Rotarian Vincent Chiravalle presents a Distinguished Student of Service certificate to LAHS junior Madalyn Baily, on behalf of the Rotary Club of Los Alamos as LAHS teacher Margo Batha shares the moment, May 20, at the United Church of Los Alamos. Photo by Gregory Viola.

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.
 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 20 the Rotary Club of Los Alamos presented Madalyn Baily, a Los Alamos High School junior with a Distinguished Student of Service award. Madalyn is indeed one who has made service part of her life and she is a very well-rounded student. Madalyn is a member of the National Honor Society, and she is the president of the French Club.

She is a student athlete who competes on the Los Alamos Aquatomics Swim Team, and she is a New Mexico Swimming Athlete Representative, as well as a New Mexico Swimming Junior Official. In addition to these activities Madalyn is a swim lesson instructor and an intern for Empower Physical Therapy.
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n her essay Madalyn shared with the Club one of the challenges facing today’s youth; namely too much social media, leading to a fear of missing out and lacking the sense of belonging associated with friendships. In her essay Madalyn describes creating a team mascot, “Adam the Atom,” for the Los Alamos Aquatomics Swim team, and then establishing a student athletes’ committee that meets monthly and discusses ways to improve the team. These efforts have helped to foster a sense of belonging on the team. Madalyn explained how her initiative to give private swim lessons to prospective team members has helped make it easier for them to join the team as follows, “I noticed that there was a gap between the skill sets taught in many swim lesson programs and the skills needed to join the team. This was causing many young swimmers to get lost in between and never end up joining our team despite their interest in the sport. After talking with my coaches I decided to start providing swim lessons to these students to help get them ready to join the team. By joining the swim team these young people are able to feel a sense of belonging that they truly deserve. Creating these opportunities and experiences for young people has helped not only them but me as well, allowing us to feel what it’s like to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Through our shared community we are able to go out and experience the world instead of seeing it through our phones.”

The Rotary Club of Los Alamos feels that this is a very worthy effort and commends Madalyn for her service to the youth in Los Alamos. When receiving the award Madalyn was joined by LAHS teacher Margo Batha, who nominated her for the award. Rotarian Vincent Chiravalle conducted the award ceremony.