Vocational Service at Highland Secondary School

The April 26 meeting took place at Highland Secondary School where the club met with DECA students. DECA is short for Demonstrating Excellence Celebrating Achievement. The students are part of the business education program and are under the guidance of teacher advisor Kathleen Henderson. Vocational Services Chair George Gould arranged the off-site meeting. Over the past few years our club has financially supported the DECA program by sending students to regional and provincial sessions where they have to solve business problems in both written and oral presentations.

Our speakers this morning were club members who gave brief personal accounts of what Rotary was all about for them. Ralph Montesanto talked about how he was invited into Rotary while a Vice-Principal at Highland and how the weekly luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of Dundas was a welcome break from his duties as VP and started him on the road to community and international service. Carl Fraser talked about his MBA and how his financial planning company has been a longtime supporter of the DECA program at Highland. He reminded the students that asking for help is an OK thing to do. And, he tied all this together with the club's building of the artificial skating rink at the Dundas Driving Park. Dentist and New Generations Chair Andy Coburn explained to the students that some occupations tend to be insular and it is great to be part of an organization like Rotary where he could broaden his view of the world. Andy also talked about special Rotary type clubs that occur at university and highschool. This prompted students Bailey Jacobs and Christian Gould to speak with next year's New Generations Chair Kathy Starodub about getting an Interact club set up at Highland.

The meeting closed with Principal Rick Hart thanking us for holding our meeting at the school. He also indicated that he will attend our next regular meeting at East Side Mario's to learn more about becoming a member of the club.