President-Elect: Prince Kumar Vice-President: Jayson Phelps
Treasurer: Rick Goldsmith
Executive Director: Carol Hutchinson
RI President
Holger Knaack, Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln, Germany
District Governor
Mark Chipman, Whitby Sunrise
Editor of the week: Maureen Bird
Scholarship Lunch, September 11, 2020
Our Scholarship Committee
Chair, Pauline Lyons
Interlude 12:00 pm
Meeting Start: 12:15 pm
Our Club’s Scholarship program is nine years old. The students continue to excel in their chosen courses. Our 2019 recipients, Hshmat Sahak and Joshua Harrison-Maul received excellent grades in their first year and have begun their second year with great enthusiasm.
Despite the best efforts of our committee, we were unable to award a scholarship in 2020. Students were not able to submit applications due to the school closures because of the pandemic. We look forward to 2021 when we will be able to give a deserving student the opportunity to attend university to pursue their chosen career.
KeyNote Speaker, Amna Majeed, 2016 Winner
Amna Majeed graduated from the Life Sciences Program at the University of Toronto and has completed her first two weeks in medical school.
She is finding it very challenging and is pleased to share her journey with The Rotary Club of Toronto. It is due to the Club’s scholarship that she has been able to be a part of numerous university activities. She worked with the Health and Human Rights Committee to promote mental health and with Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) to advocate for inequalities within the STEM fields. Last year, She even had the opportunity to be the conference chair for WISE, through which we hosted a conference for over 600 delegates around North America to come together and discuss new research topics in STEM, and issues such as confidence and imposter syndrome in the workplace.
Last year, she became the UofT Rotaract Co-President. They have hosted bi-weekly discussions on mental health and wellness, and fundraisers for organizations such as Plan Canada. She recently attended the UofT Rotaract meeting with the next year’s executive team. Indeed, none of this would have been possible without Rotary’s constant assistance.
These clubs have not only allowed her to internalize the Rotary motto of Service Above Self, but have taught her the importance of joining clubs and organizations within university – allowing you to give back to your university and local community.
John Chen, 2014 Winner
John is beginning the second and final year of his research-based Masters in Computer Science graduate degree program at University of Toronto, St. George Campus. Advised by Professor Frank Rudzicz, his research focus is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Healthcare applications.
Over the course of his first year, he has submitted several publications for review, working on topics such as fairness in machine learning for healthcare and large-scale text mining for the COVID-19 pandemic. This summer, he worked at two internships at large US tech companies. First, he worked as a machine learning software engineer intern at Lyft, where he helped develop and deploy a conversion model for dynamic pricing. Next, as an applied scientist at Amazon, John is working on improving natural language understanding for Amazon Alexa.
In June 2020, he received the Ontario Graduate Scholarship in recognition of his excellence in graduate studies and scientific potential. This year, John is finishing his thesis for his Masters degree and will work as a Math and Computer Science Academic Don at Trinity College in the University of Toronto, where he hopes to combine his love of teaching and mentoring students. Next year, he hopes to continue his graduate education in the MD/PhD program at University of Toronto.
John is forever grateful for the support of The Rotary Club of Toronto and hopes to pay it forward.
Lorenzo Penate, Winner 2017
Lorenzo is entering his final year of studies at York University’s Schulich School of Business, where he’s been studying towards a Bachelors in Business Administration. Due to COVID-19, he completed the later portion of his junior year fully online, and for his academic achievements was recognized with Dean’s Honour Roll.
Over the past year he has continued his involvement on campus and in extra curricular activities. This includes being part of the Communication and Selection Committee for the Merit Award, facilitating a boxing program for youth in marginalized communities aimed at both athletic and personal development. Earlier in the year he founded greeni, an initiative focused on raising awareness around sustainable practises, which went on to win an award from RBC Ventures during the Schulich Startup Night.
Over the summer he completed his second internship at RBC working on their Global Cyber Security team. This experience afforded him the opportunity to learn some of the skills necessary for working effectively in a fast paced remote environment.
Joshua Harrison-Maul 2019 (left) and Hshmat Sahak 2019 both have a class conflict with today's lunch. They have recorded video messages which will be included in our posted meeting on Facebook and our website.
Sandhya and Swapna Mylabathula –who call themselves STEAM (science, technology, engineering and math)sisters and their topic will be: “The Impact of Concussions”.
Speaker September 25, Ellin Bessner
Ellin Bessner is a Canadian journalist based in Toronto. She is the author of a new book about Canada’s Jewish servicemen and women who fought in the Second World War. The book is called “Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War ll”. You will have an opportunity to purchase her book online.
Ellin was born in Montreal and graduated with a degree in journalism and political science from Carleton University. Her career as a journalist took her around Canada and around the world, working for CTV News and CBC News, and also stringing for the Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press and other organizations.
