Vancouver Sunrise Bulletin 08/29/2012

13 members, and Speaker Chris Lee, his partner, Vanessa Jang, Rotarian Gary Chomyn, Potential Rotarian Cleopatra Perez, and Jonathan Vollett

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Bill advised that the Horseracing event at Hastings Park will not be possible this year.

But Bill advised that the night at the Giants Game will be on in late September or October. Date to be advised.

Bill and ex member Ted MacCormac will be attending a preseason game with Giants in Ladner tonight.

Cam needs some help by other members in our club to find speakers for our meetings. If any member would like to assistance in this activity, please advise Cam as soon as possible.

Julie advised that Ann- Shirley has volunteered to be President- elect.  Our sincere thank you to Anne- Shirley. It is appreciated.

Jonathan Vollett thanked the club for our assistance in partially sponsoring him on the mission to Columbia and Panama. It was a very success trip in fostering business for Vancouver, and also fostering better relations between BC and these two countries. He remains at University of Western Ontario. Travelling on the Panama Canal was a great experience, and a nine-hour delay at Bogota Airport will not soon be forgotten.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT- September 12 meeting will be at the Coast Stanley Park hotel at Comox and Denman, in the Gilford room on C Level.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT , IF ANYONE LIKED THE ROTARY VESTS, THEY ARE $35.00. Advise Julie if you would like one.

NEW MEMBER

Julie and Carlos had the great pleasure of introducing our newest member to the club, Gary Chomyn, who comes from the Ladner Club.  Gary and his wife Jane live on Nelson Street near Denman, his classification is Advertising and Marketing and he works for New Media Ad Group. He is already the recipient of two Paul Harris Awards. Welcome to the Club , Garry.

HAPPY DOLLARS     

David just back from a holiday, John H. just  back from Chicago but leaving tonight to Australia, for about 6 weeks.

ADRIANA  IS BACK. Welcome back, Diana away, The Goodells are away, Cleopatra Perez just back from installing her youngest in Berkley University in California, and her son in Boston.

GUEST SPEAKER - CHRIS LEE

Hello everyone, my name is Chris Lee. I must say, I am greatly honored to be standing here, about to share some of my personal aspirations with you all.

My first involvement with the Sunrise Rotary Club began in 2009, when I used to volunteer for the Christmas luncheon and the Sea-wall marathon in the spring. Throughout these events held by the Rotary Club, I came to realize how great of a community you guys really are. From supporting the inner- city sports programs to raising funds for a Special Education institute in Mexico, I believe the Vancouver Sunrise Club is definitely an inspiration to the community and beyond. I was also personally inspired by the Club, when I became the lucky recipient of the Vancouver Sunrise Rotary Scholarship in 2011.

From the very beginning of my time in Canada, which was 2004, I was living in a low-income family with the only source of income being my mom, who worked day and night to support me and my older sister. Thus, the best way for me to help out my family was to concentrate on studying and getting into a reputable university. It wasn’t that my mother harped on me to study, as most of my peers complained. Instead, she quietly watched how I was doing at school and would praise me (with not much celebration) when I somewhat proudly brought home my report cards.

Despite the fact that we were going through tough times, my mother would always remind me to help out in and around the community as much as possible, for there are people who would appreciate my help. So I volunteered for more events than I could count throughout all these years, starting with a summer camp at a church when I could barely speak English.

Fast-forward 7 years, and I’m in grade 12, founding the very first humanitarian student group at my school. It began with just 3 members including myself, and by the end of the year, that number grew to around 20, thanks to some of our pronounced and unique fundraising events. Just to give you a sense of what we were up to: we did a raffle ticket draw during the parent-teacher conference, and with the profit, bought a goat for a family in Uganda, and we also raised more than 1300 food cans for the local FoodBank; considering that our entire school population was less than 500, this was an amazing turnout.

After graduating with the Governor’s General Bronze medal award and a few scholarships including the Vancouver Sunrise Rotary Scholarship, I decided to study engineering at the University of British Columbia. Despite everyone’s warnings that first year university is going to be extremely difficult, I managed to do okay and I have recently been accepted to UBC’s one of the most rigorous academic program called “Engineering Physics.” Essentially, it is a program that provides the best possible broad-based engineering degree which emphasizes the fundamentals of physics and mathematics. Upon hearing this description, one might think that I must really love mathematics. In reality, my real passion lies in the field of neuroscience. One reason behind my passion for this growing field is the fact that there are still many mysteries surrounding the brain and how it carries out its functions. Another reason came from a scientific study I once read: According to the study, some people in vegetative states can think clearly; to the point at which when asked to imagine themselves playing tennis while inside an MRI machine, similar brain patterns that are activated in normal people when they think of playing tennis are shown also in people in vegetative states. The despair they might feel from being able to think well but not being able to communicate in any way is simply indescribable. So it is my own personal goal to create a device that can read brain activities by simply placing it on top of the head, and that decodes the brain wave patterns to produce speech, movement or images.

We sometimes take for granted the fact that we are able to feel that joy of waking up on a Monday morning, to decide on what to wear, and to use our cognitive abilities to complete our daily tasks.Perhaps one can argue that the fundamental part of what makes us human is in fact our brain. So why choose the Engineering Physics program, you might ask. It is because I believe that our questions surrounding the brain requires a systematic approach in order to find the answer, and to take a look at the very basic components of the brain in its entirety; cells made of molecules made of atoms made of protons and electrons made of quarks produced from the famous Higgs Boson. It is because physics is such a fundamental aspect of all sciences that I chose to study this area further, and it is because engineering is a fundamental aspect of the modern life that I choose to work in this area. With the two combined, I wish to further my studies in an M.D. PhD program for a Cognitive Neuroscience degree. Surely, it will take a lot of time to get to where I wish to go; but with enough passion and dedication, what ISN’T possible?J

Thank you very much for your attention.

 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY-

 "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see". MARK TWAIN