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Welcome!Starting January 5, 2010, the members of the Rotary Club of Upper Manhattan invite all civic and community-mined business owners and professionals of the Harlem Community to join us at the beautifully decorated and comfortable Gran Piatto d'Oro Restaurant at 1429 Fifth Ave at 117th St.
Established in 1966, the Rotary Club of Upper Manhattan is an organized and enjoyable way for civic-minded executives and professionals to contribute their skills to the progress of Harlem, New York City, and to the needy of the world. As a Rotarian, you and your company will become part of the 1.2 million worldwide Rotarian network, and warmly welcomed at the 33,000 clubs in more that 172 countries. You will also establish life- long friendships with other like-minded men and women in a cross-section of industries and professions
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Civic-Minded Business and Professional Men and Women Working Together To Make Our Community And The World A Better Place To Live, Work, and Study!
For our first forty-three years, the Rotary Club of Upper Manhattan met on the Upper West Side of Manhattan just opposite of Grant's Tomb (Riverside Drive and W. 123rd St.) in the Denmark Room of The International (Student) House at 500 Riverside Drive on Tuesdays at 6:30PM. At the meetings we plan and develop community and international service projects. Often, we invite an informative and recognized industry or community leader to be our Guest Speaker and to meet with club members. They provide us with first-hand insight on a wide-array of relevant topics such as politics, economics, finance, poverty-eradication, health, media, art, music, history, film, etc. The presentation and Q&A period normally lasts about 30 minutes, but our guest usually remain for an informal, extended conversation. We invite all Rotarians, and those interested in joining Rotary, to visit us. However, before the meeting, we recommend that you visit a few of the impressive visual, architectural, and cultural delights that are found in our community.
- President - Dr. Syoum Gebregziabher
- Past-President - Elizabeth "Betty" Sanders (deceased 2008)
- Secretary - Dr. Rev. Thomas P Grissom, Jr.
- Treasurer - Mary Williams - email:Marwill325@aol.com
Our Community and International Service Projects
Photo: Rotarians supporting the Christmas Dinner at the Canaan Senior Center on West 116th St. The Program Director of the Canaan Senior Center is Ms. Janie Huntley (center)Over the years our club has conducted numerous useful community projects financed by enjoyable community fund raising events. Currently, we present the Wesley Williams Memorial Scholarships to teenage students of Wadleigh, A.Philip Randolph, Rice, and Thurgood Marshall High Schools to help start young people up the ladder. From our various fundraising efforts we give special donations to local community groups. Each Christmas season we co-sponsor a dinner at the Canaan Senior Citizens Center in Harlem. We have worked with the Gift of Life Program to bring children with file threatening heart conditions to our community and house them before and after corrective surgery at Mt. Sinai Hospital. We send the baby back safe, fat, and happy. One of the unique aspects of being a Rotarian is that service projects are flexible and all Rotarians are free to create there own community or international project.
-Sickle Cell Anemia Education and Awareness is one of the main projects of the Rotary Club of Upper Manhattan with recent Paul Harris Fellow and club member Doris Wethers, M.D. who is the former Director of the Sickle Cell Program at St. Luke’s – Roosevelt Hospital and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Columbia University providing information and guidance in the club's efforts.
Sickle Cell Anemia is a serious condition in which the red blood cells can become sickle-shaped (that is, shaped like a “C”).
Normal red blood cells are smooth and round like a doughnut without a hole. They move easily through blood vessels to carry oxygen to all parts of the body. Sickle-shaped cells don’t move easily through blood. They’re stiff and sticky and tend to form clumps and get stuck in blood vessels.
The clumps of sickle cells block blood flow in the blood vessels that lead to the limbs and organs. Blocked blood vessels can cause pain, serious infections, and organ damage.
Normal and Sickled Red Blood Cells in Blood Vessels
Sickle cell anemia is an inherited, lifelong condition. People who have sickle cell anemia are born with it. They inherit two copies of the sickle cell gene, one from each parent. People who inherit a sickle cell gene from one parent and a normal gene from the other parent have a condition called sickle cell trait.
Sickle cell trait is different from sickle cell anemia. People with sickle cell trait don’t have the condition, but they have one of the genes that cause the condition. Like people with sickle cell anemia, people with sickle cell trait can pass the gene on when they have children.
