share joy. In that spirit, welcome to our
- club's most joyful meeting of the year, the celebration of our Bloomington Rotary High School Scholarship
- awardees. A special welcome to the families and teachers of those we honor today, and thank you for
- your devotion to cultivating intellectual curiosity and integrity.
- The scholarship committee interviewed nine high school senior finalists this spring, all remarkably
- talented. Today, we'll hear from the four outstanding seniors who were selected as Rode High School
- Scholarship awardees. Each will receive a $25,000... We had a secret match came in just minutes ago,
- actually $2,500.
- Hmm, someday we'll get there. I'd like to have just for a moment the scholarship committee members.
- We don't have time to introduce you, but if you could just stand or wave, we'd like to thank you for
- your service on the committee. Thank you. Interestingly, but not by design, this year all three local
- schools are represented. Edgewood,
- Bloomington High School South and Bloomington High School North. And two are going in state, turns out
- both to IU Bloomington, and two out of state. Last year, just for your information, three awardees went
- to Purdue and one went to Ball State. So every year it's different. I'm not going to go into
- long introductions because I want to ensure that we have enough time to hear directly from the students.
- Each awardee will introduce and thank their guest
- And then we'll spend four to five minutes on what's ahead for them post-graduation and any other comments
- they would like to make. So our first awardee who will speak is Hannah Crane, an Edgewood High School
- grad. She's going off to Murray State and she's going to be studying agriculture science. Hannah, please join us.
- Hello, everyone. Thank you for having me today. I'm very honored to receive this scholarship. So just
- want to thank you all for being here and giving me this opportunity. With me today, I have my mom, Lindy,
- and my dad, Damon. So thank you for their support.
- So as he already said, my name is Hannah Crane. I'm from Edgewood. A little bit about me. This is my
- 10th year of 4-H. I'm an active member of Harry Hopper's Rabbit Club, Country Sunshine Junior Leaders,
- Swine Club, Horse and Pony, and Country Sunshine. I'm going to tell you about one of my most memorable
- community service projects today. And it was a project I did last year. I created garden kits for Pantry 279.
- and I applied for and received a $1,000 yes grant through Indiana 4-H Foundation, which funded my project.
- The kits that I created included a tomato or pepper plant, a tomato cage, a bag of soil, fabric grow
- bag, plant food, and then a little info sheet. And then I distributed the kits around this time last
- year to Pantry 279, which is in Ellitsville. And the goal was to reduce food insecurity
- you know, the surrounding areas, give people the opportunity to try something new. And that was also
- an opportunity to share my love for agriculture, which I'm going into next year. At Edgewood, I'm involved
- in Student Athletic Advisory Committee, Leadership Academy, National Honor Society, Key Club, Fellowship
- of Christian Athletes, and Mental Health Club. I also run Cross Country and Track.
- And cross country and track have been a big part of shaping me into who I am today. They've taught me
- many valuable skills that I will carry far beyond college even into my, whatever I do after college,
- whether my job and just daily life.
- And they've taught me to work towards these long-term goals that might not come easy, but with dedication
- and this hard work and commitment to my sports and my social life and my extracurriculars and school,
- those goals are achievable. And this fall, I'll be attending Murray State University, which is in Kentucky,
- and I'll be running cross-country and track. And I plan to study agronomy, which is like crop and soil
- science. So thank you for having me today.
- When I hear these students talk, I have to be kind of reminded that they're just seniors in high school.
- They're like 17 or 18 years old. They've already done so much. And each one is this way. And our next
- awardee is Lilliam McKaylee from North. She's also, you'll hear from another person, going to IU Bloomington,
- and she'll be studying elementary education. Lilliam, please join us.
- Hello everyone. My name is Lillian McHaleon. As he just said, I'm a senior at Bloomington North.
- Next year, I am going to Indiana University to further my passion for elementary education. I'm very
- honored to receive this scholarship and I couldn't be more grateful. And I just really appreciate getting
- this opportunity.
- Teaching was always something that I saw myself pursuing. I grew up with amazing teachers in my life.
