Junior Rotarians

 

Recently at Vantage Career Center, we had the opportunity to select our Junior Rotarians for the year. Each year the Rotary club of Van Wert allows a select group of students from Van Wert High School, Lincolnview High School, Crestview High School and Vantage Career Center to participate in their weekly Rotary meetings. Vantage is allowed to send two students each month to their meetings. It is a great opportunity for the students to network with a wide variety of business professionals and gain a vast amount of knowledge. The students will also be eligible to apply for a four year scholarship from the Rotary. 

The student selection criteria is as follows:

Resident of Van Wert County and a graduating senior

Maintained a 3.0 GPA

Plan on attending an institution of higher education

Demonstrate voluntary service to their school, community, church and family

Demonstrate a degree of maturity, self-reliance, self-discipline and resourcefulness.

Well rounded with a broad set of interests

Demonstrates leadership potential

Other personal qualities or strengths

I am happy to announce this year's Jr. Rotarians representing Vantage Career Center. They are: Corbin Army (Ind Mech), Leigha Bendele (Health Tech), Dylan Buzard (Network Systems), Jorja Forwerck (Early Childhood), Evan Hefner (Network Systems), Juliana McClure (Sports Exercise), Brooke Miller (Sports Exercise), Lily Price (Health Tech), Caleb Shobe (Criminal Justice), Saige Waltmire (Sports Exercise), Payton Waltmire (Cosmetology), Riona Workman (Carpentry).

This past Tuesday, the Rotary club invited all the Jr. Rotarians from each school and their principals and/or counselors to attend a kickoff meeting. This meeting was to explain to the students what the Rotary is all about and get them comfortable with coming to the meetings. It was such a great meeting and a real benefit for the students and myself. I am amazed at all the different projects that the Rotary has been involved with in the Van Wert community. They have poured so much money and time into making Van Wert a better place to live and a place that anyone would want to come back to. They have donated over $600,000 since the year 2000 (as of 2020). I was also amazed that this particular club in Van Wert has been around for 102 years and each president of the club serves for only one year…and they have never had the same person as president more than once. That means they have had 102 different people volunteer to be the club president. That just astounds me and says so much for the club and the people of Van Wert. 

I personally want to thank the Van Wert Rotary Club for inviting us to the meeting yesterday. I want to thank you for all the time and money you invest in the community but also in our students. Thank you for being such a fine example for our students and our future leaders. The club talks about “Service above self “ and they certainly show that by their actions. Thank you again Van Wert Rotary and Congratulations to all the Junior Rotarians for 2022-2023.