Kenneth Rivlin, M.D, Ph.D of the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center is screening newborns for sickle cell disease and is promoting sickle cell trait counseling, care coordination and integration of community resources, and community understanding of SCD and traits. His research recommends that:
1) All pregnant women with SCT and mothers identified with an infant with SCT will receive genetic counseling, and appropriate extended family testing.
2) All women at risk for having an infant with SCD will be connected to a parent-to-parent support partner.
3) All infants with SCD will have yearly care plans coordinated between parent, Pediatrician, and Hematologist.
4) All families of infants with SCD will have yearly needs assessments, be connect to community resources and a parent-to-parent support partner.
5) SCD and trait education will be provided to family community support structure.
6) SCD and trait education will be coordinated with community-based organizations and other health outreach efforts.)
Anemia
Anemia is a condition in which a person’s blood has a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or the red blood cells don’t have enough hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is an iron-rich protein that gives blood its red color and carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
Red blood cells are made in the spongy marrow inside the large bones of the body. Bone marrow constantly makes new red blood cells to replace old ones. Normal red blood cells last about 120 days in the bloodstream and then die. Their main role is to carry oxygen, but they also remove carbon dioxide (a waste product) from cells and carry it to the lungs to be exhaled.
In sickle cell anemia, a lower-than-normal number of red blood cells occurs because sickle cells don’t last very long. Sickle cells die faster than normal red blood cells, usually after only about 10 to 20 days. The bone marrow can’t make new red blood cells fast enough to replace the dying ones. The result is anemia.
Outlook
Sickle cell anemia affects millions of people worldwide. There are excellent treatments for the symptoms and complications of the condition, but in most cases there’s no cure. (Some researchers believe that bone marrow transplants may offer a cure in a small number of cases.)
Over the past 30 years, doctors have learned a great deal about the condition. They know what causes it, how it affects the body, and how to treat many of the complications. Today, with good health care, many people with the condition live close to normal lives and are in fairly good health much of the time. These people can live into their forties or fifties, or longer.
-Rotary's Polio-Plus Program that was started in 1985 is credited with the near-eradication of polio from our planet. We are very proud of the 2005 Wall Street Journal Editorial. The NY Times had a similar editorial but did not recommend us for the "Noble Peace Prize".
Wall Street Journal Editorial - April 12, 2005 "Today marks the 50th anniversary for the Salk polio vaccine. Poliomyelitis, also know as infantile paralysis, used to be one of childhood’s most feared diseases. A few years after Dr. Jonas Salk announced his vaccine on April 12, 1955, nearly every child in the U.S. was protected. Today polio has disappeared from the Americas, Europe and the Western Pacific and is nearly gone from the rest of the world. A too-little known part of this feat is the role played by Rotary, the international businessman’s club, which in 20 years adopted the goal of wiping out the disease. Rotary understood that medical breakthroughs are worthless unless people aren’t afraid to immunize their children and efficient delivery systems exist to get the vaccine to them. And so it mobilized its members in 30,100 clubs in 166 countries to make it happen. In 1985, when Rotary launched its eradication program, there were an estimated 350,000 new cases of polio in 125 countries. Last Year, 1,263 cases were reported. More than one million Rotary members have volunteered their time or donated money to immunize two billion children in 122 countries. In 1988, Rotary money and its example were the catalyst for a global eradication drive joined by the World Health Organization, Unicef and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. In 2000 Rotary teamed up with the United Nations Foundation to raise $100 million in private money for the program. By the time the world is certified as polio-free probably in 2008-Rotary will have contributed $600 million to its eradication effort. An economist of our acquaintance calls Rotary’s effort the most successful private health-care initiative ever. A vaccine-company CEO recently volunteered to us that the work of Rotary and the Gates Foundation, both private groups, has been more effective than any government in promoting vaccines to save lives. It’s become fashionable in some quarters to deride civic volunteerism, but Rotary’s unsung polio effort deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. "
It should be noted that our Polio-Plus program is only the tip of the iceberg. Tens of thousands of Club to Club poverty-eradication projects are completed every year. Most of these projects are not registered with any central agency or even with Rotary International. Therefore, there is no centralized annual accounting of these projects, but it is in the tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Visit any developing country and it would be very difficult to find a region where a Rotary Club from an economically developed country has not built a school house, medical clinic, or ball field.
History of our Club and Places to Visit in Our Community
The Rotary Club of Manhattan was chartered on 25 November 1966 and formally welcomed on 23 February 1967, Rotary's 62nd birthday with a gala banquet sponsored by our parent, the Rotary Club of New York, number 6 in Rotary history.