- Two of my grandparents are educators, and I looked up to them really, like, a lot. I looked up to them
- greatly. And every teacher that I've had has helped shape me into the person I am today, and I look
- forward to doing the same for my students. I'd like to shout out my parents and my teacher, Mr. Fife,
- for being here today to support me. Mr. Fife, one of those amazing teachers.
- At North, I'm involved in a few clubs. So I'm in Habitat for Humanity. I'm a co-president this year.
- I've been involved for a couple of years now. It's just a really great way to connect with the community
- and do things that I'm interested in. And then I'm also in a club called Project Middle Way that raises
- money and awareness.
- for Middle Way House in Bloomington and just the domestic abuse survivors there. So we get to do a lot
- of work for them. And then I also do a lot of things that help me work towards my future of being an
- educator. So after being a camper and counselor in training at the Boys and Girls Club Camp Rock for
- many years, I received the opportunity to work as a part-time counselor last summer. And so I,
- This like allowed me to work closely with larger groups of students or kids and grow some of those skills
- that I will use in my career. And the Boys and Girls Club staff provided me with training that will
- be really applicable to my future classroom such as behavior management and just like safety protocols
- that will come in handy throughout my whole future. And just the community at
- Camp Rock means so much to me, and I can't wait to go back this summer and continue that. Also,
- this year, this school year, I was placed in a fourth grade classroom for my cadet teaching class. I
- was at Binford Elementary School, and throughout the year, I've gotten countless opportunities to build
- my knowledge of the classroom and see all of the behind the scenes work that goes into being a teacher
- that I don't get from the student perspective in high school.
- I've just gotten to build my knowledge of the classroom and one main project that we did was the kids
- got to write fairy tales about IU women's basketball players. So they kind of worked those into like
- a Cinderella story. And yeah, it was so fun to see like their creative minds come to life and incorporate
- the stuff that
- they don't usually get to talk about in a classroom setting. And then some of the players actually came
- in and they got to read their stories to them. So it kind of brought the magic to life. And it was really
- cool to see the kids' hard work pay off. And they got to go and shoot hoops with them too, which was
- fun for them too. But yeah, it was just really fulfilling and rewarding throughout the whole year just
- to see all of the hard work the kids put in and seeing it come and put
- be put together and seeing it all work out and pay off. I've had really amazing experiences inside the
- classroom and out, and it really just affirms that this is what I'm meant to do. And I look forward
- to pursuing it in the future. Yeah. Thank you so much for this opportunity.
- another thread that runs through all of these candidates. I get choked up talking about it. You know,
- their love for learning and to share with others. You know, it's repeated over and over, including in
- the ones that we couldn't give scholarships to. I mean, they were also incredible. That's one of the
- hardest jobs that we have is getting it down to four people. Our next awardee is Aviv Seraf from Bloomington
- House School South.
- going to Duke in mechanical engineering and robotics. Aviv. Hi, I'm Aviv from Bloomington High School
- South. First of all, I'd like to thank my family for supporting my whole life, my mom and dad and my
- sister who's here today. Next, my amazing AP chemistry teacher, Mrs. Floyd, thank you for coming here.
- and supporting me throughout the whole year. And so good afternoon, everyone. And thank you to the Old
- Rotary Club for providing me with this scholarship. I'm very appreciative and thank you for supporting
- students in our community. It's truly an honor to be speaking to you today. So I'll talk to you about
- a couple of my activities. The first one is one of the most meaningful community activities
- I've done, and it's my involvement in a group through my synagogue called Student to Student. And so
- through that, with a few other high schoolers, we go around Monroe County and the surrounding area to
- middle schools, and we talk about Jewish culture and introduce them to our traditions. And we teach
- that it's important to be open-minded of all cultures and all people that are different to you. And
- so many of the schools we visited, we go to middle schools. Many of them had very few or no Jewish students.
