Scholarships awarded

The Minden Rotary Club recently awarded $2,500 Minden Rotary Persistence Scholarships to two local Western Nevada Community College (WNCC) students. The scholarships are designed to assist students needing a "helping hand" to further their education. The recipients are Rhonda Vega and Rachel Rosete-Gantner.

Rhonda Vega lives in Gardnerville and attends the Douglas WNCC campus. She has a 4.0 semester GPA and a 3.83 cumulative GPA. She's a member of Phi Theta Kappa, an international honor society for students enrolled in two-year colleges. Her goal is to attain an AA teaching degree in special education. She has three children, ages 17, 15 and 12. Her hobbies include snow skiing and horseback riding, and she's involved in her children's sporting events. She states that she loves working with children at the middle school and gets great satisfaction in making a difference in their lives.

Rachel Rosete-Gantner, lives in Gardnerville and attends both the Douglas and Carson WNCC campuses. She has a semester and cumulative GPA of 3.9, has earned 33 credits to date with 100 percent class completion rate, and is also a member of Phi Theta Kappa. Both she and her husband were active duty military. She wants to complete an AAS degree in nursing at WNCC, then continue her education at UNR to achieve a bachelor's degree. Rosete-Gantner is active in her son's school, and has always been active in the community where she lives.

Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community's business and professional men and women. Rotary clubs are nonpolitical, non-religious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.

The main objective of Rotary is service - in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world. Rotarians develop community service projects that address many of today's most critical issues, such as children at risk, poverty and hunger, the environment, illiteracy, and violence. They also support programs for youth, educational opportunities and international exchanges for students, teachers, and other professionals, and vocational and career development. The Rotary motto is "Service Above Self."

Minden Rotary, the Carson Valley business person's service club, was formed in 1926 and meets every Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. at Carson Valley Inn. For more information, call Chris Apple at 684-5805.