Many of our founding members where the New York and National leaders of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's. Our Club members had long fought many battles for civil rights and liberties. In fact, they were instumental in ending all discrimination including gender discrimination even within Rotary International. This is because even in the 1970's membership was only availlable only to men. In September 1970, our club decided to seek the removal of all gender restrictions from membership in Rotary International. In 1972, we submitted a proper and legal Proposal Enactment to change the Constitution and Bylaws of Rotary International to admit women into Rotary. We did so at each Council of Legislation until it passed in 1989. Finally, the Supreme Court ordered Rotary International to permit women to be permitted in the United States. As of July, 1989, women are important members in many Rotary club in the world. Hundreds of thousands of women worldwide are now Rotarians.
Places To Visit In Our Historic Community
- Grant's Tomb
- Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine (Largest Gothic Cathedral in the U.S.) W. 110 St.
- L'Eglise de Norte Dame at 114th St. and Morningside Drive., with the grotto of Lourdes.
- Columbia University stretches to 120th St.
- Barnard College is across Broadway.
- Interchurch Center.
- The Riverside Church,
- Jewish and Union Theological Seminaries,
- The Manhattan School of Music.
- Sakura Park a statue of General Butterfield by Gutzon Borglum who designed Mt. Rushmore Memorial.
- Old Village of Nieuw Harlem, established in 1658.
- Morningside Park Preserves designed by Frederick Law Olmstead.
- St. Thomas the Apostle Church at 262 W. 119th St.
- The Watchtower in Mt. Morris Park.
- Victorian Row in Lenox Avenue between 120th and 121st Sts.
- St. Martin's Church at 230 Lenox Avenue,
- Theresa Towers at 2090 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd.
- Salem Methodist Church at 129th St.
- St. Philip's Church at 134th St. which moved up from the notorious lower East Side in 1809.
- The Schaumburg Collection of black historical materials is at Countee Cullen Library, 104 West 135th St. It has the James Weldon Johnson Collection of children's books.
- The Abyssinian Baptist Church at 132 W. 138th St. has the largest Protestant congregation in the nation.
- Wyatt Tee Walker's Canaan Baptist Church
- Aunt Len's Doll House.
- Hamilton Heights
- City College of New York, 133rd St and Convent Ave;
- Hamilton Grange
- Historic shrine of Alexander Hamilton's home
- The Cloister's;
- The Little Red Lighthouse
- The Morris-Jumel Mansion , 160th St.
To all concerned Rotarians and friends,
Jim Kushner and 5 other Inwood Rotary Club members, joined by New York Rotarian Bill DeLong, are on their way to Haiti. They will be working with Todd Shea, Founder of the Comprehensive Disaster & Response Services. Jim, Bill, and Todd have addressed major disasters , previously and are expeienced and reliable.Jim was written up in the Rotarian Magazine and has been on the back cover of the two latest issues. Todd has received a medal from the Pakistan President. Bill is a recipient of New York's "Liberty Medal" presented to him by Mayor Bloomberg. We worked together during 9/11.
They are in desparate need of money and supplies. These are the details:SUPPLIES NEEDED:Pain MedicationAnti-Bacterial OintmentAnti-Inflammatory MedicationAnti-Biotics ( cipro, penicillan)Medical GlovesBaby FormulaBaby Wipes
SEND SUPPLIES TO:TODD SHEAc/o EDWARD SANCHEZAVENUE INDEPENCIA # 201CONDOMINIO BUENA VENTORAAPT 104 ER PISO GAZCUESANTO DOMINGO DR
SEND CHECKS TO::THE GLOBAL GIVING FOUNDATION1023 15th STREET NW 12th FLOORWASHUNGTON, DC 20005 Phone: 202-232-5784 ( It is a 501 c3 organization)You must write in memo of check "TODD SHEA-HAITI "
I am the "Point Person" for Jim. Any questions:mailto:helenbreisler@aol.com" href="mailto:helenbreisler@aol.com">helenbreisler@aol.com Tel: 914-277-3117 or 718-622-2148
They need our help
Where We Meet
The International House of New York, also known as I House, is a graduate and professional residence hall and program center servicing various universities throughout the City of New York, including Columbia University, Juilliard School, New York University, the Manhattan School of Music, the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, the Teachers College, and the City University of New York, among others.
