Los Alamos Reporter

LAHS Junior Luke Favorite Named Rotary Distinguished Student Of Service

Rotarian Tim Bullock presents a Distinguished Student of Service certificate to LAHS junior Luke Favorite, on behalf of the Rotary Club of Los Alamos as his parents, Kandice and Jeff Favorite share the moment with teacher Debbie Grothaus, April 11, at Cottonwood on the Greens. Photo by Sandy Tobin

BY VINCENT CHIRAVALLE
Rotary Club of Los Alamos

The motto of Rotary is Service Above Self. To support this motto in each academic year, the Rotary Club of Los Alamos honors “Distinguished Students of Service” in their junior year of high school. 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?

On April 11 the Rotary Club of Los Alamos presented Luke Favorite, a Los Alamos High School junior, with a Distinguished Student of Service award. Luke is indeed one who has made service part of his life and is also a well-rounded student. Luke is a member of the Rotary Interact Club, Natural Helpers, the Hill Talkers Speech and Debate team, as well as the Key Club, the Business Club, iVote, and the Student Council. In addition to these activities Luke is a drum major in the Hill Stompers Community Marching Band, and he is the Student Director on the Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation Board. Luke is also an acolyte at Trinity on the Hill Church.

In his essay Luke shared with the Club two challenges facing today’s youth; namely mental health challenges due to school and social stress, and poverty. Luke talked about two activities in which he participated  that can help alleviate these problems. To alleviate stress and spread affection throughout the student body he described his participation in the kindness hearts program as part of Natural Helpers. For this initiative student volunteers from Natural Helpers write the name of each student in the school on an individual heart and then the students have to find their heart and give it to someone they appreciate. To address poverty Luke talked about volunteering with House of Hope to help build homes for families in Mexico.  Luke described his work helping to build homes for needy families as follows, “I have been on three house builds to Juarez, Mexico. On each, my group and I funded and built a house for a family in need. Each of these families had children much younger than I and their parents were relatively young. I believe that being able to help these youth to be sheltered is one of the most significant things I have ever done.”

The Rotary Club of Los Alamos feels that this is a very worthy effort and commends Luke for his service to the youth in Los Alamos.

When receiving the award Luke was joined by his mother Kandice Favorite, his father Jeff Favorite, and LAHS teacher, Debbie Grothaus, who nominated him for the award. Rotarian Tim Bullock conducted the award ceremony.