Hilda's Kitchen

During one of our meetings, we packed sandwiches for Hilda's Place, Evanston's only homeless shelter, to deliver for lunch.

Book Drive with Better World Books

We are organizing a used book drive in coordination with Better World Books. Better World Books is a global bookstore that harnesses the wealth of the world’s most literate citizens to bring independence to the world’s least. There are more than 781 million illiterate adults in the world, and this book drive helped to raise funds for Worldfund, an organization that promotes Literacy in Latin America.

Campus Kitchen

Once a week, NU Rotaract volunteers with Campus Kitchen Northwestern University in the school's dining halls and delivers meals to the community. A student-powered organization on 20 campuses nationwide, Campus Kitchen takes all the leftover food in the dining hall, uneaten and considered "waste," recovers it, and repackages it for those who need it most.

Book Drive with Better World Books

We organized a used book drive in coordination with Better World Books. Better World Books is a global bookstore that harnesses the wealth of the world’s most literate citizens to bring independence to the world’s least. There are more than 781 million illiterate adults in the world, and this book drive helped to raise funds for Worldfund, an organization that promotes Literacy in Latin America.

Buenito Juarez Project

As we collect resources for this school, learn more about what we are doing here

Campus Kitchen

Once a week, NU Rotaract volunteers with Campus Kitchen Northwestern University in the school's dining halls and delivers meals to the community. A student-powered organization on 20 campuses nationwide, Campus Kitchen takes all the leftover food in the dining hall, uneaten and considered "waste," recovers it, and repackages it for those who need it most.

Kindness Connection

The Kindness Connection seeks to build the value and ideal of community service in children from a young age so that they may continue to contribute and support their communities with lifelong service. Rotaract is one of the primary sources of volunteers for this organization, where members guide children in various, fun community-oriented activities ranging from packing lunches for local families, to building placemats for local animal shelters, to creating drawings for children’s books.

Inspiration Cafe

NU Rotaract will be serving and helping at Inspiration Cafe on December 3rd and January 30th. Please view our calendar for more postrmation.

Also, to learn more, head to Inspiration Corporation for an postrmational video.

Inspiration Cafe

NU Rotaract will be serving and helping at Inspiration Cafe on December 3rd and January 30th. Please view our calendar for more postrmation.

Also, to learn more, head to Inspiration Corporation for an postrmational video.

Rock Climbing Fundraiser

For the second time, we will be partnering up with the Evanston Athletic Club to organize a rock-climbing fundraiser to raise funds for upcoming and ongoing projects such as the Benito Juarez Project. EAC features a three-story-high rock wall with different levels of difficulty, catering to both advanced and first-time climbers alike. For only $5, students can climb the rock wall at EAC as many times as they want during the duration of the event. Please come out and support us!

IST 2010: Peru

For this year’s spring break, we travelled to South America to volunteer with Pisco Sin Fronteras and connect with the Rotaract clubs in Lima and Peru. A volunteer organization dedicated to providing relief and rebuilding Pisco after the 8.0 magnitude earthquake in 2007, PSF works on various projects including rebuilding families' homes and providing safe, public spaces for children to play. We learned how to lay bricks, mix cement and connecting with locals at a few PSF-organized ludotecas and on our program sites. Please view Gaian Path’s video on PSF and a brief documentary of our work in Pisco, Peru for more information.

Weekend CS Trip

For Martin Luther King weekend, nine of us roadtripped to University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to connect with UMich's Rotaract club. We got a glimpse of campus and college life outside of Northwestern, and through United Way, we spent our Saturday repainting rooms in the Franklin-Wright Settlements,which provides services for all ages groups including a public gym, tutoring and employment services.

Book Drive with Better World Books

We organized a used book drive in coordination with Better World Books. Better World Books is a global bookstore that harnesses the wealth of the world’s most literate citizens to bring independence to the world’s least. There are more than 781 million illiterate adults in the world, and this book drive helped to raise funds for Worldfund, an organization that promotes Literacy in Latin America. Additionally, by collecting used books and textbooks from students and professors, we raised more than $330 for our club.

Campus Kitchen

Once a week, NU Rotaract volunteers with Campus Kitchen Northwestern University in the school's dining halls and delivers meals to the community. A student-powered organization on 20 campuses nationwide, Campus Kitchen takes all the leftover food in the dining hall, uneaten and considered "waste," recovers it, and repackages it for those who need it most.

Clean Water for the World with Dr. Ron Denham

Foster Reading Center

The Foster Reading Center was established to provide a place for kids to get help on their homework or improve their reading skills after school. Rotaract members volunteered on a weekly basis at the reading center, helping students from kindergarten to 3rd grade with their reading, writing, and math. Volunteering with the Reading Center required continuous commitment to build the trust necessary to effectively aid these students in their formative educational years.

IST 2009: Guatemala

Guatemala 2009 focused on gaining a deeper unerstanding of the challenges of water sanitation and distribution efforts throughout Latin America. In order to explore and get an intimate exposure to Guatemalan culture, the students stayed with Rotarian host families and thus were able to learn and share in a safe and welcoming environment.