Housing 700 students from over 100 countries, it is currently located at 500 Riverside Drive, next to Grants Tomb in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The original entrance to International House is inscribed with the motto written by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: "That Brotherhood May Prevail." The piazza of the original, gracious entrance opens into Sakura Park, or would, if the gates were not kept chained shut.
History
The initial impetus for the I House was the YMCA official Harry Edmonds, who spearheaded efforts to obtain initial funding for the house after a chance encounter with a lonely Chinese graduate student at Columbia University in 1909. It was finally created in 1924 with funding from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (who later funded identical houses at the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley), as well as the Cleveland H. Dodge family, to foster relationships between students from different countries. Other Rockefeller family members to have served on the board of trustees include Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, David and Peggy Rockefeller, David Rockefeller, Jr., and Abby O'Neill.
The New York International House was the first of many international houses in a coast-to-coast movement to create a safe space for international students seeking to further their education. Other cities with international houses include: Berkeley, Chicago, Philadelphia, London, Melbourne, Brisbane (Australia), and Paris.
The chairman of the Board of Trustees is former Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, Paul A. Volcker. The Chairman of the Board's Executive Committee is William Rueckert, a member of the Dodge family, whose generous gifts contributed to the development of both International House and the Columbia University Teachers College.
I House's current president is Donald L. Cuneo, an alumnus of I House and Columbia University's law and business schools.
Notable alumni
There are currently 65,000 living I House alumni worldwide. Among the more notable:
Chinua Achebe, Nigerian writer, author of Things Fall Apart
Pina Bausch, German chroreographer
Mark Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium
Jorge Ibargüengoitia, Mexican novelist
Burl Ives, actor
Jerzy Kosinski, writer, author of Being There
Flora Lewis, journalist
Mark Mathabane, South African writer, author of Kaffir Boy
Ashley Montague, anthropologist
I.M. Pei, architect
Leontyne Price, opera star
David Sainsbury, British supermarket magnate
George Soros, billionaire Hungarian investor
Shirley Verrett, opera star
Dale Peck, US writer, novelist, literary columnist and critic
Nobel laureates Wassily Leontief and Carlo Rubbia
Kiran Desai, author
We encourage all civic-minded business owners, managers, and professionals to explore the benefits of Rotary membership. If you and/or your company would like more information about becoming a part of the legendary Rotary Club of Upper Manhattan, or would like to visit one of our regular meetings contact one of our Club officers at Marwill325@aol.com.
Rotary International and the United Nations
In 1945, forty-nine Rotary members served in 29 delegations to the United Nations Charter Conference. Rotary still actively participates in UN conferences by sending observers to major meetings and promoting the United Nations in Rotary publications. Rotary International's relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) dates back to a 1943 London Rotary conference that promoted international cultural and educational exchanges. Attended by ministers of education and observers from around the world, and chaired by a past president of RI, the conference was an impetus to the establishment of UNESCO in 1946.
What is Rotary International? (Click on underlined words for more information)
Rotary International is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 31,000 Rotary clubs located in 167 countries.Rotary International HistoryThe Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, the world's first service club was formed on 23rd of February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices. Rotary's popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later. As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of club members. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization's dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal motto: Service Above Self. Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics, called The 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of languages.During and after World War II, Rotarians became increasingly involved in promoting international understanding.The Rotary International Foundation (Separate from the Foundation of the Rotary Club of New York)An endowment fund, set up by Rotarians in 1917 "for doing good in the world," became a not-for-profit corporation known as The Rotary Foundation in 1928. Upon the death of Paul Harris in 1947, an outpouring of Rotarian donations made in his honor, totaling US$2 million, launched the Foundation's first program — graduate fellowships, now called Ambassadorial Scholarships. Today, contributions to The Rotary Foundation total more than US$80 million annually and support a wide range of humanitarian grants and educational programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international understanding throughout the world. In 1985, Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio. Working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and national governments thorough its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign. Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. By the 2005 target date for certification of a polio-free world, Rotary will have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause.As it approached the dawn of the 21st century, Rotary worked to meet the changing needs of society, expanding its service effort to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk.MembershipThe organization admitted women for the first time (worldwide) in 1989 and claims more than 145,000 women in its ranks today. Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 31,000 Rotary clubs in 172 countries.
Rotary International Milestones
1905 First Rotary club organized in Chicago, Illinois, USA1905
Second club formed in San Francisco, .
Rotary Club of New York organized in 1909,
First Rotary convention held in Chicago1912.
