Scholarship Chair Yesim Sonmez thanked her committee for their hard work and for the hard work from Rob Becker from HPHS. This year the committee received twenty applications and it was a difficult task narrowing it down to six finalists. But, community service was a deciding factor since it's a resonating theme with Rotary. She then introduced Martha Gray to help us remember our honorees, Ted Less, Henry Lipson, Mort Gross and Percy Prior.
Our 2017 Scholarship Recipients are:
Enrique Aguero (a 2015 TABU Student) Illinois State University
Grace Bernsen (an Interact Student) University of Maryland - received the Mortimer Gross Scholarship
Kristina Diez (an Interact Student) Denison Univesity - received the Ted Less Scholarship
Haley Fuoco (an Interact Student) Univesity of Illinois - Champaign-Urbana - received the Henry Lipson Scholarship
Jasmin Mateos (an Interact Student) Carroll University - received the Percy Prior Scholarship
Heydi Pichola - Lawrence University
Martha Gray, Rob Becker, Kristina Diez, Haley Fuoco, Grace Bernsen, Jasmin Mateos, Heydi Pichola, Enrique Aguero, Tom Koulentes and Cynthia Plouché
Congratulations and best wishes to all our scholarship recipients as they venture forward to pursue their education and passions in life! We look forward to the time when they come back here or move to another city and find their Rotary home.
TABU
We then switched our focus to the 2017 TABU students who shared with us what stood out most to them on their trip to Northern Ireland.
HPHS Principal Tom Koulentes first shared that as a Social Studies teacher, he was part of the 1998 TABU trip with Martha. He has forever been thankful for this program with the Highland Park and Belfast Clubs. Its intensive nature transforms lives. Even he came back more sophisticated and with a better understanding of the world. Of all the exchange programs in all of Illinois' high schools, there is not one that compares to this one, he said.
Teacher Colette Pretet thanked the Club for giving her and the students the opportunity that TABU offers. To her, the special moments of the trip were seeing history come alive in the eyes of the students.
Mark Plonsker was struck by the face to face conflict and how heavily defended the police stations are. He was also honored to meet Reverend Dr. Goode.
Hannah Seinfield was impacted the differences in the high schools, Belfast Royal Academy and Our Lady/St. Patrick's College. She found many programs useful and would like to implement here. Most of all, she took away that we are more similar than we are different.
Nate Ellis expected to find the U.S. Consulate to resemble a military base, but was pleasantly surprised to the contrary. Learning how the Consulate keeps an open line of communication with the two was interesting and gave Nate something to think about for his future.
Nya Liverpool was quite taken with their experience in the Belfast youth court system. It was more intimate - one on one - the restorative justice system. With dialogue and the young offender taking responsibility for his actions, speaking to the victim, learning from the victim the hurt their transgression caused, she felt this was something that could be put to use in our systems.
Stephanie Lee felt this trip helped her find her focus - the differences in our prison system compared to Northern Ireland's. The prison they visited in Belfast had gardens, sheep and programs designed to build skills ad help get the offender find a job once they are released. She compared the facts of returning prisoners of the two countries and ours is extremely high because we do not give our inmates the chances to reform like Northern Ireland does.
Felicity Hector-Bruder closed with saying the trip gave her insight and life lessons. Reverend Dr. Goode's words remain with her. Any one person can have an impact - when dealing with conflict, remember to find your commonality.
Mark Plonsker, Felicity Hector-Bruder, Cynthia Plouché, Phil Lazarus, Nate Ellis, Nya Liverpool, Colette Pretet, Hannah Seinfeld, Stephanie Lee and Tom Koulentes
As with every year, we are inspired by the young people we come in contact with through TABU, RYLA and Interact. Each meeting like this we leave feeling lighter in our steps, knowing that through our Rotary programs we are helping to put the world in good hands.
