Margaret Kalogerakis, the Interact Rotary Club adviser for the Carbon Career & Technical Institute, addressed the Joint Operating Committee about several items.

“The Interact Rotary Club was started here at CCTI in February 2016 through the efforts of one student who attended the Rotary Summer Camp RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards),” Kalogerakis said. “The Rotary motto is, ‘Service above self.’”

Kalogerakis said that aside from one or two fundraisers in a year the rest of the time is devoted to community projects such as volunteering at a food pantry, animal shelter, nursing homes, and more. Students go once a month to the Dimmick Memorial Library to read to pre-K students and help them with arts and crafts. For the Christmas holiday, they raised around $400 from students donating change during their lunch time.

“One student, as she was putting the money into the can, said, ‘Take it all, it’s my tips from last night.’ To me, it shows that the students are thinking of others.”

Breydon Hand, a Digital Marketing and Business Fundamentals student, and a junior from Lehighton, gave a report on his trip to Penn State University for the Teach CTE (Career Technical Education) Day, and to attend the newly-found CTE program offered by Penn State.

“I’m very happy to be able to tell you about this,” Hand said. “It was an amazing experience for both of you and my fellow students.

“What it sought to teach us was a career technical education that we could take part in. So, while we were either attending college or furthering our own education, we could be part of the CTE program to not only further educate ourselves; but, in the future, continue to learn to educate others. It opened my eyes to something I have never even thought about, which was the potential of becoming a teacher myself. By going around and seeing what the academic life of a college student is at Penn State University, it truly helped me develop what to expect and where I should go.”

Student Jada Saldukas from Weatherly, a junior in the Cosmetology Department, who attended the trip provided a written statement expressing her gratitude for attending the event at Penn State. Saldukas also attended Technical Education Day at the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg.

“We started out by getting a tour of the capitol,” she wrote. “I believed it to be absolutely gorgeous, informational, and intriguing. After the tour we had the opportunity to walk around and see other schools and what they do. I loved learning about all of the different schools there and what they do differently from us. I liked to provide information about our school to those other schools.”