UWF Rotaract

10 Reasons Why Every Student Should Join Rotary International Rotary International can transform high school and college students into globetrotting future leaders, all they need to do is apply.

2019 District 6940 Conference

Save the date! The 2nd annual is happening on Thursday, April 18. This year, we are working to double the goal, double the impact.

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https://medium.com//10-reasons-why-every-student-should-join-rotary-international-9afe1d765df9

10 Reasons Why Every Student Should Join Rotary International Rotary International can transform high school and college students into globetrotting future leaders, all they need to do is apply.

Alright ladies and gentlemen. Our meeting this Friday will take place at 6pm on the first floor of the library in the computer room. Please try to be early because we only have the room from 6-7.

If you are interested in UWF Rotaract we will be hosting a meeting this Friday. The location and time are unknown as of right now. I will make another post when we get a set place and time to keep you all updated.

We will be having a meeting today at the UWF library on the first floor media room at 6 p.m. Hope everyone enjoyed their breaks.

Our next meeting is TODAY at the College Vue pool at 4pm. We are planning on have our election today so we can become an official UWF Club 💙

UWF Rotaract has undergone rebranding as PENSACOLA ROTARACT effective as of February 23rd, 2017. The organizations should generally be considered one in the same. The organization is community based with a committee dedicated to the UWF campus that is supervised by past President Cameron Schwersky. There is also a committee dedicated to PCC which is supervised by our very first PCC student Nasser Orozco. Last of all we have Jaymond Alison as our supervising our PSC committee. All observations of this change were made in accordance with the Standard Constitution and bylaws provided by Rotary International and found in more detail within the Rotarct Handbook. In accordance with Rotary International, Pensacola Rotaract is observed to be a separate entity and club sponsorship should be observed to be the same although that transfer of sponsorship has not taken into effect. Our primary club sponsoring club is Seville Rotary. The purpose of this is by UWF standards, someone cannot be a member of the club unless he or she is explicitly a UWF student. This is not fair to all concerned or historically effective in keeping the club sustainable. There are two Rotaract Clubs in Pensacola. The first being: Pensacola Rotaract and second Pensacola State College Rotaract. The goal of this next Rotary year is to encompass both clubs under Combined Rotary of Pensacola in a committee under CROP to be regarded as Combined Rotaract of Pensacola. Our current president is Nic Schellin and we meet at the Fish house every Sunday at 4 PM please message Pensacola Rotaract for more details.

Hi everyone, our meeting will be tomorrow at 5 Pm on the second floor of the library.

The meeting is canceled for today please contact our new president Cameron S for more details.

Pensacola Rotaract meets at Scenic Hills Country Club at 4:00 PM every Sunday. UWF Rotaract meets the following hour at UWF library in the Sky Lab. Message Alice Cordero or Cory Hinsch for more details!

Happy International Day of Peace. ⚙

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXu4wC9YL-c

Rotaract Awareness Here's an awareness video that we have made in conjunction with World Rotaract Week. If you're interested in being part of our Rotaract family, you can visit...

Hi everyone,

If you are interested in an opportunity to be more involved, UWF Rotaract club will be rehabilitating animals at the Gulf Breeze zoo on September 18th from 11 AM to 4 PM. Feel free to bring friends. If you have any questions feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Do it for Harambe,

-Cameron Schwersky
VP UWF Rotaract

Come to the 4pm meeting today at scenic hills country club!

Open to the public!

Costa Rica Day 4 Rotaract Journal

06/01/16

I went through the last few days thinking a lot. I stopped writing the journals for a second because I felt like my impression of what I was experiencing did not have the chance to sink in. I wanted to take a step back and focus on absorbing as much as I could.

The fourth day was a free day. We had a chance to see some interesting sites. Poas Volcano was a great we got there just in time. In just minutes the clouds rolled in an covered the whole thing. It was impressive to think about the depth of the crater that had exploded. I thought it was wonderful to consider the old farmer that told us a story the day before. The old man would go down to the bottom of the the crater with his friend to retrieve sulfur. They used it in some form to help heal their teeth. Many people and their friends would die journeying to the bottom of that same volcano. Along the walk to the volcano there were ferns everywhere and our crew had to remind me not to pick all of the vegetation to smell it. Jordan and Julie continued to remind me of this throughout the trip.

From the volcano, our next excursion lead us to the Lapez Waterfall Gardens where I was anxious to see their waterfalls considering I had seen several myself around the USA. We started seeing all sorts of animals in a sort of zoo on the grounds. It was fascinating to see the dart frogs, monkeys, Jaguars, and poisonous snakes. At first I was disappointed to have seen man made waterfalls left and right while I was being teased by Carl in my thinking that was the show. It is apparent that with my trusting nature I can be somewhat gullible at times. Near the end Carl was adamant that we had seen all of the waterfalls while Scarlett demanded that there were more to see. I take it he was pulling my leg again. To say the view was breathtaking is not fair. The last set of waterfalls were a set of three that can be seen from one view. When we left the trail from the waterfalls we meet an artist at the end. Mihir took a great fancy to the acrylic painter and what the man made. We talked with the man for awhile and he decided to sketch a picture in Mihir's journal. That same journal that Mihir had contained sketches from memories of whole our college experience together and much more making it personal to him with sentiment from me as well. We went home from there and the night came around where we were able to relax and enjoy each others company. A full day of leisure left us with full well rounded experience but still kept me hungry for more.