The Rotary Club of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, becomes the first club outside the United States to be officially chartered. (The club was formed in 1910.)
1917 Endowment fund, forerunner of The Rotary Foundation, established
1932 Four-Way Test formulated by Chicago Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor
1945 Forty-nine Rotarians help draft United Nations Charter in San Francisco
1947 Rotary founder Paul Harris dies;
1947 First 18 Rotary Foundation scholarships granted
1962 First Interact club formed in Melbourne, Florida, USA
1965 Rotary Foundation launches Matching Grants and Group Study Exchange programs
1978 RI's largest convention, with 39,834 registrants, held in Tokyo
1985 Rotary announces PolioPlus program to immunize all the children of the world against polio 1989 Council on Legislation opens Rotary membership to women worldwide
1989 Rotary clubs chartered in Budapest, Hungary, and Warsaw, Poland, for first time in almost 50 years
1990 Rotary Club of Moscow chartered first club in Soviet Union
1990-91Preserve Planet Earth program inspires some 2,000 Rotary-sponsored environmental projects1994Western Hemisphere declared polio-free
1999 Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution established
2000 Western Pacific declared polio-free 2002 Europe declared polio-free; first class of 70 Rotary Peace Scholars begin study
2003 Rotarians raise more than US$118 million to support the final stages of polio eradication
Rotary International Administration
Rotary is organized at club, district, and international levels to carry out its program of service. Rotarians are members of their clubs, and the clubs are members of the global association known as Rotary International. Each club elects its own officers and enjoys considerable autonomy within the framework of the standard constitution and the constitution and bylaws of Rotary International. Clubs are grouped into 529 Rotary districts, each led by a district governor who is an officer of Rotary International and represents the RI board of directors in the field. Though selected by the clubs of the district, a governor is elected by all of the clubs worldwide meeting in the RI Convention. A 19-member board of directors, which includes the international president and president-elect, administers Rotary International. These officers are also elected at the convention; the selection process for choosing directors and the nominating committee for president are based on zones, each of which comprises approximately 15 districts. The board meets quarterly to establish policies. While the Rotary International president is the highest officer of RI, the chief administrative officer of RI is the general secretary, who heads a staff of about 600 persons working at the international headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, USA, or in one of seven international offices around the world.
Object of Rotary.
The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster: FIRST. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service; SECOND. High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to serve society; THIRD. The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian's personal, business, and community life; FOURTH. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service. The Four-Way Test From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians were concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives. One of the world's most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics isThe Four-Way Test, which was created in 1932 by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor (who later served as RI president) when he was asked to take charge of a company that was facing bankruptcy.This 24-word test for employees to follow in their business and professional lives became the guide for sales, production, advertising, and all relations with dealers and customers, and the survival of the company is credited to this simple philosophy. Adopted by Rotary in 1943, The Four-Way Test has been translated into more than a hundred languages and published in thousands of ways. It asks the following four questions:"Of the things we think, say or do:
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?"
Four Avenues of Service
Based on the Object of Rotary, the Four Avenues of Service are Rotary's philosophical cornerstone and the foundation on which club activity is based:
Club Service focuses on strengthening fellowship and ensuring the effective functioning of the club.
Vocational Service encourages Rotarians to serve others through their vocations and to practice high ethical standards.
Community Service covers the projects and activities the club undertakes to improve life in its community.
International Service encompasses actions taken to expand Rotary's humanitarian reach around the globe and to promote world understanding and peace.
Jim Kushner and 5 other Inwood Rotary Club members, joined by New York Rotarian Bill DeLong, are on their way to Haiti. They will be working with Todd Shea, Founder of the Comprehensive Disaster & Response Services. Jim, Bill, and Todd have addressed major disasters , previously and are expeienced and reliable.Jim was written up in the Rotarian Magazine and has been on the back cover of the two latest issues. Todd has received a medal from the Pakistan President. Bill is a recipient of New York's "Liberty Medal" presented to him by Mayor Bloomberg. We worked together during 9/11.
