1440 Interact, or 1440, West High’s Rotary International affiliated volunteering club that focuses on community outreach and service, held its first meeting of the school year last Wednesday Sept. 27 in Spanish teacher Jamie Sandhu’s room. 1440 Co-President Zaira Ahmad ’24 provided an overview of the club’s mission and led ice-breaker activities. This year, 1440 will be meeting weekly every Wednesday after school.
Throughout the year, 1440 facilitates a wide array of volunteer opportunities from making dog toys for the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center to organizing a hygiene product drive for the Coralville Food Pantry.
Co-President Kamakshee Kuchhal ’24 joined 1440 her freshman year. Despite 1440 meeting online, Kuchhal was drawn by the club’s community and commitment to service.
“The most fun part is probably seeing people excited about the activities that we do and continue to show up to meetings because they want to help the community,” Kuchhal said. “[It’s] really empowering because not only are you helping the community, but you’re learning about why it’s important to help the community.”
Because of 1440’s close ties with the Rotary Club of Iowa City A.M., members are provided with leadership opportunities beyond the club. Last summer, Kuchhal and Ahmad attended the World Affairs Seminar, a week-long Rotary-International event that aims to foster youth leadership.
“We got into small groups, and we were very focused on how to solve one annual problem,” Kuchhal said. “This year, the problem was climate change. We held a diplomacy simulation where we pretended like we were leaders of countries and [determined] how we would compromise in order to solve [climate change].”
Another Rotary-sponsored opportunity available to 1440 Interactors is The Xicotepec Project, which, every year during the ICCSD spring break, sends a group of volunteers, including high school students, to Xioctepec, Mexico on a service trip. The Xicotepec Project coordinator Jim Peterson presented at the Sept. 27 1440 meeting, informing members on the non-profit’s past projects and future goals.
“Every year there’s probably five, six different projects going on,” Peterson said. “Most [projects] have been related to schools or healthcare. Things like building classrooms for schools, deworming children, doing diabetes checks, building playgrounds and libraries, landscaping.”
Since the first trip to Xicotepec 20 years ago, high school students, including those from West High, have been central to the Xicotepec Project’s mission to facilitate an international service project for young adults. Peterson estimates that of the over 1,000 past project team members half have been high school or college students.
“Students realize just how good we’ve got in the United States and come away feeling more thankful for their comfortable home,” Peterson said. “I think a lot of students, when they go down to Xicotepec, have the idea that they’re going to help change things. [But] at the end of the week they realize that the thing that’s changed the most is themselves.”
To apply for this year’s Xicotepec trip, which will fall between Mar. 9-17, students must submit an application that includes basic personal information, a statement of purpose and one reference. The trip costs $2,050 (all inclusive), and 1440 Interactors can apply for a reimbursement from the local rotary branch for up to $1,000. Peterson holds that students should apply because the trip is an important experience in global citizenship and service.
“Rotary is dedicated to increasing world peace and understanding. It’s pretty hard to do that if you just stay at home all the time,” Peterson said. “Participating in humanitarian service is just a very rewarding experience. Almost everybody who does it feels joy and the rewards of having served somebody who really needs it.”
If interested in joining 1440 Interact, contact Lilly Graham at her email: [email protected].
