The Richard D. King Speech Contest
This Meeting’s Highlights
Program: The Richard D. King Speech ContestSpeaker: Speech Contest Contestants Kenny Tran & Annie DangMeeting for the week of February 20, 2017 to February 26, 2017Is 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; read it while on public transit, waiting in line for coffee, or even at the park! Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Message from President Mitty
Speech Contest!
New to our meetings? Then I want to welcome you to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley's online meeting! Every week we curate inspiring and educational content in an online format like the one you're seeing here. As you continue reading, watching, and scrolling, our hope is that you'll leave feeling a little bit more inspired. As an online Rotary club, we have these asynchronous meetings online, but we also meet in-person in the Silicon Valley / San Francisco bay area for service projects and for social events. Keep reading on, and feel free to also join us for one of our in-person events if you can make it!I'm excited to announce that this week we have a very special program: our annual Richard D. King speech contest! You will learn more about the speech contest in The Program segment of this curated meeting, but the quick summary is that it is an annual speech contest every Rotary club in our district hosts for high school students.For those of you who have attended our meetings in the past, you'll know that our weekly meetings feature a program with a guest speaker. This week, instead of the normal program lineup, the recording is that of the two contestants we had for our club level speech contest. Members and guests, you'll be able to witness first-hand the speeches of our young contestants.I'm very proud of our two contestants for stepping up and taking time out of their busy schedules to participate in our club's speech contest.It's exciting to see so many young leaders developing their own skills. In this week's meeting we also have a thank you video from one of the Interactors we sent to PWR, their annual Interact leadership training camp.Thank you to everyone who is stepping up to contribute either some of their time or some of their money to helping us improve our local communities and the young leaders in them.
Yours in service,
Mitty Chang,
President
Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Weekly Inspiration: Baba Singh and His 200-Pound Turban
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change. This week we are featuring a video from Great Big Story on a man's 200-pound turban!
Baba Avtar Singh is a Sikh who lives in the northern Indian state of Punjab. As part of their religion, Sikh men wear turbans. Baba Singh, however, wears an especially large turban—quite possibly the largest anywhere. Weighing almost 200 pounds and comprised of more than 1,500 feet of fabric, Singh's turban is even too large to fit in buses or cars, so he gets around by motorcycle. And he's quite a sight to behold.
Woah, Baba Singh! What is the heaviest thing you've ever put on your head?
Laughing Out Loud (L.O.L.) with our Lady of LOLs
We believe that laughing a little every day keeps you healthier. Every week we try to share with you something that will make you smile! This section is curated by Rotarian Yvonne Kwan, our club’s “Lady of LOLs.”
Jokes this week are included in the program video, in-between contestant speeches!Just watch the program to enjoy your weekly dose of laughs!
World of Rotary: Thank You from Interactor Chris
Rotary is a 1.2 million member organization, with clubs in over 170 different countries. In the Silicon Valley alone, there are over 50 Rotary clubs. Our club is one of many Rotary clubs out there, and this segment is dedicated to sharing stories about what's going on in the world of Rotary.
This week we are featuring a video message from one of the two Interactors our club sponsored to attend the district's Interact Presidents Winter Retreat (PWR) event that happened the previous week.PWR (pronounced "Power") is a two day, one night leadership camp that brings together 2 prospective or incoming club leaders from every Interact Club in our district for a weekend of team building, soul searching, friendship, and leadership development. PWR is considered by many a mini-RYLA. (RYLA is a longer leadership development camp for high school students Rotary districts, including our own, host.)In the video message below, we have Interactor Chris from the club our Rotary Club sponsors, Interact Club of KIPP San Jose Collegiate Prep located in San Jose, California.https://youtu.be/glnRBYOp7yAThank you to everyone who made a generous donation to the happy dollars in previous weeks during which we were collecting money to help sponsor and send two Interactors to PWR.While we weren't able to raise enough from happy dollars alone to cover both Interactors, our club's Board of Directors voted to cover the remaining amount from our club treasury. The happy dollars for this week goes back to our club treasury to refill the money we used to send these two Interact leaders to PWR.We're looking forward to hearing from our second Interactor, Marilyn, in next week's meeting.
For Members: Updates
This segment of the meeting is dedicated to our club members. This section includes announcements and new initiatives. Guests, you are welcome to read this section or just skip it.
Challenge Coins for Donations to The Rotary Foundation
From our Club Foundation Chair Andrew Taw: "To celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Rotary Foundation, District 5170 is currently offering beautiful challenge coins for donations to TRF during the 2016-2017 Rotary Year (which is from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017)! These coins have the 100th anniversary logo on one side and the 4-Way Test on the other."
