Agenda for On Line Meeting 2024
6:30 PM PDT
- Welcome from President Julie Boswell and call to order
- Roll call and Introductions
- Current Announcements and News
- Program
- Comments and Questions
30 April 2024
Mary Helen Tuttle, PRYDE Leadership Camp for 7th Grade Students
Mary Helen is a member of the Rotary Club of Joshua Tree. She leads the PRYDE camp for 7th grade students in D5330. PRYDE stands for Personal Rotary Youth Development Experience. There are adult Rotarians, Tribal Elders with groups of 6 or 7 students, the family group. There are high school students, PRYDE Guides, who lead the activities. In two days, these young people learn team-building skills, while making new friends and learning more about themselves and what they have in common with others their age.
7 May 2024
Ngor Majak Anyieth
Ngor Majak Anyieth is the Founder and CEO of Education Bridge, South Sudan. Majak was born and raised in South Sudan before leaving for Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya in 2005, where he received most of his education. He later attended the African Leadership Academy in South Africa and graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.S. in Science Pre-Professional (pre-med) and a minor in Education, Schooling, and Society. Before founding Education Bridge, he helped to organize youth empowerment projects in Kakuma and worked with Build South Sudan, a youth-led initiative that teaches entrepreneurship. Majak is a former fellow of New Scholars and of the Echoing Green Fellowship. He also received the 2018 John W. Gardner Student Leadership award from Notre Dame.
Majak is determined to see a South Sudan with lasting peace, stability and development. To date, Education Bridge has built two leading schools in South Sudan and educates over 900 students a year. The schools provide innovative peace education, leadership development and academic excellence.
14 May 2024
Mike Norkin, RYLA – Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Camp
Chief Executive Officer and Owner of Cherished Memories Photography
Meet Mike Norkin, CEO of Cherished Memories Photography. Virtually born with a camera in his hands, Mike was seen as early as 6 years old taking photos with his parent’s cameras. Through the years, the tool changed, but Mike’s passion to create meaningful and lasting memories has continued to flourish! Besides his business, Mike is devoted to his wife Mandy and three children Brealyn, Tatum, and Hudson, Angels baseball, Heinz Ketchup, and Coca Cola! With a sign in his kitchen that proudly proclaims “I put ketchup on my ketchup”, and the only known person to have been bitten by a skunk while camping, Mike is filled with useless trivia and countless funny stories. Never breaking 100 shots on the golf course and sporting the sarcasm he is known for, you can count on Mike to make your day/life brighter simply by getting to know him.
Mike is Camp Director for District 5330 RYLA. He leads two camps per year for high school juniors.
21 May 2024
Dickens Princivil, Haitian Music for Change
One week from Saturday – “Haitian Music for Change,” a string quartet concert at the Haitian American Museum of Chicago-HAMOC! Featuring the world premiere of “Incertitudes!” by Dickens Princivil, written in response to Haiti’s current instability.
This season of Crossing Borders Music performances is made possible through the support of the Paul M Angell Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Music USA Organizational Development Fund, the John R Halligan Fund, and CliffDwellers Foundation. Crossing Borders Music acknowledges the support of the Illinois Arts Council.
Pictured: In front of a light purple brick background, Haitian composer Dickens Princivil wears a black collared shirt and glasses and sports a salt-and-pepper goatee and beard and glasses while looking towards the camera earnestly
28 May 2024
Nora MacLellan, Vision To Learn
Nora is a Rotarian, a member of the Rotary Club of Playa Venice Sunrise in Rotary District 5280.
Aside from being an active Rotarian, Nora volunteers her time as the Outreach Coordinator for Vision To Learn (VisionToLearn.org). Vision To Learn provides free eye exams and glasses for kids in low income communities and title1 schools.
With Rotary she has served on the District 5280 Community Service Committee as the Vision To Learn Chair. In 2018-2019 Nora served as the Executive Aide to District Governor Joe Vasquez. She chaired the District Breakfasts for the 2017-2018 Rotary Year. In 2016 Nora was awarded the Rotary District 5280 Ian Jones Humanitarian Award for her work with Rotary and Vision To Learn.
Regarding Vision To Learn, Nora got involved with the organization in April 2012 shortly after Vision To Learn started operations. Since that time Rotary District 5280 has developed an increasing relationship with Vision To Learn and that relationship has expanded to Rotary District 5330. Working together, Vision To Learn and Rotary are giving children a chance to succeed in school and in life.
She currently lives in La Quinta with her husband Douglas – also a Rotarian, and their Bassett Hound, George.
4 June 2024
Wisdom Addo – Peace Jam
Wisdom Addo is a distinguished Rotary Peace Fellow and serves as the Executive Director at the West Africa Centre for Peace Foundation (WACPF), a non-governmental organization committed to nurturing the youth in schools and communities across Ghana. Through WACPF, Wisdom facilitates education on human rights, leadership training, and peacebuilding initiatives. Additionally, he assumes the role of Africa Director for the PeaceJam Foundation based in the USA. His endeavors are dedicated to instilling peace education among the youth, emphasizing the development of capacities, skills, values, and knowledge essential for fostering a global and sustainable peace culture.
Wisdom has been instrumental in the establishment of various PeaceJam affiliates, including those in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Liberia through the Gbowee Peace Foundation for Africa, and has provided support for the PeaceJam affiliate in South Africa.
With a profound background in peace and conflict studies, Wisdom’s expertise encompasses conflict resolution, human rights, gender dynamics, mediation, negotiation, and peacebuilding. He has spearheaded numerous local and international workshops focusing on conflict prevention and management, gaining invaluable insights into the universal challenges surrounding conflict resolution across diverse cultures.
His educational journey includes studies in conflict analysis and peacebuilding at the Central European University in Budapest and The Network University in the Netherlands. Furthermore, he holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Association of Computer Professionals (ACP) in the United Kingdom.
Wisdom’s commitment to professional development led him to obtain a certificate in peace and conflict studies from the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. He also holds a certificate in International Civilian Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding from the Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution. Currently, Wisdom has earned a Masters in Peace Studies from the Rotary Peace Center at the International Christian University in Japan.