Costa Rica day 3 UWF Rotaract Journal

Today we were to visit Tiffany's schools. Remember an important part of this project is the official collaboration of the Peace Corp and Rotary. This will set the tone for larger projects to strive for in the future between the two organizations. We started out going to the first one much higher up in the mountains so it took us a but to get up there. The weather is colder up in the mountain and the air thinner too. Once again we had the opportunity to read to the children. They pulled me around each loving seeing someone new just as I did. Each of the kids were thrilled to spend time with us. At one point the all jumped on me and tackled me to the ground in attempt to get me to go outside. I don't know if they understood but one way or the other we came to an agreement that we would play ball only after we read a book together all the way through. Mission success! Although I admit I had a lot more fun playing with the kids and the parachute than reading too!
The second school was really nice it had just been finished. I also noticed that there are churches across the street from a lot of the schools. The original school was destroyed in an earthquake So the church across the street hosted them until construction was completed. With the new facilities they had a more structure. They were very proud of the school and with good reason. I found it encouraging that this school is what some of the other less fortunate ones had to strive for.

After the first school we went to tiffany's host parents house which happened to be on a farm. The was the best chance to for me to get a sense of their culture yet. I went a little crazy eating everything that grew. However, the coolest part of this was getting to have fresh coffee grown right there on the farm with an 83 year old man who is one of 23 children who had 10 himself. Having been at the same farm his whole life he told us many stories such as when the volcano erupted 50 years ago. Talk about culture immersion!

I must admit I have been wrong. I have been talking about poverty in a sense that it might be specific to this country for some reason.perhaps it is because my goal here was to address the needs of the community Life is not better or worse here it is simply different and that is something that you must accept. The people are so full of life and this is something you don't always see in the United States. Not everyone is poor. No matter where you go you will find poverty but you can't take away the pride and joy that this nation takes in everything.

Costa Rica day 2 UWF Rotaract Journal

5/30/16

The biggest impression I have had is the sense of community that you find here. With those that have little, they are proud of what they do have. "Pura Vida" If I am being open, Costa Rica puts southern hospitality to shame. It's the subtle things that I was most impressed with personally such as serving the women first. However everyone can appreciate how welcoming and giving these people are even if they do not have much to offer.

We started the day early at 6:30 with myself screaming "the bus is leaving in 5 minutes!" The traffic was horrible but it made for a scenic drive. Today we were to visit William's school in a town called Cartago (the Peace Corp volunteer I mentioned yesterday). His host father was is the principle of the school and well respected in the community. The community especially comes together in both the church and and the school system. We unloaded the books and were greeted with an assembly from the entire school. During the assembly the group was welcomed with a dance performance from of some of the young ladies there. On the second dance my recording of the whole thing was interrupted by the dancers dragging us onto the floor to join them. I felt so warm and even a little emotional once we had the opportunity to read with the children. In not knowing hardly any Spanish my approach was to pick out a word on each page as they read and had the students describe to me what it meant. This was helpful to keep myself engaged with them. I was truly touched by how warm these people were.

After playing with the children and reading to them, Will took us on a tour of the surrounding town. The school was in the middle of a slew of huts some run down and others seem normal enough every single one of them had a gate in front of their door. (This was not specific to Cartago.) You should note that with the overcast and occasional showers the sun was still so bright that we had to squint.
Soon in our tour we came to a bridge. At the time I didn't know why but William and Carl had become nerves but we looked out over the bridge to see the worst form of poverty we had come across yet. Temporary housing in response to natural disasters in the 80s were built along the river that the bridge ran over. It was still being habited by drug addicts and individuals with mental disabilities without any improvements being made to them sense they were initially built. We weren't aloud to go into this area but could see it from the bridge as it ran along the river. As I saw this I was reminded by one of the children at the school who told me in English, "I live in a hut with grass roof." My heart sank acknowledging the fact that this may have been what he meant. Tafari looked down the side and saw a man banging a steel rod on a rock that seemed like he may not have been in his right mind. Again noticing that our two guides had become uncomfortable we rushed across the bridge. I looked back and noticed in the span of the 30 seconds roughly 10 people had appeared on the bridge where previously there were none other than ourselves. I sound dramatic but they were just asking for money nothing so insidious. I was thankful though that our hosts were so conscience of our well being.

Once we had finished our community service for the day we had a tour our downtown Cartago. This was the upscale side of things that was quite beautiful and developed. We visited ruins and a basilica that both had the most interesting stories. Remember that the countries official religion Catholicism.
The ruins of Cartago were indeed ancient. The story goes that hundreds of years ago the city wanted to build a cathedral but construction was interrupted by an earthquake. After setting a plan to address the aftermath of the disaster, another quake occurred and was taken as a sign from God that this the cathedral should be left as is.
Naturally the Basilica's relic had a story as well. It is a little black statue of a girl. A young lady had placed the statue on a rock and the next day it was gone. She looked all over the city with no luck. The next day it reappeared. She took it as a sign from God and told the religious leader that this statue should have its own basilica. He disagreed, took the statue from her, and then put it in a box under lock and key. The following day statue was found on the same rock while the key had been in the religious leaders possession the entire time. Humbled by their sign from God, the basilica was built atop that same rock. The immersion into this culture left us all in awe.

Our last adventure of the day brought us to Escazu, a sister city of Pensacola. In it we visited Escazu Rotary and their sponsored Rotaract who were especially welcoming. This was a perfect networking opportunity. We bounced ideas off of each other and discussed our ongoing plans. Their English was near perfect. Professionally they exceeded our own club and I think in part it is due to them being classified with Rotary International as a community based club rather the university based. This makes their membership less restrictive. I have already thought that our club could benefit from this as well so their words were a positive affirmation.

El did fue un exito!

https://www.facebook.com/GiveABookToChildren/posts/1739487399641840

Thank you Will for a wonderful day at your school and community!

"What an incredible day at site! With the help of Give A Book and Rotary International, my escuela officially received over 150 new books today which will constitute the start of our very first youth library. Next up - building the reading nook!" (Peace Corps Volunteer Will Fernandez)