Rotarian Vincent Chiravalle presents a Distinguished Student of Service certificate to LAHS junior James Ito, on behalf of the Rotary Club of Los Alamos as his mother Megan Lee shares the moment, May 13, at the United Church of Los Alamos. Photo by Victoria Garcia.

BY VINCENT CHARAVALLE
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 May 13 the Rotary Club of Los Alamos presented James Ito, a Los Alamos High School Junior with a Distinguished Student of Service award. James is indeed one who has made service part of his life and he is a very well-rounded student.

James is a member of the National Honor Society and Natural Helpers. He is Vice President of the Junior Class and is also the Vice President elect of the Student Body. In addition to his involvement in student government, James is the captain of the LAHS varsity soccer team and also participates in Club soccer and Sources of Strength. James has been a coach at youth soccer camp every summer, volunteered at the Mountain Elementary School Halloween Carnival, and helped lead the “sticker shock” campaign to spread awareness about the dangers of underage drinking.

In his essay James shared with the Club one of the challenges facing today’s youth; namely student isolation and a dramatic decrease in social interactions since the COVID pandemic. James talked about his involvement as part of Natural Helpers in the “Kindness Hearts” program, which aims to foster student interactions. As part of this program Natural Helpers creates a heart with the name of each student and distributes these hearts throughout the school. Students then search their heart and then give it to another student whom they appreciate. In his essay James described how as Vice President of the Student Body he wants to promote activities like this as follows, “As I walk around campus, I can’t help but notice the amount of students who are alone at lunch, glued to their phone, or just simply seem to have no one to talk to. This pains me, because without the social interaction that I am lucky to experience, I’m not sure where I would be. In the future I am hoping to help lead the planning of many social events. These events could be anything from a drawing competition to a cook off. I am hoping that by serving my school and my community, I can contribute to giving students from all walks of life an opportunity to make meaningful connections and that those connections will spark positive impact in the community.”

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

When receiving the award James was joined by his mother Megan Lee. Rotarian Vincent Chiravalle conducted the award ceremony.