Scholarship program is Rotary alum’s way of giving back
Keyla receives her diploma through the program.
By Richard Hartwig, Rotary Club of Kingsville,
Texas, USA
One day in 1964, during my junior year at South-
ern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, USA,
I was approached by Professor Frank Klingberg,
who asked if I would like to be nominated for a
Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship (the predeces-
sor of today’s global grant scholarships.) Two
years later, I was off to Argentina, arriving just
after a military coup, which was excellent train-
ing for a budding political scientist.
I owe much of my career as a political science
professor to Rotary. The last few years, I have
had a chance to give back as international ser-
vices director for our Rotary Club. One of our
two international projects is a scholarship prog-
ram for poor students in Mexico.
A student enrolls in the program with the support check she received from the Rotary club.
Before coming to Kingsville in 1993, I taught
for three years in Monterrey, Mexico, and at-
tended an English-language Episcopal Church
called The Holy Family. Once a year, Susan
Moreira, Tati Duke, and other church mem-
bers would organize a dinner-dance, Pub
Night, to support a zero-overhead scholar-
ship program called “Dar y Servir” (Give and
Serve). About 250 poor students now have
high school and/or university diplomas thanks
to their efforts.
Four years ago, I heard that Dar y Servir
was in danger of folding. Monterrey had be-
come dangerous and many of the expatriates
who had supported the scholarship program
had left Mexico. I immediately thought of
Rotary.
The Rotary Club of Kingsville — with initial
support from District 5930 — has partially
supported Dar y Servir for the last three
years. Every year, at least one of us flies
down to participate in selecting the scholar-
ship students. Dar y Servir is incredibly cost-
effective. A little over US$500 per year is
enough to keep a student in high school or
in the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon,
which is tuition-free.
We have received dozens of thank-you let-
ters from students like Patricia Lizeth de la
Rosa Castillo, who writes (translated from
Spanish):
“From all of my heart, many thanks for
this great effort. I don’t have words
to thank you. Perhaps for you it is
just a sum of money, but for us it is
our future.”
Learn more about global grant scholarships
Please note that our website address
has been updated to:
www.northjacksonrotary.org
