Five Young Ladies, Miracle of Rotary, 18 Rotary Projects Valued At $979,000 and Six Scholarships

 

Dr. Sara Beck – worked for NASA programming the robotic arms on the space shuttles and space station and was the co-founder of the Central Houston Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-USA). Aerospace engineering degree, University of Colorado, Master’s Georgia Tech and most recently a PhD from Colorado. She is currently conducting water reuse research at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok on a Fulbright Fellowship. As a volunteer with EWB Sara brought the first Grant project to Bill Davis, a water project in San Salvador that Humble Rotary Club headed up. This relationship with Sara ultimately played a role in the development of $900,000 in projects that ultimately happened.

Sara was one of 6,000 applicants in the last round of astronaut applications and made it to the final 160. NASA has announced a new call for astronauts and Sara intends to apply.

 

 

Dr. Isis Mejias Carpio –She has a Chemical Engineering Degree from University of Houston and joint PhD from Universities of Sao Paulo and Houston. She is currently working with Jacobs Engineering in Houston. Dr. Mejias, a Rotary Global Scholar to Brazil sponsored by our Club was invited by Rotary to lead a team of six to Uganda to identify a large water project. Isis was recently one of two panelists on a Rotary Webinar talking about her experiences as a scholar in Sao Paulo and developing Global Grants in Brazil, Kenya and Uganda and on her trips to Uganda to help prepare a $300,000 water, sanitation and health Global Grant for that country. She spoke extensively of her speaking engagements in our District 5890 and to District Conferences of D 5630 in Calgary as well as that of D 5890.

 

Nicole Heydari – Came to Rotary Club of Humble for assistance in funding a course of study at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, the world’s oldest school offering a Master’s Degree in International Studies. She has an undergrad degree in International Politics from Georgetown University – and is currently with with the Department of Commerce in Washington with assignment trips to Afghanistan, Istanbul and India. She recently passed her physical exam with the FBI and is awaiting security clearance to join the FBI.

 

Ali Mondragon -. BSc in Nursing from Oregon Health and Science University and a Master’s in International Management from Portland State University - currently working as a Clinical Consultant for Philips HealthCare in the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

Anja Nikolova – has a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences, from the University of Pavia, Italy (cum laude). She is currently studying on scholarships from Rotary and Yale towards a Master’s Degree of Environmental Management at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Anja has been selected as a member of the delegation of her homeland, the Republic of Macedonia, to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, France (November 30-Dec 11, 2015).  The Rotary Club of New Haven, Connecticut (D7980) is privileged to be her host club, and our District 5890 sponsored her candidacy for a Global Grant Scholarship and provided the District funds necessary for the TRF match.   

 

Thanks to all five women for making a huge positive change in the world and thanks to the Rotary Clubs and Districts in nine countries around the world that contributed funds to these projects. The projects were also funded by the thousands of Rotarians who contributed to The Rotary Foundation and thus enabling the significant matching funds for the projects.

 

In addition six scholarships were funded for studies towards Master’s Degrees in Nepal, Brazil, Chile, Austria, Yale University and Scotland.

 

A common element in all of this was Humble Rotarian, Bill Davis, who is a Cadre Member of The Rotary Foundation and District 5890 Grant Stewardship and Endowment Fund Chair.

 

This indeed is the magic of Rotary.