Program chair Margaret Curtis is shown here with our speaker for the May 14 program. Allison Noffsinger graduated from Western last Saturday. She is on her way to Tel Aviv as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar from her home Rotary District in Starkville, Mississippi. While she has never been to our club before she said she is no stranger to Rotary and felt very comfortable speaking to our group. She had spent a year in Arequipa, Peru as a Rotary exchange student while she was in high school.
Alli reviewed her home town and state of Mississippi. She said if you ask a Mississippian what are their biggest cities they'd tell you Memphis, Birmingham, and New Orleans. She said many Peruvians did not realize that there was a state called Mississippi and wondered if she lived on a boat. When she came home from Peru she came directly to Western, her Dad's alma mater, and was still thinking in Spanish. Fortunately she met several people on campus from South America and could continue her use of the language.
Now Alli has been sponsored by her home Rotary District, 6820, and the Starkville Club and will be an Ambassadorial Scholar in Tel Aviv. She is wanting to learn both Hebrew and Arabic while in country. Alli says she recently attended an orientation program for Ambassadorial Scholars and they emphasized that they did not want bookworms. Rather the program wants individuals who will get to know the people of their host country and both glean from their culture as well as share insights into our own.
Rotary and the United States of America could not have chosen a better person to represent us. Shalom Alli and thank you for sharing your story with us. Thank you Margaret for inviting her. I have next week's program and Alli's will be a tough act to follow.
