Rotary, Holy Name of Mary, Help Furnish Tomorrow’s Leaders

Robert Bartelt

Each year, the San Dimas Rotary Club selects and sponsors two students to attend the Teen Leadership Camp at The Irvine Ranch Outdoor Education Center in Orange.  This year, both students selected are students of Holy Name of Mary School in San Dimas.  Robert Bartelt, Student Council President, and Gabrielle Smith, Student Council Vice President, are both 8th grade students at the School.  They attended a Rotary Meeting this week with their families and will attend the Leadership Camp this weekend, November 19-21, 2010.  On December 15, the students will give a presentation about their experience to the San Dimas Rotary Club during their monthly meeting.

The Teen Leadership Camp is specifically for 8th grade students and its goal is to develop the leadership skills of the participants, emphasizing on self confidence, self-esteem, personal responsibility, ethics of positive leadership, group dynamics, and peer pressure.  The purpose of the camp is to help participants with personal leadership so that they will be able to develop their skills and potential to be leaders of their peers.  Each Rotary Club sponsors students to attend the camp every year.  The selection process includes identifying participants who show leadership skills, have good character, are well informed on current events, possess public speaking ability, and are in good academic standing.  Potential participants are then selected and an interview process begins among those that meet the requirements.  A Committee then decides which two students to select for participation in the Camp. 

Robert Bartelt has attended Holy Name of Mary School since he was in Pre-K.  In sixth grade, he ran for Student Council and became Spirit and Sports Coordinator.  The following year, he became Student Council Secretary, but Robert says that “it left me wanting to do more”.  He ran for Student Council President for his eighth grade year and he says that it gives him “the privilege of having many responsibilities, setting a good example for the younger children”.  In his Faith Community, Robert is also an Altar Server, Lector, and Eucharistic Minister, which he sees as the biggest honor. 

Gabrielle Smith

Gabrielle Smith has attended Holy Name of Mary School for nine years. She has been involved in Student Council for three years and is currently the Vice President.  She believes that being involved in her school and Church ministries have let her “have a better understanding of Christ” giving her “the benefit of serving Him often” through her responsibilities as a Eucharistic Minister, Lector, Greeter, and Altar Server.  In the sixth grade, she was Religious Coordinator and the following year, took on the job of Historian.  She has been a first honors student since the fifth grade and a merit student since fourth grade.