A student organization revived on Mercer University’s Macon campus last fall is gaining momentum as members serve their community.
Mercer Rotaract Club has grown to 50 members over the past year and contributed to a plethora of projects in partnership with its sponsor organization, Rotary Club of Downtown Macon.
Rotary is a service organization with 1.3 million members in clubs located across more than 200 countries, and Rotaract is an affiliated division for adults aged 18-30. In addition to the Rotary Club of Downtown Macon, the city has two additional chapters, Rotary Club of Macon and Macon North Rotary. While officially connected with the downtown club, Mercer Rotaract collaborates on projects with all three clubs.
“(Rotaract) is about civic engagement, about getting students involved in their communities and helping them find ways to give back,” said Bryan Johnson, the club’s advisor and assistant director of the Office of Global Education. “Rotary is an organization that is so well known for its history and legacy of service work in communities. I see this as a really wonderful pipeline for our students to be able to continue that work in a structured way once they graduate.”
Mercer Rotaract President Jayan Thiruppathi, CLAS ’29, said he grew up hearing about Rotaract because his older sister had served as president of the University of Georgia chapter. He wanted to be involved in community service in college too, and he thought a Rotaract club would be a perfect fit for Mercer.
Mercer Rotaract holds regular meetings on campus, and students are also invited to attend Rotary meetings and hear guest speakers, said Thiruppathi, a neuroscience major. Rotaract joins Rotary in its service activities or comes up with ideas of its own, said Horace Holmes, past president of the Rotary Club of Downtown Macon.
“The definition of Rotaract is ‘Rotary in action,’ and I’ve seen that with the Mercer Rotaract Club. They’re definitely living up to their name,” Holmes said. “They really want to make a difference. I saw, and I still see, the hunger that those students have inside. We’re hoping that we feed that passion to make a difference in the lives of people.”
Rotaract members have packed and delivered Thanksgiving boxes for the Feed 100+ event; assembled meal kits for kids through Forest Hills Church’s Backpack Buddies Ministry; served breakfast to community members in need with Scrambled Eggs for Jesus; and tutored children with Streets for Success.
“(Our members) are showing a lot of connection and willingness to be involved,” said Rotaract vice president and biology major Neha Thiruppathi, CLAS ’29, and Jayan’s cousin. “Rotary is such an old and really powerful connection to Macon. By being a part of Rotaract, you get a pipeline to those opportunities to become more connected. I think the opportunities that come to Rotary are more personalized to Macon’s needs because officials of Macon preside over (them).”
The club has also built beds for children with Sleep in Heavenly Peace during Mercer’s recent Be a Good NeighBear; partnered with Habitat for Humanity; worked the Cherry Blossom 5K, which benefits Rotary; picked up trash in downtown Macon; and assisted with maintenance of the garden at Brookdale Resource Center. In addition, students recently started collecting donations for Rotary’s PolioPlus Fund, which supports initiatives to eradicate polio.
“It has been a very fun year, and our club has grown so much,” Jayan Thiruppathi said. “What I’ve enjoyed most about being involved with this club is the relationships that I have made with the local Macon community. Meeting people that run these service events that are passionate about helping the community and other volunteers really shows how if we all work together, we can make a significant difference. I’ve enjoyed gathering groups of people together to support a local cause.”
Johnson said he encourages students to think of service as something they will carry on for the rest of their life, and Rotaract is an organization that can help facilitate that. Because Rotary clubs exist almost everywhere, Mercer Rotaract members will have a connection to their community and opportunities for service no matter where life takes them, Holmes said.
“They’ll go from Rotaract to joining a Rotary club, and they will bring that energy and that passion to serve back to wherever they go back home,” Holmes said. “They’ll become leaders and innovators. They’ll become the ones that the community reaches out to when they want to do something.”
