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The Rotary Club Honors an Outstanding HHS Student
Hauppauge High School senior Norma Serbellón has discovered the joy and satisfaction that is gained by giving in the service of helping others. Her compassion and dedication were recognized and honored by the Hauppauge Chapter of the Rotary Club. The Rotary Club named Norma “Student of the Month” for March 2018.
Norma has overcome significant adversity in her life to accomplish many things during her high school experience. Norma came to The United States of America from El Salvador at the age of 13. She will graduate this June with an Advanced Regents Diploma. In school, she gives consistent effort and works diligently in all of her classes. Through her determination, she has not only become bilingual (through her acquisition of the English language), but she also has been extremely successful in all of her classes. In addition to achieving personal success, she enjoys helping others. She is an active member of the Interact Club. In addition, she is a constant resource and support for her peers through her participation in the Natural Helpers program and her interpersonal relationships with her peers.
She encourages her classmates to never give up and has served as a role model for all new ENL (English as a New Language) students in the high school.
In the future, Norma wants to continue to make the world a better place by helping others. She plans on attending college after she graduates high school. After this, she aspires to be a police officer or a veterinarian as these are careers that would allow her to help others.
The Rotary Club is proud to select Norma Serbellón as the “Student of the Month.” The next selection will be revealed at the April Rotary Meeting.
For more than 110 years, Rotary members have been addressing challenges around the world.
Grassroots at the core, Rotary links 1.2 million members to form an organization of international scope. It started with the vision of one man. Paul Harris, a Chicago attorney, formed the Rotary Club of Chicago in 1905 so professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas, form meaningful, lifelong friendships, and give back to their communities.
Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of its members. Paul Harris is quoted as saying, “Whatever Rotary may mean to us, to the world it will be known by the results it achieves.”
Rotary is dedicated to six areas of focus to build international relationships, improve lives, and create a better world. The first area is promoting peace. Rotary encourages conversations to foster understanding within and across cultures. They train adults and young leaders to prevent and mediate conflict and help refugees who have fled dangerous areas.
The second area of focus is fighting disease. Rotary educates and equips communities to stop the spread of life-threatening diseases like polio, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for over 30 years, and their goal of ridding the earth of this disease is in sight. They started in 1979 with vaccinations for 6 million children in the Philippines. Today, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic. To contribute to the end polio effort visit https://www.endpolio.org/.
Rotary is focused on providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene to more people every day. They share their expertise with community leaders and educators to make sure the projects succeed long-term.
The fourth area of focus is dedicated to saving mothers and children. Nearly 6 million children under the age of five die each year because of malnutrition, poor health care, and inadequate sanitation. Rotarians expand access to quality care, so mothers and their children can live and grow stronger.
Rotary supports education. More than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. Rotary’s goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education, and increase adult literacy.
The sixth area of focus is growing local economies by carrying out service projects that enhance economic and community development and create opportunities for decent and productive work for young and old. Rotarians also strengthen local entrepreneurs and community leaders, particularly women, in impoverished communities.
Rotary’s programs are developing the next generation of leaders, providing funding to make the world a better place, and making peace a priority. And their programs are not just for club members. Learn how you can make a difference in your community through Rotary. Visit https://www.rotary.org/en/our-programs
The Rotary information was reprinted from their website at https://www.rotary.org/.
End Polio https://www.endpolio.org/