- So us speaking to them was their very first interaction with Jewish culture and Jewish people. And this
- is incredibly important because it's their first interaction with the whole culture
- we are able to stop, to put a face to community and kind of tell them who we are to help prevent the
- spread of harmful stereotypes and misinformation, especially today with social media. It's incredibly
- easy for harmful words to spread quickly. And so by speaking to these people, to these students, as
- students ourselves,
- We put a human face to a culture that they're not familiar with. Um, and it becomes much harder to spread
- fear and hatred, uh, when you've actually met a group of people. Um, and so this has been the most meaningful
- community experience that I've done, but in, on the side of academic experiences, the one that has shaped my, um,
- my experience throughout high school the most has been my involvement with FIRST Robotics. And this,
- it's a local robotics team that we compete in competitions and we have students from all the different
- high schools in the area and middle schools. And so now as a senior, I've been a student leader on the
- team and my role has not only been to build the robot, but also
- to help newer students develop the skills and confidence they need to meaningfully contribute to our
- team. And one of my biggest goals as a leader on the team has been to make the team feel approachable
- and collaborative, especially for newer students who might be intimidated or unsure of their place in
- the team, as I definitely was when I first joined. And what I value most about this experience doing
- robotics in high school is that
- The success of the team depends on not just people's individual skills, but people being willing mentors,
- as well as student leaders being willing to teach one another and help the whole team benefit. And no
- one builds the robot alone. The team works together and every student improves because someone else
- has taken out of their time to guide them. And so that's what I try to do as a student leader on the
- team. And so these experiences shaped my
- Um, belief that leadership isn't about just having experience and knowledge about a certain subject,
- but it's about creating an environment where the people around you can really learn and grow all together
- for the benefit of everyone. And so these two experiences have shaped both my goals and my future plans.
- Um, I plan to go to Duke university and study mechanical engineering, uh, where I hope to continue,
- uh, working on robotics in particular.
- And throughout my time in college, I also plan to continue with high school robotics now, not as a student,
- but as a mentor of local teams. And beyond college, I hope to pursue a career in robotics that help
- specifically medical devices that help people in their daily life. I really am incredibly grateful for
- this scholarship and thank you to everyone for investing in students in our community.
- I'm hopeful that I'm able to pay forward your kindness in the future throughout my school and career.
- Thank you. Oh, great. So another, not last, but next in line is Halit Patel.
- We've had three scholarships. Last year we had four. It's a longer story, but we ended up with four,
- and that was for kids to go anywhere they want to in the country. We still have three that are that
- way, that are wherever you apply, and if you're past muster with the committee, you're selected.
- This year, for the first time, we have a standalone award for someone who is from Monroe County,
- and going to IU Bloomington. It turned out we had two people going to IU Bloomington this year,
- which was, again, unplanned, a coincidence, but outstanding candidates. And so Halil is getting, Halil
- is getting the first Bloomington, IU Bloomington award. And congratulations on that. And we look forward
- to hearing from you. Thank you.
- How are we doing, everyone? Good afternoon. All righty. Thank you, everyone, from this Rotary Club to
- have me today. I'm honored to be here. And with me, I have my dad, Kulpish Kumar Patel, my mom, Dharmisa,
- and my sister, Deep, who I love and hate at the same time. And I also have my favorite teacher,
- Well, all my teachers are my favorite, but Miss Norris, she's my German teacher and she's been with
- me, seen every single one of my crash outs for the past four years. And I'm eternally grateful that
- she's been with me and I look up to her a lot now. Now, a community involvement that I've had and I
- am really proud of is something called Global Minds. And it's similar to what you said about
- teaching people about culture. But I want to tell you an experience that I had that was a catalyst for
- this all. So me and my sister, one summer, we went to St. Louis with the Love the Loot organization.
- And basically, this organization takes you and it takes you to an underrepresented community where you
- volunteer. And in this case, we cooked, we garden, we set up all kinds of community events. And I saw
- this bridge or this gap
- between culture and the community that was there in St. Louis. And when I came back, I had this idea
- that let's make a nonprofit organization with this. And so that brought me to Curate Global Minds. And
- I took one of my classmates and we went to our administrators and they loved this idea. And so
- With this organization, our entire goal was to spread cultural diversity. Because we know statistically
- that when you're younger and you're exposed to diversity more often, you're going to grow up to be a
- person who thinks more diversely, who critical thinks even more, who sees all the global perspectives
- on an issue. And that is what I wanted.
