Wings of Knowledge Youth Initiative
MEETING FOR THE WEEK OF April 1, 2024
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Wings of Knowledge Youth Initiative
Speaker: Vahid Motazedian
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time. Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
To properly attend this meeting, please:
Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
Complete the attendance survey.
Everyone is also encouraged to leave a comment in the Disqus section at the bottom of the page.
Message from our President
Greetings Members and Friends of Rotary e-Club of Silicon Valley. As President of our Club, I want to welcome you all today.
WEEKLY FUNNY WITH SHAGS
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin!
Crime of Silence
A friend of mine got kidnapped by a group of mimes...
They did unspeakable things to him!
INSPIRATION
Every week we share a short video highlighting innovation, education, entrepreneurship, or whatever we think might inspire you to see the world in new ways.
A company called Festo makes an artificial bird called the Bionic Swift. This is the kind of video that can get one thinking about challenges, opportunities, and concerns with new technologies.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
Why Your Voice is Like a Fingerprint
Kim Mas, Vox Producer, shares the features that make your voice unique.
Club News
Members
Watch your mailbox for announcements about this fundraiser from Rushton.
In addition to the walk that we do, we will engage in bringing together the community to encourage, remember, educate, and fight back. This year, a group from our club will be taking a major role in the event, picking up food for the meal from nearby restaurants.
For that "fight back" part, one way we make a difference is by raising money. That money is used for "advocacy, research, and patient support to measurably improve the lives of cancer patients and their families."
Our club participates in all the ways described above with a goal of our own:
Every member takes part.
Members and friends of the eclub: please plan to share a message, take part in Santa Clara, and/or donate to the cause.
Let's all do something together to make a difference!
On Saturday, March 30, our eClub Social Committee (Lisa Akselrad, Terri Schenkil and Sandy Stabile) organized a Bay Area Meet-up. We enjoyed a delicious Mexican Food lunch and terrific fellowship for almost 3 hours. For many, it was the first face-to-face meeting and everyone had a great time. Attending were: Lisa Akselrad, Patience Awazi, EPA Club, Maria Sol, Palo Alto University Club, Raj Bhandari, Phil Dean, Mike Kane, Christopher Major, Terri Schinkel, Elton Sherwin, and Sandy Stabile. We enjoyed getting to know each other better and discussing ideas for projects and more fellowship activities for all members. We hope that all of you know we were thinking of you, and hope to connect more of us in the future. It was also an honor to present Elton Sherwin with his new Paul Harris Fellow pin - Congratulations Elton!
Club Service: Club Service is one of Rotary’s Avenues of Service.
Club Service allows a member to play a crucial role in performing tasks and activities that contribute to a great club experience for both current and new members. Engaged and active members are vital to the success of the club as they enable the club to offer service to your communities and help attract new members.
Message From President-Elect Mike
Big Thank You to Teri Schinkel for accepting the position of Co-Secretary for 2024-2025, and Sandy Stabile for accepting the position of Co-Membership Chair for 2024-2025. Please let them know that we appreciate their upcoming service in these important club roles.
We are preparing our grant projects planning for the remainder of this Rotary Year, and are looking ahead to 2024-25 beginning July 1. We are finalizing our Projects Committee. Doing Rotary Projects is a big part of why we are Rotarians. To ensure that our club is active and effective in planning and executing our projects; Global Grants, DDF Grands, and our own unique eMini-grants, we need more members to join Cecelia, Rushton, and Maxi in the Projects Committee. Committees are the backbone of our Club - it’s how we get “stuff” done. It’s a great way for all members to be a part of what we do, and a chance for true Rotary Service Above Self. Be Engaged - please let Cecelia, our leader for Projects, know that you want to help be part of our Projects Committee - and have a direct hand in the good work of our club.
Remember, being a Rotarian means more than just being a member, being a Rotarian means you are willing to do Rotary work. Please volunteer! If interested in working on a club committee (Membership, Club Service, Programs, Foundation, Youth Service, Mini-Grants, Budget & Finance) please let President Nick or President-Elect Mike know ASAP!
TRF & Every Rotarian, Every Year (EREY)
It’s not too late. Have you donated to TRF?
Help our club join others in District 5170 to achieve 100% EREY. Only a $25.00 donation (more is welcome if you can) per member will qualify us for the District EREY lottery. The winning clubs will earn extra DDF funds to help us in our efforts to make a better world. Remember, our DDF comes back to us through your TRF giving. Sign up today for your TRF contribution - https://www.siliconvalleyrotary.com/trf
Is your latest information posted on our ClubRunner Members site at: https://portal.clubrunner.ca/8370/Page/ShowHomePage. After logging in, please be sure to access the MyClubRunner tab, and select My Profile. Please update your personal information here, which automatically updates our club directory.
