Savannah Brown has been selected as a Rotary Distinguished Student of Service. Courtesy photo

ROTARY NEWS

The Motto of Rotary is Service Above Self. To support this, the Rotary Club of Los Alamos honors “Distinguished Students of Service” in their junior year of high school each academic year. Students are first nominated by their teachers who are asked to select those who: 

• have given positive contributions to their high school and/or in the community, 
• have a good attitude toward learning, 
• are good citizens, are respectful of their peers and teachers, 
• and have good grades, attendance, and classroom participation. 

The Club then selects students based on demonstrated spirit of service and exemplification of the Rotary 4-Way Test: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build good will and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? 

The Rotary Club of Los Alamos recently selected Savannah Brown as a Distinguished Student of Service. 

Brown is a member and strong contributor to Olions, the high school theater club, where she is the head of props as well as the building and stage manager. Brown volunteers for service projects with her church, at Family Strengths Network, and routinely assists an individual with multiple sclerosis. In addition Brown is also a student athlete who competes on the Los Alamos Bombshells Rugby team. 

In a Rotary essay, Brown described one of the challenges facing today’s youth: “teens entering middle and high school who feel lost and don’t know where to start.” In her essay, Brown related how being involved with theater has helped her grow and find a sense of spirit and direction. She would like to give other students the opportunity to experience the same thing. She wrote, “While I believe STEM is important and people can be inclined to those fields, not everyone is going to thrive. The involvement in these after-school activities allow for the freedom to make our own choices. People can find a new passion with these programs. Without these programs, people can feel lost and have no safe space to turn to. At the beginning of high school I was one of these kids. Olions gave me a safety network of people. I can trust everyone to build me up. I want to spread these programs to the middle and elementary kids. In a team effort with another member of Olions, we are going to try to make it happen. We want to start summer workshops to introduce theater to these kids.” 

The Rotary Club of Los Alamos feels that this is a very worthy effort and commends Brown on her service to the youth in Los Alamos. 

Brown named Los Alamos High School Foreign Language teacher Elizabeth Bates as the teacher who has been most influential in her life.