- And this is something that I want to take into my career at Indiana University and my studies at Indiana
- University. Um, and hopefully I, um, do something with, um, nonprofits and yeah, a student activity.
- Um, that I want to tell you guys about is, um, my internship. I intern for the coffee corral, um, at
- Edgewood high school. I don't know if you guys have known it's, um, a student led, um, business and,
- We sell coffee, we sell all types of drinks, all types of, hopefully all types of food now. And as a
- financial manager, I track our expenses and profits, and I ensure that they meet our margins. I price
- our new items, pay our vendors, and do much more. But that's all the boring stuff. But with this internship,
- I have learned so many communication skills, all the soft skills that you don't learn in classes nowadays.
- And I found a passion for business and problem solving, and which is why I chose to attend the Kelly
- school of business at Indiana university. Um, and again, I went to honor my dad and mom. They are, they
- immigrated here in 2001. They're from India and they built everything from ground up. And that is something
- that I wanted to take. And I want to honor because that's hard to do nowadays. Like you can't just come
- here and do something, um, fresh out of the ground. And it takes a lot of courage and it takes a lot
- of bravery.
- And that is something that, with social media nowadays, it's hard to come by. You don't find pure people.
- And I want to share a quote that I go by. It's called, you make a living by what you get, but you make
- a life by what you give. And I see my parents honor this quote all the time. They are genuine people,
- and they've taught me that you are the person you are by what you value.
- At the Kelly School of Business, I want to major in operations management and finance and hopes to be
- well versed in public policy and hopefully attend law school, hopefully at the Marner School of Law
- and be a practicing attorney. Don't know what type of attorney yet, but that'll come later in life.
- But yeah, thank you. And I'm honored to be here. And I I hope that I as well honor the Rotary Club's
- values as well.
- So let's say congratulations once again to our newest Rotary High School Scholarship winners. So what
- I'd like now is for the awardees to come forward, please. And we have some time for questions for them.
- And let's do that. Let's ask them a few questions. All right, please come forward.
- Or you can stand over here so you're not in the lights. How about right over here? We do have the checks
- here. We'll be taking them. The checks won't be in the middle. They're actually here. And then we'll
- present them shortly. We'll have some pictures. So please, question. Yes. Dave. I heard social media
- mentioned a couple of times.
- Can I have a volunteer that would like to talk a little bit about how in your own life you balance the
- negative and positive aspects of your participation in social media? Sure. So social media has been
- a really great and a really bad thing for me.
- on different aspects. On the good side, it's been a source of a lot of inspiration for the projects
- I do with robotics. And there's so many great ideas that other people are doing that you can take inspiration
- from social media. And a lot of the time, that is what I use it for, for learning and seeing just great
- things. On the other side, there's a lot of
- bad on social media. As I talked about earlier, there's a lot of, it's incredibly easy to spread hateful,
- you know, hateful words. And so you just got to, for me personally, you just have to be careful of what
- you, what you choose to expose yourself to on, on social media. And if you choose to use it in the right
- way, it can be a great, a great tool. Yeah. Anyone else want to add to that or?
- Well, you know, other than that, it takes a lot of your day away. Like, you know, the mics, other people
- online. I just want to say it does take a lot of your time away. Like as a student, I swear to God,
- I'm at school and I'm just scrolling sometimes because it's just it sends in what's it called dopamine
- to your brain and it just keep going. So I guess that's also a con that you have. You just got to learn
- to put it away and and just focus on what is it's at.
- It's at your hand. Congratulations to you four wonderful students. I'm curious about whether any of
- you hold jobs outside of school and aside from that activities and sports extracurricular. I heard lots
- of extracurriculars and how you balance that with maintaining your academic schedules. I'm just curious
- to hear how you manage your lives.