Your Service Hours reporting will now take you directly to your ClubRunner Login and Entry for Volunteer Hours. From this point forward, your Service Hours will report to Rotary from ClubRunner.
TRF and EREY - There’s still time to consider your gift to Rotary for the annual TRF Fund. There are several ways to give: outright payment (Check or Credit Card), monthly payments billed to your credit card, allocation to several funds, etc. Our TRF Chair, Phil Dean has already sent by email your pledge and methods for collecting. Have you returned your pledge? Our Club is striving to be designated as “Every Year, Every Rotarian”. Your gift matters, either a small amount or a large amount (that is up to you - we will never tell you how much to give). A portion of our Annual fundgiving will come back to us for our DDF usage.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: 1 April
Luciano Pavarotti: "I think a life in music is a life beautifully spent and this is what I have devoted my life to." - Illustrates the diversity of passion that drives Rotary members in their service and commitment to making the world a better place.
District 5170
Read the latest news from District 5170 - https://rotarydistrict5170.org
SERVICE REPORT
Tell us about the service you’ve done recently for the Club or in your community. Also, post here if you attended another Rotary Club meeting this week
Click here to post your Service Hours directly to ClubRunner
SERVICE PROJECT OPPORTUNITIES
For upcoming club projects in District 5170, check out the District 5170 website. Also, if you have some time available for projects, be sure to let your local area Rotary Club know that you are available to volunteer for their upcoming projects.
HAPPY DOLLARS: Do Good by Sharing Something Good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use.
PROGRAM: Wings of Knowledge Youth Initiative
SPEAKER: Vahid Motazedian
Every week we bring you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub or Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
This week's speaker, Vahid Motazedian, serves as the executive director for Olinga Learning and the Foundation for the Application of Science (FAS), two California nonprofits dedicated to empowering youth to contribute to the social and economic development of their small, rural communities.
Vahid grew up in Iran, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Oregon. His father studied agriculture and dedicated his life to helping small farmers in rural communities. Vahid got his BS in electrical engineering from Oregon State University and worked in Silicon Valley for companies including Advanced Micro Devices, Synopsys, Oracle, and Salesforce.
He left high tech in 2015 and moved to Salinas to devote himself to nonprofit work. He dedicates his time and energy to advancing educational programs that equip youth with moral and scientific capabilities and to developing technology solutions that help farmers.
The Wings of Knowledge Initiative, which we'll learn about in his presentation, aims to empower youth to improve their rural communities through participatory action research projects. It began with simple projects designed to improve some aspects of community life, such as painting murals, planting flowers, teaching children, and trash cleanups. Over time it grew in scope and complexity to include engineering projects designed to help local farmers. This presentation shares the story of how small teams of youth in California's forgotten towns are working together to advance processes of science research and technology development within a wider context of improving their communities and the lives of their families.
Members and guests, please welcome Vahid Motazedian!
To learn more, go to:
To learn more about the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley, go to:
Important Announcement - “Weekly Rotarian” Full Meeting Podcasts
Announcing: Our main program speakers are now available as audio podcasts in addition to YouTube videos! Each week they are available on Spotify, Google, and Apple podcasts.
Or you can simply click below for this week’s speaker:
And our original podcast, featuring Some of the best of our previous speakers is still available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts
UPCOMING PROGRAM RECORDING SCHEDULE
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
THE ATTENDANCE SURVEY
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.
We have a very short attendance survey below for you to fill out to record your attendance.
Visiting Rotarians, this is how you can get an email receipt to pass along to your club’s secretary as proof that you’ve attended our meeting if you need it for makeup.
Non-Rotarian Guests, we would love to see who is dropping by our meetings! This part is optional for you. If you think you may want to join our eClub at some point in the future, we would strongly recommend you fill out the attendance form as it will improve your chances of success for your membership application.
For all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment in our comments area below. Tell us how you enjoyed the program. Ask this week’s speaker any questions you might have. Or just stop by and say hello and tell us where you’re from!
Important: Once you submit the Attendance Survey below, please make sure you see the confirmation message. If you get an error message instead, please try the 'submit' button again, and if that doesn't work, please refresh the page and fill out the form again. Thanks!