Most of our service learning focused on working in collaboration with the Mayan Families of Guatemala where we meet indigenous citizens and installed water filtration units. The trip also focused on developing a sense of ownership and pride within those we seek to help, which is why our team worked with Centro Escolar Benito Juarez. Our team was able to coach and interact with incredibly bright students from some of the most impoverished areas of Guatemala City.

Overall this trip acted as a catalyst for further reflections on the managment of such an incredible natural resource as water, while bringing two cultures together to share in the journey of self-discovery.

Kindness Connection

The Kindness Connection seeks to build the value and ideal of community service in children from a young age so that they may continue to contribute and support their communities with lifelong service. Rotaract is one of the primary sources of volunteers for this organization, where members guide children in various, fun community-oriented activities ranging from packing lunches for local families, to building placemats for local animal shelters, to creating drawings for children’s books.

Rebuilding Together

NU Rotaract teamed up with the local Rotary club and Evanston Township High School's Interact to help Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit organization that helps low-income Americans repair homes and revitalize communities. We washed windows, repainted the rooms, and weeded the garden of a local Evanston home. It offered a great opportunity for a few local organizations to get together for a day and help out the community.

Rock Climbing Fundraiser

We partnered up with the Evanston Athletic Club to organize a rock-climbing fundraiser to raise funds for our Spring Break ’09 service trip to Guatemala. EAC features a three-story-high rock wall with different levels of difficulty, catering to both advanced and first-time climbers alike. For only $5, students were able to climb the rock wall at EAC as many times as they wanted during the duration of the event. The event was a great success, and we raised more than $300 for our trip.

Evanston Township High School Tutoring

Throughout the year, NU Rotaract members volunteered every week as after-school tutors to the students of Evanston Township High School. Volunteers worked in the school's open tutoring center, providing one-on-one help to students in a variety of subjects ranging from math, to Spanish, history, biology, and more.

IST 2009: Ecuador

Medical Career Panel

The first Rotaract-sponsored career panel was a medical career panel, featuring an internist, a holistic specialist, and an international health policy advisor. The theme was determined by the career path Rotaract members were the most interested in learning more about. More than 20 people attended the 30-minute panel discussion that was followed by a question and answer session.

Microfinance Panel

A night of learning and fun with the members of the Rotary Lighthouse Club of Evanston, representatives from the Asset Based Community Development institute, Opportunity International and Heartland Alliance, gathered for a night of learning about microfinance and how we all have a role of play in development. The night was a fundraiser for Rotaract Northwestern's trip to Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Nicolas Lainez Exhibit

In spring 2007, photographer Nicolas Lainez came to campus with his work and spoke about human trafficking in Southeast Asia. At the time, Rotaract's theme was poverty and the goal was to organize an event on campus that would bring up topics of poverty abroad. The exhibit brought up questions about the choices one must make in poverty through photography.

Stand Up Speak Out Against Poverty Day

In October 2007, Rotaract had an event for Stand Up and Speak Out Against Poverty Day. We invited members of the Northwestern Community "speak out" by writing a message on our board. Later that night, several speakers, including Chicago Coalition for Homeless, concluded the day-long event.

Belize post Panel

Genocide in Rwanda Exhibit

Dr. Mardge Cohen, the medical director and founder of WE-ACTx, an organization that strives to increase women's and children's access to HIV testing, care, treatment, support, education and training in areas with limited resources collected testimonies of genocidal rape and sexual violence leading to AIDS contraction during the Rwandan Genocide. Rotaract put these testimonies on display for all to visit in Tubeho ("To Live Again") Project: An Exhibit on the Survivors of the Rwandan Genocide and hosted a panel discussion on the opening night with Dr. Mardge Cohen, Robert Clarke, a former Northwestern Professor of Political Science, and Andreas Neiderberger, a Northwestern Professor of Political Science.

IST 2007: Belize

On our spring break trip for 2007, we went to Belmopan, Belize to work on HIV/AIDS related projects by spreading awareness and attempting to touch on a taboo topic. We spent several days visiting different schools, talking with students anywhere from 10 to 18 years old about the basics of HIV/AIDS and about more personal issues about gender roles in Belize. We also spoke to people at a market about similar topics intending to break the taboo and speak about HIV/AIDS with the public.

We also repainted a medical clinic at a school (before speaking to the children about HIV), helped rebuild the house of a family infected with HIV, and painted a large wall that said "25 million and counting... GOT TESTED?" to prompt people to discuss HIV and get tested so they know.

Additionally, we were invited to speak on a very popular radio station to discuss HIV in Belize and more specifically our project and goals. We were also invited to speak on a TV talk show during primetime to discuss our club, project, and HIV in general.

Of course, the trip was not all work. We went to ancient Mayan ruins for an afternoon and were able to climb up pyramids to look out over the whole ruins. We also went caving for a day where we saw more ruins, including pottery and skeletons, by the lights on our helmets scattered throughout the cave.