On Tuesday June 4th the Club had a special guest as long time friend and Rotary Exchange Alumnus Michael Lombardi attended the meeting and brought us up to date on his activities.
Acting President Pauli introduces Michael for our new members
Michael Lombardi grew up in Kittery and had the opportunity to take one of the first sister community exchanges to Japan while in Shapleigh middle School. That experience awoke a very strong interest in Michael and he proceeded to teach him himself Japanese. Michael decided he wanted to take a long term Rotary Youth Exchange to Japan and in 2015 he got the Club's endorsement to sponsor him. Michael also set out to raise the funds required himself (on return he presented a three ring binder to the club on how he did it). Through SKYPE we were able to follow him through his Exchange year as he was a frequent 'guest' in our first hybrid meetings (pre Covid variety)
December 2015 June 2017 (2016-17 Rotary Year)
Along the way Michael had "some" success in his other academic endeavors as well. In a first that has never been matched, Michael was selected as the R.W. Traip Student of the Month three months in succession, nominated by three different school departments, finishing his secondary school career as Valedictorian and a Rotary scholarship winner.
Pictures from our 2015-16 Rotary Year
Michael is still working on advanced degrees, and has completed several teaching assignments . He has now been selected to be a full time chemistry teacher at Traip for the coming year. Michael is committed to giving back to the community. Michael said he hopes to be able to expose his future students to Rotary, we suspect he will encourage more than a few future "Students of the Month"!
Michael will be a very positive role model for future Traip Students,
Congratulations and thanks for choosing to teach!