USU Rotaract Club was organized three years ago and focuses on service and improving leadership skills
Many troubled young adults see community service as a punishment, but for the students involved with USU’s Rotaract Club, they welcome ways to serve the community.
Three years ago, a group of service-oriented students got together looking for ways they could better serve their community and the students on campus. In January 2004, with the help of English professor Joyce Kinkead, who was a Rotary Club member and adviser for the on-campus group, the club was officially organized.
The club started out small, but now, in its fourth year, it is made up of about 40 or 50 students who aim to better their communities.. it is a service group for business professionals who work to better their communities.
“It has been neat to watch the club as it started out small and to see it grow to what it is now,” said Jennifer Reece, a senior majoring in broadcast journalism and also a charter member of the club.
Varuna Ponnameruma, a senior in business systems and Rotaract president said the club can be broken down into four avenues of emphasis: club service, community service, international service and vocational training, which provide different beneficial experiences for the club members.
Club service focuses on improving leadership skills by delegating responsibilities and reporting on projects. Community service emphasizes service of any kind that benefits people on or off campus. International service is an annual service project that provides help for poverty-stricken countries. Finally, vocational training comes from business professionals who share tips to help students be better prepared to enter the professional world.
Club members say Rotaract has given them many great experiences that they otherwise would not have, like going to a foreign country to do service or networking with the elite in business. In addition, they say it’s an all-around good time.
“It’s a great club to do work for humanity, make some awesome friends and have fun,” said Ponnameruma.
Michelle Leavitt, a senior majoring in biology, went to a village in Mexico last year over Spring Break with the club. Leavitt and the other students refurbished a local school by cleaning and painting the run-down facility.
They also brought paper supplies and other school equipment the school needed. “It was amazing to do the service because I really learned to love the people I served,” Leavitt said of her trip.
The amount of work and effort put into these projects is felt in the satisfaction of knowing they have helped someone else, members agree. “I like helping people, and Rotaract has given me that opportunity,” freshman Kyle Niedrich said.
The Rotary Club works with college campuses around the world to form other branches of the same club. The group gets its funding from fundraisers they hold and also from the Rotary Club itself. Kinkead acts as a liaison between Rotaract and the Rotary Club to help communicate service activities between the two groups, so they can do things like go to Mexico to help out the needy.
Members of the club gather every Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Room 510 at the University Inn to talk about upcoming events and coordinate efforts. Membership is $15 for the whole year and anyone is invited to participate.
-dwkoecher@cc.usu.edu