- Um, I work only in the summers, so I don't really have to worry about balancing my work life with school,
- but I play tennis. And so right now I'm in season and like sectionals are next week and during finals.
- So there's a lot going on, but luckily, um, Bloomington North does block schedules. So we only have
- four classes a day and it like switches off every other day. And so it helps a little bit with like
- balancing when I'm going to do my assignments. Cause I know that I have two days until
- I have that class again. So I really just like staying organized and like planning out when stuff is
- due and when I have to get stuff in by so that if I have a match one night, I can do that stuff before
- it's actually due. So that kind of helps out a lot.
- For me, yeah, I also do run cross country and track. So that's a year round. I'm training in between.
- I have like a two week break after each season, but that means I'm training all through the winter and
- all through the summer. So, I mean, I don't have a lot of free time, but I mean, I enjoy being busy,
- especially with 4-H, whether it's club meetings or, you know, organizing these things outside of club
- meetings. I have those responsibilities because I'm holding these leadership positions in my club. But I mean,
- Obviously I've learned lots of time management skills through 4-H and I always say it's like the animals
- have to be fed and then you can go in when it's dark and be doing your homework and doing all that stuff.
- So 4-H has definitely played a huge role in developing those time management skills. And then also just
- using your time wisely during school. It's easy to go on social media and scroll all day, which I do
- sometimes, but I also have to hold myself accountable.
- and be responsible during school hours so I can have free time after school to do things I enjoy.
- Anyone else? Sure. So time management has been a big struggle for me, especially the last two years
- of high school. I play soccer, travel soccer. I did play travel soccer. And so my junior year I was
- doing travel.
- I was traveling for robotics and traveling for soccer. Um, and a lot of the time it meant I had to sacrifice
- one or the other. Um, and eventually this year I had to sacrifice soccer completely during the spring,
- at least, uh, for robotics. So I think that's just the nature of, uh, wanting to do a lot of things.
- You have to choose which ones are, are like most important and which ones you have to prioritize.
- The younger generation seems to be more enthusiastic about change than a couple of the previous generations.
- For all of you, what do you see around you that maybe is something different to encourage change in
- the world and to make the world a better place without being political?
- For me, especially with working with kids, I see a lot of like, I think it really inspires change or
- like inspires me to like want to work for their future as well. Because I see all the things that they're
- capable of. I see all the things they like doing and the things that they are passionate about, especially
- the younger kids where they're still excited to come to school. They're excited to learn. They're still
- like kind of developing their own personalities. Like I think that it like sparks
- a little bit more like, I see more of what I want the future to look like for them. Does that answer
- your question? Yes, congratulations to each and every one of you. So I would like for you to quickly
- reflect and just speak to the role that mentoring has played
- uh, in your lives, uh, up until this point. And then as you proceed on through your trajectory, how
- do you see yourselves, uh, contributing to the lives of others as mentor? Um, so to touch on that, um,
- I, my biggest mentors have been my teachers and as well as my parents. Um, I feel like nowadays a lot of,
- us teens and younger generations are starting to like get heated in the moment and think of responses
- sporadically without without thinking things throughly. And a lot of us take responses way too deep.
- Um, and so sometimes, um, all the time our mentors teach us like to slow down, think about what you're
- going to say. Um, and that's always been like a thing that I struggle with. Um, and they,
- They remind you like I know Ms. Norris always reminds you making mistakes is okay. I think a lot of
- us try to be perfectionist, but that's not how the way life is. You have to be constantly making mistakes
- to learn and grow from that. And I know nowadays our culture is very like be perfect or you're not perfect
- at all. And that's not how you should live life. And yeah, and you should always like keep in mind of
- what others like put, put others feelings,
- Like think about what others would feel if you said something to them. And yeah, like put yourself in
- other people's shoes for sure. That's always been something that my mentors say to me. For me, the most
- obvious example of mentorship are the mentors on my robotics team. And they are 100% volunteers and
- they give so much time and effort into the team.