As a foreign correspondent based in Rome, Italy, during the 1990s, aside from reporting on the Vatican, the Mafia, Italian food, fashion, and opera, and of course, on Italian soccer, Ellin also covered several brutal civil wars in Africa. She’s interviewed Prince Phillip and the Dalai Lama. She was a business anchor for many years at Report on Business Television, now BNN.
Ellin has also taught hundreds of budding young journalists, in her capacity as a professor at Centennial College Journalism School in Toronto, and before that, at Seneca College and Ryerson University.
In her spare time, she plays Mahjongg, gardens, and loves the “Outlander” series. She lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario with her husband and two sons.
Welcome New Member Esther Simon
Esther Bala Simon and her husband Pius Bala Simon were born in Nigeria but now Canadian citizens. Esther and her husband came to Toronto with her family in 1996 under the skills category from England (Manchester) after completing their studies with their 3 dependent children (Mbang, Sakmufuoh & Nnali) and later had her last son (Timbwak ) in 1997 here in Toronto.
Esther completed her undergraduate degree as a Librarian at the Manchester Metropolitan University, England in 1992 and worked for 5 years with the Manchester City Council as a Librarian (Commercial Library) prior to coming to Canada in 1996.As a foreign trained professional, just like any other newcomer to Canada, finding work in the Library was a challenge due to funding cuts - library staff were laid off that year, as such getting a job in the library was a challenge.
Esther decided to explore community work which she has always had passion for. Esther decided to go back to school (Seneca College), where she completed a diploma in Social Service Worker Program in 2001. Esther has work in various community Centres at the capacity of a Crisis Intervention Worker, Housing Counsellor, Program manager (Adult program) and currently working as a Caseworker with the City of Toronto, Employment and Social Services (Ontario Works).
In view of her work and contributions in the community, Esther was nominated for Ontario Premier’s Awards and Seneca College Distinguished in 2005.
Esther continues to volunteer in the African community and also helping as a board member with a few grassroots community organizations working with newcomers, youth and families.
Esther is looking forward to becoming a member of the Rotary club where she would continue to volunteer her time towards services to humanity. Her hobbies include travelling, sports and music but would like to explore fishing.
The Rotaract Club of Toronto has kicked off their September One-Month Challenge!
Join the Rotaract Club of Toronto's Community Service Committee in their "Everything Local" initiative. Many businesses are going through a tough time right now, so let’s support our economy as best as we can. For the month of September, the Rotaractors are committing to only eating at local restaurants, and shopping only at local clothing and grocery stores. They would love it if you would join them on this challenge.
If you have any recommendations, find any hidden gems, or want to share some photos, please send them to the Rotaract Club of Toronto's Community Services Director, Leah Kosowan, at csctorontorotaract@gmail.com so that they can be shared with the club!
Andrea Tirone
Liaison Director, Rotaract Clubs of Toronto and U of T
Treasurer, International Service Committee
Supporting Local
Geoffrey Johnson (enVille) has opened Burger Alley for lunches and for Friday dinners. Call 416-533-8800 to book. Recently members Rohit Tamhane, Michele Guy and John Fortney had lunch with him. A simple lunch menu of burgers and some impressive poutines.
There are many other local venues that we can support.
What you Missed, WERM September 2, 2020
by John Fortney
We chose not to have a speaker but bounce around social rooms on Zoom. Our theme was the Canadian National Exhibition, the world’s largest annual fair, cancelled this year due to Covid. We were divided into rooms to tell tales and stories about the Ex. The trouble is, you never knew when you would be plucked from one room and plopped into another mid sentence. We also had an Ex themed bingo game won by one of our newest members Joseph Tubbs. We also shared some photos of the Ex or going to the Ex. The pictures are available on our Facebook page.
Our Syrian Newcomers enjoying summer
Muneer and Lubna al Zahabi and their three children arrived on May 10, 2017 and recently submitted their paperwork for citizenship. Muneer has completed his degree program at Seneca in Television Production with honours but in these times is still seeking employment in this field.
Last week Maureen and Gerry Bird were able to host the Zahabi family for three days at a cabin near them on Cameron Lake. Lots of outdoor activities!
This picture was taken in May 2019 celebrating two years in Canada.
What You Missed August 25, 2020
Our special guest was performer Liberty Silver, a close friend of John Fortney's, who has entertained at many of John's fundraisers and our Ice Breaker in 2005. She sang for us and left us with many ideas for surviving life in tough times. Thank you for those great thoughts!
Fellowship & Entertainment Activities
Chair, Pat Neuman
We are here for the long term so please join in. All events are listed on our Google Calendar accessible through your @rotarytoronto.com account or find the emails sent out in advance. Contact Maureen Bird if you have access problems. 416-804-3726.
Wine Tasting Club starts again on September 16. May be full for this session now.. .. Contact Neil Phillips nphillips@dgn-marketing.com
