By Mindy Le – Staff Reporter

Interact Club is kicking off the year with new goals and fresh ideas.

This year, Interact Club will be led by College and Career specialist Ms. Intelisano. Meetings will take place every Wednesday after school in the College and Career Center.

“This club offers community spirit, chance to complete volunteer hours,” Intelisano said. “It offers team building, friendship, and an opportunity to do good for our community.”

Interact is a club sponsored by the Devon Rotary. It offers high school students a chance to complete volunteer hours and get involved in the community.

New officers of Interact Club are president Emma Saley, vice president Lauren Paredes,  secretary Samantha Markham, and treasurer Victoria Contaxis.
“Anybody can join, any Jonathan Law student is welcome to Interact with open arms,” Markham said.

The meetings involve briefly going over new opportunities, giving members a chance to sign up for upcoming volunteer dates, asking questions, sharing recent events, and catching up.

“I’d love for more people to know about Interact Club so that they can get involved and see what a great experience that it could be,” Intelisano said “ Right now, we have around 15 members, but we plan on increasing that number significantly.”

Interact Club is making it their goal to get more students involved with the community.

“I want to bring Interact even closer, like a family,” Markham said. “Instead of just going out individually to get hours, I want to have more chances for group, to work together as a club.”

The Interact Club has already offered many ways to get involved such as the annual Christmas Tree lighting, Oktoberfest, Peace, Love, and Music, for Maren, RYLA, Next Generations, and the Beth-El Shelter.

“This is my second year, it really is a great club with great people,” Saley said. “It’s a chance to be active in your community and we want to be able to get more people involved, to open up new things and experiences, like RYLA.”

RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. The annual conference teaches about leadership, ethics, communication skills, and conflict management. It aims to help build self-confidence and trust. It is held at Camp Hazen in Chester, Connecticut. The program is three days long and will count as community service hours.

“At RYLA you learn about leadership, teamwork, friendship,” junior Hieu Nguyen said. “There’s more, I just can’t tell you, it’s suppose to be a surprise. All I can say is you’ll have a lot of fun, everyone is extremely genuine, it’s a safe place, and after three days you will have a new mindset, you will be coming home the best version of yourself.”

Members agree that Interact is a fantastic club that provides more than a just way to complete volunteer hours or get involved.

“I joined so that I could graduate with distinction but I learned this club doesn’t just offer 200 hours,” Nguyen said. “It offers new friendships, new experience. It motivates you and teaches you the value of teamwork.”