"I was one of the main founders, yes. I started the club with Lowell Iporac. We worked together during our "trial year" where we were trying to establish the club. The year I was president was the club's first full active year. Lowell became inactive very soon after the club's trial year. I wanted to start a Rotaract club on campus because I came to CSUSB missing something. I was the typical commuter student: go to class, go home, repeat. I didn't feel like I had much social support in my new school and I found that I was not enjoying the college experience as much as I had expected to.

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In high school, I was a member, and eventually President, of a club called Interact. It was a branch of Rotary for high school students. I originally joined the club because my older cousin was a member, but I ended up falling in love with community service, leading a city bike event called Tour de Riverside, going to RYLA, and becoming President of Interact. When I went to college and felt unfulfilled, I knew it was because I was not actively serving my community like I was in high school. I became disappointed when I found that CSUSB did not have a Rotaract chapter. I called the department of student leadership on campus to ask about the process of starting a club and explain my mission to build a Rotaract club. The receptionist informed me that another student, Lowell, had started the process of starting a Rotaract club just earlier that week! I got in contact with Lowell and from there, we worked together to build the foundation that CSUSB Rotaract stands on today. So we started meetings officially with only 5 members sometime in October 2011.

 

Rotaract has been life-changing. Starting the club and then being an active leader in Rotaract was by far the hardest thing I ever did in college. There were many setbacks and I was sometimes overwhelmed and frustrated to the point that I wanted to leave the club. I am so happy that I didn't quit. The joy I feel when I see the club update Facebook with pictures of smiling students serving the community and continuing a club that started so small is indescribable. There is nothing that makes me feel so proud. Rotaract was the reason I went to São Paulo, Brazil to represent our district at the annual Rotary International convention. It was the first time that I ever felt like my hard work was paying off and I met other college students passionate about community service from across the globe. Nothing can replace that experience and I am thankful everyday to have been given the opportunity by Rotary. Rotary has made me a better leader, professional, and human being. I cannot express the amount of gratitude I have for Rotary International and the support of the remarkable individuals who keep it alive.

 

The last thing I'll mention is an old story that I read whenever I felt frustrated as a leader or felt like the contributions I made to my community were meaningless. It served as a reminder to me that my hard work mattered and that the legacy that is CSUSB Rotaract would always stay alive. A young man is walking along the ocean and sees a beach on which thousands and thousands of starfish have washed ashore. Further along he sees an old man, walking slowly and stooping often, picking up one starfish after another and tossing each one gently into the ocean. “Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?,” he asks. “Because the sun is up and the tide is going out and if I don’t throw them further in they will die.” “But, old man, don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it! You can’t possibly save them all, you can’t even save one-tenth of them. In fact, even if you work all day, your efforts won’t make any difference at all.” The old man listened calmly and then bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one.”