Category: Youth

7190 to host ‘Peace Summit for Youth’ in Mechanicville

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Screen Shot 2017-09-04 at 7.04.53 PMDistrict 7190 Rotarians will host a “Peace Summit for Youth” in Mechanicville on Sunday, November 12.

For more than 110 years, Rotary members have been addressing challenges around the world and acting as ambassadors for peace. In today’s global climate, our youth are anxious about international relations, terrorism, America’s position in the world, their personal futurea, and how they fit in.

The “Peace Summit for Youth” will provide a forum to express their concerns and work collaboratively to consider pathways to peace –- peace in their schools, on their streets, and in the world.

The event, organized using the World Café Model, will encourage our youth to explore deeper thought and awareness regarding the issues affecting peace worldwide. The objective is to create an environment in which the youth generate all the content and develop the relevant outcomes for the day.

Our keynote speaker will be Anne Kjaer Riechert, a Rotary Peace Scholar from Germany who is the owner and managing director of an IT training school for Syrian refuges in Berlin.

The summit is open to high school students throughout the Greater Capital Region, including our nine Interact clubs, Youth Exchange, and Rotary Youth Leadership. Then effort will reach into every high school in our community where there is a Rotary club. This not only provides students the ability to participate through Rotary sponsorship, it  also affords a learning opportunity about Rotary.

Funds are being raised and volunteers are being recruited. If you are interested in knowing more, please contact District Governor Fred Daniels via email at dgfred2017@gmail.com.

 

Getting the full American experience

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Prom-goers at Maple Hill High School.

Rafaella (Ella) Leal Câncio, our Rotary Youth Exchange student from Brazil, has been experiencing a wide variety of activities during her year at Maple Hill High School. Everything from studying and playing sports to a guided your of the bustle of New York City to participating in Rotary conferences and celebrations, and on and on.

Now, that has been topped off with a social highlight of any student’s year — going to the school prom. That’s Ella second from the right in the photo above. On the far right is Allison Felts, one of our RYLA students this year and daughter of new SRC member Jennifer Felts.

Where in the world is Michaela Rosetti?

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Michaela visits the Coliseum in Rome.

Michaela Rosetti, our intrepid Youth Exchange student from Maple Hill High School, has been spending most of her year abroad in Sicily. Those of you who have been following her monthly blog posts know how busy she has been and how much she has seen and learned.

Now, Michaela’s latest report is from mainland Italy, where she visited the Vatican, the Coliseum, the Pantheon and other popular spots such as the Trevi Fountain and the Arch of Constantine.

Keep up with Michaela’s posts so you’ll have plenty of questions to ask her when she returns home after her adventure and visits our club as a guest speaker.

Our Exchange student is thriving in Italy

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Michaela with her host parents.

“I have officially been in Siracusa, Sicily, for over a month. The time is already flying by with new people and experiences. My language progression has improved drastically since my last post. I now understand about 83% of what I hear, and am able to respond. It is becoming easier and easier to express myself, and I am now even able to joke around with native Italian speakers! It is such an amazing feeling, because it was starting to feel very lonely for me.”

That’s the start of the latest blog post fro Michaela Rosetti, our Rotary Youth Exchange student who is spending an academic year in Syracuse.

You can keep up with her on the “Michaela’s Journey In Italia” blog. Click here to visit it, then bookmark the site for quick access.

Michela’s Journey In Italia

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screen-shot-2016-09-29-at-2-59-54-pmThat’s the title of the new blog created by our Rotary Youth Exchange student, Michaela Rosetti, who arrived in Italy earlier this month for a year of soaking up the ancient culture of that country. And over there is what it looks like.

Michaela will be posting her experiences from time to time to keep us updated. She already has experienced different sights, sports and cultural events, and met with other Rotary Youth Exchange students from Michigan, Taiwan and Brazil.

If you want to check in on her from time to time, just click on this link:

https://usatoitaliarye.blogspot.it

We’ll post that address in the “Recommended Links” list on our club website.

‘School Supplies Drive’ — Kids helping kids

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Columbia High School students pose with their donations.

The second and final delivery of donations for SRC’s 2nd annual “School Supplies Drive” was made today, completing our effort to assist students at the high school and lower elementary grade levels in the Rensselaer City School District.

