Interact students Nadhiri Simons and Veronica DeGraff and chaperon Cathy Bassett travelled to Staten Island in New York to Rotary District 7230’s conference at the end of last month.

Hamilton Rotary Club sponsored the pair to give a presentation on mentorship. A generous Rotarian funded the ground transportation and meals.

The pair presented in front of all the district 7230 — Bermuda’s district as well — representatives.

It was a 15-minute presentation on mentorship. We started with a spiel on some of our community engagements both local and international, such as our work in aiding the Mitoma Literacy project in Uganda, our local trashathons, and other engagements.

We then presented “mentorship for leadership”, which expresses the importance of mentorship through the lens of the Bermuda Rotary environment and how it has aided in the success of our Interactors through work experiences.

Through workshops such as toastmasters, executive mentoring and job-shadowing opportunities, we as Interactors have been given the opportunity to become our best and most productive selves because we have been given the tools to succeed from our mentors.

We have been engaged in mentoring from top executives in the business world, which has afforded us with opportunities to grow and develop in our chosen careers.

The Victoria Street Clinic, The Royal Gazette, HOTT 107.5, Kitson and Company Real Estate Company and the Ascendant Reinsurance Company have provided work-shadowing experiences and on-the-job mentoring, which have enhanced our interpersonal and job skills.

We have been immersed in the working world, allowing us to prosper as future professionals. In addition to being delegates at the conference, we truly learnt about the essence of service. We listened to speakers from the New York area and were encouraged to consider becoming Rotarians at a later stage in our lives.

We learnt about Rotary’s peace fellowship programme from peace fellows Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario and peace fellow inspector D.F. Pace from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Other interesting presentations were made by Rotarian David Sullivan and Rotarian Kristin Alexander from Bermuda.

They spoke about the Rotary Exchange programme. Other presentations included the Rotary Youth leadership Awards Scheme, which is offered on a weekend during April and is open to 15-year-olds.

The theme for this year was “Be the Inspiration”. Twelve Rotarians from Bermuda attended this conference. We are truly grateful to Hamilton Rotary for sponsorship and to our mentors as well for this great opportunity.