My huge congratulations to you in your role of President last year leading the Rotary Club of Kapiti to achieve a well deserved Rotary Citation. Your Club is one of four in our District to achieve this award. As a large vibrant Club you have set a great example to others to set and achieve goals and increase the opportunity to make a difference in the community.
The Rotary Citation is one of the most significant awards a Rotary club can achieve. During a year that was challenging for many Rotarians around the world, your club demonstrated a commitment to achieve its goals, which ultimately helps strengthen Rotary and shape our future. Well done, not only for setting goals across all areas of Rotary activity, but for working hard to achieve them, thereby opening opportunities for both club members and the community you serve.
When Janis was diagnosed with a brain tumour her life changed. She spoke about her path to recovery after a sizeable tumor and a piece of her brain was removed. She shared with us how she rebuilt the neuropathic pathways "the wiring", and ways we all can improve and grow our brains as we age and mitigate the common problems associated with ageing
She has recently released a book called Sleep Well to Live Well
Lilly sends her thanks and shares her experiences
My Highlights and takeaways from the IYM experience:
My week away at IYM passed in a total blur of fun and new experiences but there were a few opportunities which stood out to me. The first of which was visiting the Victoria University Coastal Ecology Lab, which until IYM I had no idea even existed! While there we toured the lab and my favourite part was meeting some of the individuals who worked there and specialized in different areas. One of these people was a woman who specialized in sea sponges who told us about how she goes scuba diving as part of her work, the studies she conducts on these sea sponges and the different types. As I said this was something that I wasn't aware existed before and it really caught my attention. After IYM our program coordinator Julie was able to get me a contact within the Coastal Ecology Lab and we've been in touch so I can ask more questions which I didn't get time for during the tour. It's hard to explain why I was so fascinated by the sea sponges but it was just a surprising topic which captured my interest and something I will be looking further into.
I also really enjoyed visiting NIWA (the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Science Research). Whilst there we did a 'speed dating' exercise where we talked to a group of women in specialist areas working there. One of the women worked as an atmospheric forcaster who looked at past changes to the atmosphere and could predict future trends through this. Again it was another job which I had no idea existed but was extremely interesting. Many of the jobs entailed looking at the effects of global warming and predicting how it will affect us in the future which I was fascinated by as this is obviously a pretty important part of our futures. Many of the women had masters or bachelors in their fields and they really drilled into us how important it is to enjoy what you do so you can do well at it. Another lesson I gained from them was that you shouldn't be scared to change your profession and that it's never too late to do so. These were two of my key takeaways from the entire week as many other people said the same message to us .
Another highlight from my week was when we visited A44 games which is one of New Zealand's video gaming studios. They showed us how games come together and the level of detail needed, from artists drawing the bark on tree trunks to animators using getting the precise arc of a ball bouncing. This really excited the creative part of me and it was interesting to see their range of specialties and hear how they joined the company. I was so excited to go home and tell my younger sister all about it as she is very creative and shared my excitement at the artisticness involved.
Honestly for me the whole week was a highlight but these were a few of my favourite visits. As well as this I thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of the girls, every one of whom was lovely. Most of us who have social media are still in touch and my roommates and I talk regularly. The week really helped boost my study motivation and reinforced my love of science.
I'm so grateful to the Kapiti Rotary club for giving me this opportunity as it has had a huge impact on me and I just wanted to share some reasons why.
