Rotarian Vincent Chiravalle, right, presents a Distinguished Student of Service certificate to LAHS junior Emma Frost, on behalf of the Rotary Club of Los Alamos as her parents, Catherine Puranananda and Jon Frost, share the moment with LAHS teacher Christine Engelbrecht, May 16, at Cottonwood on the Greens. Photo by Tim Bullock
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.
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?
May 16 the Rotary Club of Los Alamos presented Emma Frost, a Los Alamos High School junior with a Distinguished Student of Service award. Emma is indeed one who has made service part of her life and she is also a well-rounded student. Emma is the President of the French Club, the Vice President of iVote, Captain of the LAHS Model United Nations, an officer with Natural Helpers, and a co-founder of the Business Club.
She is also a member of the National Honor Society, and the Hilltalkers Speech and Debate team. In addition to these activities Emma is a swim instructor, a French tutor for LAHS, and she has a keen interest in international affairs, public policy, and the law. Emma is a Fellow for Global Santa Fe (formally the Council of International Relations), and she participated in the New Mexico Human Rights Project as a prosecuting attorney for the Rwandan genocide in a mock international criminal court in Poland, as well as being a summer intern with Dej-Udom and Associates Law Firm in Bangkok Thailand, and a student intern with Youthink Algerian Virtual Exchange.
In her essay, Emma shared with the Club one of the challenges facing today’s youth; namely social isolation, human disconnect, and loneliness caused by months of COVID-19 lock downs. Emma talked about helping to run and facilitate a 3-day Natural Helpers Retreat for 20 freshmen and sophomore students. As an officer with Natural Helpers, it was her responsibility to lead training for students through group activities, to perform skits to teach helping skills to students, and to moderate discussions about problems among her peers.
Emma described how activities like the Natural Helpers Retreat help students connect with each other and overcome isolation: “There are so many opportunities in my community for students to connect with each other, but we need to teach kids how to take advantage of them. Clubs, extracurricular activities and community events offer spaces to counter human disconnect, but kids now need the extra push to start reconnecting with other people in the world. Encouragement is a simple effort, but it is an important one.”
The Rotary Club of Los Alamos feels that this is a very worthy effort and commends Emma for her service to the youth in Los Alamos.
When receiving the award Emma was joined by her mother Catherine Puranananda, her father Jon Frost, and LAHS teacher Christine Engelbrecht, who nominated her for the award. Rotarian Vincent Chiravalle conducted the award ceremony.
