Rotary Student of the Month Kirsten Haertling is joined at Tuesday’s awards ceremony by her parents Mike and Trudy Haertling, center, and Rotary Student Scholarship Chair Alison Pannell. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.comKristen Haertling, a senior at Los Alamos High School (LAHS), was recently honored as Rotary Student of the Month. Haertling is the daughter of Mike and Trudy Haertling, and sister of Sherri and Daniel.
The Rotary Club of Los Alamos selects one student each month of the school year to honor as a Student of the Month. This year’s recipients reflect a combination of both LAHS seniors and juniors. Next year, only juniors will be recognized in hopes of inspiring their interest in Rotary programs that fall during the summer following junior year. Students are nominated by their teachers and chosen on the basis of their academic achievement, extra-curricular activities, and, in particular, their service to the community.
Haertling, who maintains an exceptional GPA, is a member of the National Honor Society (NHS), as well as Key Club, the high school service and leadership organization sponsored by Kiwanis International.
Through NHS, Haertling has participated in AP Night at the high school and in Operation Hilltopper, a full-scale exercise designed to test the response of local emergency support systems and personnel in the event of a gunman on campus.
Through Key Club, in which she has served as historian, secretary, and currently as president, Haertling has participated in numerous pancake breakfast fund-raisers, a Christmas party in Española for foster childrenand in Relay for Life, an overnight community walk that raises money for the American Cancer Society.
As a well-rounded student, Haertling has found a place in her life for sports and music. She has been a member of the tennis team since eighth grade and plays violin in the LAHS Symphonic Orchestra, the high school’s advanced orchestra. As a member of the 2010-11 Allstate Honors Orchestra, Haertling performed in Popejoy Hall on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque. Last year, she performed in the orchestra pit for the high school production of “Little Women.”
Currently, Haertling is a student employee at Los Alamos National Bank and will be a familiar face poolside when working at Canyon Vista Pool this summer. She plans to attend Texas Tech in Lubbock in the fall.
Haertling was joined at the Rotary awards ceremony by her parents and selected LAHS AP German teacher Anita Boshier as the teacher who has had the most positive influence in his life.
As a part of Rotary International, the oldest service organization in the world with more than 1.2 million members, the Rotary Club of Los Alamos gratefully acknowledges the contributions Students of the Month and their families make to our community, a principle reflected in the organization’s motto, Service Above Self.
