The meeting was chaired by Co-President Moha Bouacha.  Liz lead the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.  There were 14 members present and one on Zoom—also present was Sunny Martin, our Club’s Assistant Governor..

HAPPY BUCKS:  HB were given by Fred for the smooth running Olympics; by David for his 13 year old granddaughter being barmitzved next week and for him recently reaching and enjoying his 94^th birthday; and by Barb and  her husband celebrating their 40^th wedding anniversary.

THOUGHTS OF THE DAY: Patti quoted from author Ben Brown who wrote that as we go through life, we must search and experience the importance of loving ourselves as well as others around us.  Patti also reported on Rotary’s experience in Ukraine where there are 62 Rotary Clubs now operating with over 1600 members. Patti said that many people will be affected by the war for many years and that more information on this subject is available at Rotary.org.

   Moha also mentioned other worldly events such as the disease MonkeyPox spreading to Africa; and that France did a great job with the Olympics with over 200 countries participating and 86 Gold Medals awarded to participants.  But Moha mentioned the most sportsmanship thing that occurred at the games was when a Spanish runner grabbed a runner who fell right in front of him close to the finish line and the Spaniard pushed the fallen runner over the finish line so that he won the Gold Medal.

DIG N GRIN: Since Wes was to do Dig N Grin but unable at the last minute to attend the meeting and since he was a long term administrator  at New Trier High School, Rich decided to fill in by telling the story of  the 15 year old son who refused to go to school one day because he thought all the kids in his class “hated him”—and when his father asked his son what he would think if his Dad  took that same position and refused to go to school--  the son said “you couldn’t do that because you’re 40 years old and  the school’s Principal!

SPEAKER HEIDI KING from COLLEGE INSIDE TRACK.  Heidi is associated with this company which, for the last 18 years, has helped high school students through the process of deciding if and where they should go to college. Heidi has done training on this subject at several Rotary Clubs, as well as high schools such as New Trier, Evanston, and Maine Township. The company also does consultations with individual families as well as students. 

    Typical questions asked by students considering college are :  How easy or difficult for their applications to be accepted; Should it be big state school, small private school, or community college; Availability of scholarships/financial aid; Cost of tuition and living expenses; How effective is the school’s placement office in the student’s major; What is the student dropout rate; and Quality of education in student’s desired major.

   Recent trends in college admissions are 45% of those wanting to go to college need financial aid; there has been a 32% increase in college applications in the last 5 years; most popular majors are business, computer and engineering; the traditional college entrance test is now optional at many schools but the average grades of those applicants taking these tests have gone from C plus to A minus with Purdue engineering applicants required to score an A to be accepted;  and more students are going to smaller universities like DePauw, Drake and Illinois Wesleyan that have good educational programs and often more generous with their scholarships and financial aid programs.  There is also developing some very good community college programs such as College of DuPage which could be steppingstone to financial aid and even merit type scholarship programs.

   Heidi sent the power point of her presentation to David Grant who can forward it to anyone requesting it.  After a short Q and A period the meeting was adjourned at 1:30 with the recitation of Rotary’s 4 Way Test.