Don Overly and his wife Dottie sit with the Mintons...see below...
Don Overly and his wife Dottie (L) joined CHS scholar Rose Minton and her family. Angela and Tim Minton, and Jim Comis, proud grandfather (far right)
Kim Senft-Paras welcomed our guests to our Centerville Rotary Club scholarship winners’ luncheon. She congratulated the graduates and their proud parents for everything the students have accomplished.
For the guests and new members, she gave a brief overview of the club's mission.
"Rotary is an International Service organization with clubs around
the globe focused on clean water and sanitation projects; polio irradiation; basic education and literacy; peace and conflict resolution; maternal and child health; and economic and community development. Interact and Rotaract are the branches of Rotary established to encourage young adults to participate in community service at an early age. There is an Interact Club at Centerville High School. Our graduates might want to consider joining their respective university’s Rotaract Club.
The Centerville Rotary Club’s Educational Foundation provides scholarships to graduating seniors from the Centerville/Washington Township community. Criteria for these awards is based on financial need, participation in service oriented projects and potential for success in college or trade school."
Kim then introduced the members of the Education Foundation Committee: Deb Dulaney, Ed Flohre, and Dick Hoback. Ray Merz, also a member, was absent due to illness.
Dick serves as secretary and Kim is the executive director. Rotary member Brad Thorp is the group's investment manager.
Centerville High School Counselor Kensie Everhart made sure the club's scholarship application was posted for the seniors and assembled the documentation for the Foundation Committee to review, Kim said.
"For 42 years, the Centerville Rotary Educational Foundation has given scholarships to graduating Washington- Centerville high school seniors. Since 1975, we have awarded over $210,000.00 in scholarship money," Kim said.
Money for this project is raised from the club's annual Pancake Breakfast, held the fourth Saturday in October at Centerville High School. This year's breakfast will be October 28.
This year, 16 seniors applied to our Foundation and five $2,000 scholarships totaling $10,000 were awarded.
Rotary’s motto, ‘service above self’ has been exemplified by the three students, Kim said. Each student received a book especially selected for them because of an interest, career or educational goal described to the committee during their interview.
Kim said: Chance Koogler was an AP Scholar, an officer in the National Honor Society, the Captain of the Centerville High School Varsity Golf Team, and an Academic All-Ohio State Golfer. His service projects included volunteering at Daybreak, collecting books for the Interact Club book drive, tutoring younger students in German and geometry, and assisting at the Americana Festival. His personal references cite his exemplary leadership style, high moral standards and quiet confidence, all three of which were recognized by the committee during his interview. Chance will attend The Ohio State University to major in software engineering and hopes to find ways to promote peace through computer software. The Checklist Manifesto: how to get things right, by Atul Gawande, is the book selected for Chance. This book describes how the lowly checklist has made it possible for us to make some of the most difficult societal advances from flying airplanes to building complex skyscrapers.
Chance thanked the club for the scholarship and said that when first asked what his goals were, he had no clue. But he knew he wants to make a difference in every person's life. "There is a lot to be said about the way you do things," he said. He said that he was at the club with Casey before, one of his peers who helped him make his goals and decide what he wants to do to help world peace.
Kim said: Abigail Magoffin is a Centerville High School graduate who will attend the University of Cincinnati to study social work. Her scholastic activities included National Honor Society, Scholar Athlete and AP Scholar. She volunteered with the school’s Lunch Buddies program, served as co-president of the Interact Club; and assisted with several of the children’s programs at Fairhaven Church. Abby has been employed at the Spring Valley Tree for the past two years. Her references detail her sincere and selfless desire to help others, quiet confidence, determination and tenacity, as well as her generosity and kind manner. Interact Club Advisor Liz Cameron writes: "Abby embodies the Rotary mantra “Service above Self.” Abby took the lead in mobilizing resources and volunteers for the Interact Club’s refugee initiative. With this in mind, Abby is receiving the book titled A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael Beah, the story of an orphaned Sierra Leone boy taught to kill by the government army, then rescued by UNICEF and brought to this country for rehabilitation and a chance at a normal life.
Kim said our third scholarship winner Rose Minton will attend Ohio University to study biological sciences. She intends to pursue a degree in physical therapy with plans to become a pediatric physical therapist. Rose was also a member of the National Honor Society, Scholar Athlete, OHSAA Cheerleading State Champion, an Associate Captain of Centerville High School’s Mock Trial program, and a member of the Spanish Honor Society. Her references note Rose’s strong work ethic, leadership skills, and exceptionally positive attitude. Her community service work included serving in all aspects of the children’s department at her church and traveling to Ecuador to assist a local community. Mountains Beyond Mountains: the quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a man who would cure the world, by Tracy Kidder, was the book selected for Rose by the committee.
Rose, like the other two scholarship winners, thanked Rotary for the scholarship, which will allow her to pursue her goals at college. She said she actually cried in her interview, overcome with emotion, and didn't expect to receive the scholarship, but appreciates the opportunity it gives her and that her goal is to help kids grow up to be stronger.
Two of the scholarship winners, Madison Balsinger and Christopher Kang, were unavailable for today’s program, but will join us at our club meeting next week, Kim said.
Casey Swoboda, one of last year’s scholarship winners, and Vineela Appalaneni, club member Vas’s daughter, who was the former Interact Club president, also spoke during the meeting.
Casey said he never realized what freedom he would have at school, making all his own decisions and being on his own. He said he was surprised by the urban environment of Cincinnati, which was not like Centerville. Right outside the university area, two or three minutes from his apartment were homeless people, he said. He has always wanted to do something good. He said he got into the TEDX program at the university, a freshman leadership program. Then he did numerous things, from starting a philosophy club to being an RA next year on campus, and helping at a little school about 45 minutes away with health inequalities.
Vineela Appalaneni is in her senior year at the University of Michigan now where there is a Rotaract Club with people with all different majors, she said. When she started the Interact Club in Centerville High School in 2010 as a freshman, there were two people, and one of them was the advisor, she said. She did her best at marketing the program and by the time she graduated there were 40 members. She now studies cellular microbiology. She has volunteered at Hospice where she provides compassionate care and has volunteered at an orphanage in Nicaragua. This summer she is working at Miami Valley Hospital and has applied to medical school.
Club member Deb Dulaney, who attended the recognition ceremony at Centerville High School, told those assembled about Rotary and the high school's Interact Club, noting that the club advisor at the school is Liz Cameron. The also noted that the criteria for the awards are based on participation in service oriented projects, potential for success in college, and financial need.