“This portion of our drive was a very generous effort by students at Columbia High School put together by John Sawchuk,” said project coordinator Bill Dowd. “I had suggested club members might think about creating a ‘kids helping kids’ component to the drive, and John used his position as Columbia principal to make it happen. Columbia kids have in the past also helped with other SRC projects. and we’re very grateful to them and their strong community spirit.”

A day earlier, Bill had dropped off several hundred donated items from club members and families at the Circles of Mercy service agency that is packaging the items for individual students and will be distributing them before school resumes.

By a rough count our drive resulted in more than 500 items for kids living in a school district in which one-third of families live below the federal poverty level. The effort was in line with one of Rotary’s key areas of assistance — improving literacy and education.

NOTE: This project will be featured in the September issue of The District 7190 Toolbox electronic newsletter.

 

‘School Supplies Drive’ donations being delivered this week

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Sue, a Circles of Mercy volunteer, shows some of the donations being packed for kids.

The first of two batches of donations to the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club’s 2nd annual “School Supplies Drive” was dropped off this morning at Circles of Mercy in Rensselaer.

Project leader Bill Dowd delivered more than 200 items ranging from backpacks to notebook paper to rulers to pencil boxes to binders to dictionaries and much more.

The supplies will be distributed by the family services agency Circles of Mercy to high school and pre-school kids in the Rensselaer City School District where more than one-third of the children come from families living below the federal poverty level.

A second delivery, being put together in support of the SRC drive by John Sawchuk and a group of his students at Columbia High School, will be dropped off at Circles of Mercy on Tuesday.

“I thank all of our SRC Club members and their families who pitched in to help make this very worthwhile drive a success again this year,” Bill said.

“Sometimes it doesn’t take much to make a huge difference in the lives of those less fortunate than we, and this is one of those ‘painless’ efforts directly in line with one of Rotary’s core principles — fostering improved education and literacy.”

Arrivederci, Maple Hill

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exchange dollarsMichaela Rosetti, a product of Maple Hill High School, is our 2016-17 Youth Exchange student heading for a year’s study in Italy.

Here, A.J. Amato, the Youth Exchange Officer for the Southern Renssaler County Rotary Club, presents Michaela with a check for $500 to help cover some of her personal expenses during her academic and cultural adventure abroad.

Meanwhile, our incoming Youth Exchange student is Rafaella Leal Câncio of Brazil.

If you missed the introduction to Rafella, click here to catch up on the details.

 

16 days remain in ‘School Supplies Drive’

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Some of your school supply contributions.

Our 2nd annual “School Supplies Drive” is going strong. (See the accompanying photo of a jam-packed car trunk.) And, we’re not done yet.

If you haven’t yet dropped off your donations, you still have 16 days to do so. And, John Sawchuk has pledged the efforts of some of his Columbia High School students to join the effort.

We’d appreciate it if everyone throughout the club would at least in some small way take part in purchasing and donating school supplies for needy kids in the Rensselaer City School District where more than one-third of the students live at or below the national poverty line.

Donations may be brought to any of our events, and given to project coordinator Bill Dowd for delivery. A checklist of preferred items (for high school and pre-school students only) is provided below.

If you don’t plan to attend any of the next few club events, please let Bill know and he will make arrangements to personally pick up your donations. We don’t want anyone to miss the opportunity to participate in the project.

Such a drive is in keeping with one of Rotary’s six stated areas of concentration: Improving basic education and literacy.

Here is the checklist:

• pencils (regular lead #2 and color)
• pencil sharpener
• erasers (for pencils)
• pens (black or blue)
• markers (dry erase and color)
• pocket folders (assorted colors)
• 3-ring binders (in 2” and 3” sizes)
• loose leaf paper (college ruled)
• graph pape
• spiral subject notebooks (1, 3 and 5 subject in college ruled)
• subject dividers
• plastic zipper pencil cases/boxes
• 3”x5” index cards
• highlighters (yellow)
• rulers (regular with metric)
• Kleenex or other brand) tissues
• hand sanitizer (small bottles)
• Post-It notes
• backpacks (no rollers/wheels)
• Spanish-English dictionaries
• flash drives (1 to 4gb sizes)
• scientific calculators

Thanks, as always, for your generosity to others less fortunate than us.