Members who donate the following amounts will receive the following coins:
$1000 - Gold$500 - Silver$200 - Bronze
Donated enough to The Rotary Foundation since July 1, 2016 to qualify for a challenge coin already? Go ahead and request your Challenge Coin via the online form here then!Haven't donated enough to qualify for a coin yet? Then consider making those donations over the next few weeks!
February's Photo Theme
If you didn't see Kristi's message last week, here is the photo theme for February:
"To honor our current Rotary theme of “Rotary Serving Humanity” our February theme will
be:
HUMANITY.
The goal of this entire photo project is a way for all of us to get to see snapshots (literally!) of our respective corners of the world. A visual glimpse into each other’s lives, if you will. It isn’t a contest and is completely optional. In fact, if you want to submit a photo every week of the month showing us a picture you’ve taken of HUMANITY we’ll take that too! We’re still working out a few details about how we’re going to compile and share them, but will keep everyone updated as we move forward. Additionally, if you still want to take and submit a photo for January (theme: NEW), don’t hesitate to sneak that into this week’s comments too."
Members, didn't see your service report in the blotter? Then fill out the service survey!
Members, want to get your service update into the next service blotter? Please share what you’ve been up to, as it allows us to get to know each other better in the process! Just click on the link below to let us know!For Members Only: Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
Our Events & Projects
We hold our meetings online, but we hold regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley every month! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of our events and service projects listed here.
Also be sure to join our Meetup Group for automatic calendar updates and to RSVP for our events! These are open to all guests as well!
https://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleyrotary/
Upcoming Events:
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)February to April events coming soon! Here are some of the major May and June events to look forward to!
Charity Chili Cook Off for Justin's House - Sunday, April 23, 2017
For the past two years, our club has been volunteering at Justin's House. The mission of Justin’s House is to provide a variety of services that inspire youth to live beyond abuse and addiction. Our club is looking for members and guests who are interested in volunteering this year on Sunday, April 23, 2017 for their annual Chili Cookoff in Santa Clara, California. Interested members or guests, please contact our event chair, Rushton Hurley at rushton@gmail.com - thank you!
Our club's event chair: Rushton Hurley
Rotary District 5170 Conference - May 5-7, 2017 in Santa Cruz, California
Join hundreds of Rotarians from throughout our Rotary district for our annual Rotary District Conference! This year's conference will take place in Santa Cruz, California at the Boardwalk! This family-friendly event will be open to all guests and family members to attend. We hope to see more of our eClub members join us this year!
Our club's event chair: Yvonne Kwan
Rotary International Convention - June 10-14, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Join over 35,000 Rotarians from around the world at the annual Rotary convention! This year's convention will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and features the centennial celebration of The Rotary Foundation! The Rotary International Convention is the largest regular gathering of Rotarians, and is also one of the best networking opportunities anyone can ever experience. Our Rotary eClub will have member events and experiences in Atlanta! Come join us in Atlanta!
Our club's event chair: Mitty Chang
Happy Dollars: Support Our Club
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, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it's appropriate!)
Last week's happy dollars went towards our club's general fund. Here were the happy dollars donations from last week:
Thank you to member Rory Olsen for his $15 donation, to be donated to The Rotary Foundation's PolioPlus Fund! Rory had this to say:"Just bought my first Apple Watch. Not too bad for someone in his late sixties. Please apply my gift to Polio Plus."
Thank you to member Linda Tangren for her generous donation! You rock, Linda!
Thank you all for your donations last week!
This week's donations will go towards supporting club operations such as service grants and covering Interact leaders for future leadership events.
Happy dollars is also a great opportunity to share with the group about something good that has happened to you.
So what are you happy about? Share with us below, and help support one of our future leaders!
Selected Six
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select six comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are six comments selected from last week's meeting about Nanolumia:
Member Brian Liddicoat (California, USA) had this to say:"I really hope this is a success! I have 8 and 11yr old kids. We've tried a lot of STEM games (and Steam games too, LOL) and most of them are well-intentioned but fail to hold the kids' interest after the first play session. That's a very tough thing to do, as every parent knows. So, good luck guys! As a parent I'm definitely cheering for you and will give it a try when it's released."
Member Nathan Gildart (Tokyo, Japan) had this to say:"Ashish and Roman, I really enjoyed being a part of your program. The thought you've put into Nanolumia and the curricular ties will prove to a huge part of its success. The creative thinking and creative problem solving skills children will develop from this kind of program is invaluable. I love seeing gamification in education! Learning through play is a growing trend that I hope to see grow further."
Member Rushton Hurley (California, USA) had this to say:"Ashish and Roman, great job giving us the background that led you to where you are with Nanolumina. Back in the 90s I had a chance to help design scenarios we used with my beginning Japanese language students, built in a setting that did speech recognition for input. The students loved it, and I've been a believer in this kind tool ever since. I like how you have incorporated so many new pieces, and also how you use the parent feedback as part of your work. The key piece (Would you play the game again?) is one you didn't shy away from. Well done! I'd be curious what you're doing to develop the community of people you mentioned toward the end. That strikes me as a potentially powerful piece of your work."
