LAHS junior William McTeigue named a Rotary Club 2020 Distinguished Student of Service. Courtesy/Rotary

By Vincent Chiravalle and Linda Hull
Rotary Club of Los Alamos

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

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
• 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?

The Rotary Club of Los Alamos recently selected William McTeigue as a Distinguished Student of Service.

McTeigue is indeed one who has made service part of his life and is also a well-rounded student. He is a member of the National Honor Society, the National Math Honor Society, the Science Bowl, and is also the Junior Class President, and the Northeastern New Mexico District President.

As a freshman McTeigue was a National Latin Exam gold medalist and a silver medalist as a sophomore.  For five years, he has volunteered with LA Cares and the Food Depot to distribute food for needy people and has participated in a Child Evangelism Fellowship. He has also volunteered as a math and science tutor for two years.

In addition to these activities, McTeigue is a very accomplished student athlete. Not only is he the captain of the track and field team, but he also competes on the cross country and the swimming and diving teams. McTeigue has received Academic All District awards for swimming and diving and for track and field.

In a Rotary essay, McTeigue shared one of the challenges facing today’s youth: namely, the lack of meaningful activities, which leads students into trouble during the summer. In his essay, McTeigue talked about his experience with the Child Evangelism Fellowship, where he worked for five summers as part of a team of missionaries teaching Bible school in Los Alamos, White Rock, Santa Fe and Española.

He writes, “I have been able to see my students mature and grow as morally upright individuals. They have learned to be respectful, humble, and responsible. I enjoy seeing the remarkable transformation that my students have gone through. Through building character and moral principles in today’s youth, I believe we can become the prime examples that future generations will emulate.”

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

McTeigue is the son of Jolyn McTeigue. He named Los Alamos High School Language Arts teacher Christine Engelbrecht as the teacher who has been most influential in his life.