- And they have been really what's inspired me to continue with the team and want to actually become a
- robotics team mentor in college and throughout my life. Just the work they give to the team just because
- they want to is really amazing. You know, spending nights sometimes until like 1 a.m. working on the
- robot, traveling with us to
- They just, we all just went down to Houston for a competition and their volunteer mentors just coming
- with us just cause they love to do it. And it's really inspiring. It's been inspiring for me. Yeah.
- To kind of answer your question too, is that like, I keep referencing 4-H because it's a big part of
- my life. So, but I have all these mentors that I look up to. I follow their lead and, you know, incorporate
- their leadership
- into my leadership qualities. I've been surrounded by so many great people the past 10 years in 4-H.
- So, and I just, I look up to them. I want to be just like them. And surrounding yourself with people
- is just with the people with the same goals as you, you know, it builds you up and it's something I
- want to continue to do in my future. I want to be surrounded with people that want to make a change
- in the world. And I see myself after college, you know, coming back to Monroe County. I mean,
- The 4-H program has been a big support system for me in the past 10 years. So I think I'd probably come
- back and whether that's using my education from college to help or just volunteering my time as a leader,
- something like that, something I see myself doing. If my math is correct, I believe the four of you
- would have been sixth and seventh graders when COVID hit us. And I'm just curious to know
- Do you still take any of those times with you socially, academically? Is there a long-term impact from
- that? I believe that yes, there has been a long-term impact. The isolation that we were in just
- like hindered our learning abilities. And when you're young like that, you need to be tactile with things.
- You need to have one-on-one communication. And that just really took away communication skills. I feel
- like a lot of us in my grade don't know like good communication skills, email etiquette, all of that
- stuff. Like it's just taken away because our time was taken away. And I have a younger brother who was
- just a child when
- Corona hit, and I can definitely see the impact it's had on him. It's definitely made him more close-minded
- than open-minded. And so yeah, that's very sad to see. But yeah, I do want to make sure that he's more
- open in the world and sees things that he never got to see when he was little. So yeah.
- For me, COVID, I think it had good and bad effects. Well, I think the bad was obviously, moving,
- transitioning from elementary to middle school, I already was switching, like the middle school I went
- to, only a couple of the people from my elementary school had gone there. So already that, I would have
- to make new friends, but being online the whole year made it even
- harder coming back in eighth grade trying to meet new people. And I didn't have, you know, an established
- group of friends. And so I had to figure that out in eighth grade and throughout high school. So I think
- that my life would have looked quite a bit different if, you know, I had had that whole start of middle
- school in person. And so that was a negative thing. The good thing for me, I feel like it allowed me to have
- some freedom to kind of find what I was interested in instead of being in school all day, you know,
- being taught kind of a structured curriculum. I was able to kind of explore things on my own on the
- internet, find what I love to do, robotics and watch videos and see stuff like that. So that was one
- good thing that came out of it for me.
- Thank you all. One of you mentioned the concept of doing an assignment before it's actually due. I wish
- I had known that when I was in high school. So the four of you are going to inherit a world filled with
- tremendous challenges, but also tremendous opportunities. So thank you for inspiring us and giving us
- all hope for the future. So in honor of your talk, a donation will be made this quarter to Wheeler Mission.
- I'd like to thank today's volunteers, Daniel Schliegel,
- Glenda Murray, Jeff Richardson, Joy Harder, Marcy Hibbard, Bill Oates, Lance Eberly, Hank Walter,
- Alan Barker, Sally Gaskell, Sarah Loughlin, Brad Meyer, Steve Engel, Jonas Chang, Diana Hoffman, lots
- of volunteers. Our next meeting, thank you. Our next meeting will be here in the Georgian Room on May
- 19th, excuse me, next Tuesday,
- Dason Anderson, the Limestone Post, will speak to us about stories that inform, engage, and inspire.
- Please join us. Tyler, if you would share the graphic for the four-way test, and please stand if you
- are 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 it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned?
- And fifth, is it fun? Right here. Go ahead. And now we're giving out the $25,000 checks.