Member Richard Knaggs (South Africa) had this to say:"Thanks for the meeting and congratulations to all the members who were successful in the elections. Ashish and Roman I share your fascination with Virtual Reality learning through gamification. We are exploring this at our our school and as a colleague recently shared with me, "It is about helping people realise their dreams through experience!". We also created an App called Iso2Ortho available on the iTunes App store, which is a 3D to 2D visualisation tool. You really have to look at YCombinator.com I believe they would be very interested in funding this. I also have a friend who is building a new kind of interactive digital simulation tool and I have alerted him to your project (http://www.digisoft.co.za). I hope he gets in touch."
Member Brett Sham (Sydney, Australia) had this to say:"That planetarium is so cool!!! I wish my DIY projects were that amazing. Congratulations to our incoming board. Can't wait to see what you and Stephen have in store for the year. Ashish and Roman - fascinating presentation, I wish learning was this fun when I was in school. Always great to see new innovations in engaging students and teaching them. Would be great to see this roll out into new markets. I know that STEM education is such a priority here in Australia, so anything that can help that would be great."
Member Nicole Pham (California, USA) had this to say:"Growing up, I was introduced to STEM from an early age and now I am proud to be a women in STEM. I cannot wait to see how these children will learn and innovate and grow!"
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!Tip: If you participate in the monthly photo contest via the comments, you're much more likely to be featured in the next week's meeting! Guests can participate too! Read our Members segment of our meeting to learn more about the theme for this month.
Program: The Richard D. King Speech Contest - Club Level
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, education, technology, and humanitarian service. This week we have a special program featuring a recorded version of the Richard D. King Speech Contest our club recently held this past weekend!
The Richard D. King Speech Contest is an annual event all Rotary clubs in our district participate in. There are three levels of the speech contest: club level, area level, and district level. High school students start by competing at the club level where up to three winners are selected.The 1st place winner at the club level goes on to compete at the area level, and the 1st place winner at the area level advances to the district level. For the student contestants who win, there is both recognition and a cash prize awarded to them.Many people go their entire lifetime without having to do public speaking. To compete in a speech contest is a daunting task, and can be even more so for those at the high school level. The speech contest has strict rules that we adhere to, and we also want to remind everyone that the speech contest is an opportunity for aspiring young students to learn and to compete. While this is a special program, our goal is to encourage and to support our young leaders.Due to the rules of the speech contest, this program recording was recorded in-person with our contestants and judges in the room. Our club's Youth Service Chair Yvonne Kwan will explain the rules in the program video below.
Members and guests, below is the recorded version of this year's Richard D. King Speech Contest at our club level.
Congratulations to Annie for placing 1st, and Kenny for 2nd place!
Special thanks to both Kenny and Annie for participating, Youth Service Chair Yvonne Kwan for organizing, Members Ken Oku & John Lozano for judging, and Mitty for time keeping!
And in case you missed their bios from the program, here they are!
Kenny Tran is a senior at KIPP San Jose Collegiate. He will be graduating as a member of the class of 2017 and is the treasurer of his school's Interact Club. He plans to major in either computer science or electrical engineering and minor in dance at a 4-year college. He hopes to pursue a career in the technology industry as a computer programmer and engineer. His long-term goal is to build his own start-up company that seeks to incorporate STEM innovation with humanitarianism. He is passionate about social justice and activism, specifically for people of color, immigrants, women, and refugee rights. He loves to travel to new places and learn about different cultures and languages, with Japan being his goal destination.
Annie Dang, 17, is a senior at Independence High School. As Interact Area 6 Director in District 5170, Annie helps organize and inspire the Interact club leaders of San Jose and Milpitas. Annie loves food adventuring around the bay and aspires to one day fulfill her wanderlust aspirations.
And here is a photo of our awesome judges, Ken and John!And below is a group photo of everyone who was present, including our guest observer Rachel Chu!
Leave a comment!
Normally we open our weekly meeting's comments to questions for the speakers. Due to the nature of the speech contest, we won't be expecting our contestants to be answering any questions, but please feel free to leave an encouraging comment for our two contestants!
Upcoming Program Schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 to 45 minutes long and are subject to change without notice. (Sometimes speakers cancel on us!)
Upcoming Recordings:
Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 8 PM Pacific Time - Recording with Jeff Heil, educational speaker
Want to be one of our upcoming program speakers? Email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with information about what you would like to speak about!
If you would like to join us for any of the live recordings, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with your request. Requests will be checked up until 5 minutes prior to the recording time. Please note the timezone is all California, USA time.
You’re Almost Done! One last thing: The Attendance Survey...
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done. First, 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 makeups.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.More importantly, for all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment below 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!