They are in desparate need of money and supplies. These are the details:SUPPLIES NEEDED:Pain MedicationAnti-Bacterial OintmentAnti-Inflammatory MedicationAnti-Biotics ( cipro, penicillan)Medical GlovesBaby FormulaBaby Wipes
SEND SUPPLIES TO:TODD SHEAc/o EDWARD SANCHEZAVENUE INDEPENCIA # 201CONDOMINIO BUENA VENTORAAPT 104 ER PISO GAZCUESANTO DOMINGO DR
SEND CHECKS TO::THE GLOBAL GIVING FOUNDATION1023 15th STREET NW 12th FLOORWASHUNGTON, DC 20005 Phone: 202-232-5784 ( It is a 501 c3 organization)You must write in memo of check "TODD SHEA-HAITI "
I am the "Point Person" for Jim. Any questions:mailto:helenbreisler@aol.com" href="mailto:helenbreisler@aol.com">helenbreisler@aol.com Tel: 914-277-3117 or 718-622-2148
They need our help
Where We Meet
The International House of New York, also known as I House, is a graduate and professional residence hall and program center servicing various universities throughout the City of New York, including Columbia University, Juilliard School, New York University, the Manhattan School of Music, the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, the Teachers College, and the City University of New York, among others.
Housing 700 students from over 100 countries, it is currently located at 500 Riverside Drive, next to Grants Tomb in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The original entrance to International House is inscribed with the motto written by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: "That Brotherhood May Prevail." The piazza of the original, gracious entrance opens into Sakura Park, or would, if the gates were not kept chained shut.
History
The initial impetus for the I House was the YMCA official Harry Edmonds, who spearheaded efforts to obtain initial funding for the house after a chance encounter with a lonely Chinese graduate student at Columbia University in 1909. It was finally created in 1924 with funding from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (who later funded identical houses at the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley), as well as the Cleveland H. Dodge family, to foster relationships between students from different countries. Other Rockefeller family members to have served on the board of trustees include Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, David and Peggy Rockefeller, David Rockefeller, Jr., and Abby O'Neill.
The New York International House was the first of many international houses in a coast-to-coast movement to create a safe space for international students seeking to further their education. Other cities with international houses include: Berkeley, Chicago, Philadelphia, London, Melbourne, Brisbane (Australia), and Paris.
The chairman of the Board of Trustees is former Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, Paul A. Volcker. The Chairman of the Board's Executive Committee is William Rueckert, a member of the Dodge family, whose generous gifts contributed to the development of both International House and the Columbia University Teachers College.
I House's current president is Donald L. Cuneo, an alumnus of I House and Columbia University's law and business schools.
Notable alumni
There are currently 65,000 living I House alumni worldwide. Among the more notable:
Chinua Achebe, Nigerian writer, author of Things Fall Apart
Pina Bausch, German chroreographer
Mark Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium
Jorge Ibargüengoitia, Mexican novelist
Burl Ives, actor
Jerzy Kosinski, writer, author of Being There
Flora Lewis, journalist
Mark Mathabane, South African writer, author of Kaffir Boy
Ashley Montague, anthropologist
I.M. Pei, architect
Leontyne Price, opera star
David Sainsbury, British supermarket magnate
George Soros, billionaire Hungarian investor
Shirley Verrett, opera star
Dale Peck, US writer, novelist, literary columnist and critic
Nobel laureates Wassily Leontief and Carlo Rubbia
Kiran Desai, author
Source: Wikipedia and International House website
We encourage all civic-minded business owners, managers, and professionals to explore the benefits of Rotary membership. If you and/or your company would like more information about becoming a part of the legendary Rotary Club of Upper Manhattan, or would like to visit one of our regular meetings contact one of our Club officers at Marwill325@aol.com.
Rotary International and the United Nations
In 1945, forty-nine Rotary members served in 29 delegations to the United Nations Charter Conference. Rotary still actively participates in UN conferences by sending observers to major meetings and promoting the United Nations in Rotary publications. Rotary International's relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) dates back to a 1943 London Rotary conference that promoted international cultural and educational exchanges. Attended by ministers of education and observers from around the world, and chaired by a past president of RI, the conference was an impetus to the establishment of UNESCO in 1946.
What is Rotary International? (Click on underlined words for more information)
Rotary International is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 31,000 Rotary clubs located in 167 countries.Rotary International HistoryThe Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, the world's first service club was formed on 23rd of February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices. Rotary's popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later. As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of club members. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization's dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal motto: Service Above Self. Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics, called The 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of languages.During and after World War II, Rotarians became increasingly involved in promoting international understanding.The Rotary International Foundation (Separate from the Foundation of the Rotary Club of New York)An endowment fund, set up by Rotarians in 1917 "for doing good in the world," became a not-for-profit corporation known as The Rotary Foundation in 1928. Upon the death of Paul Harris in 1947, an outpouring of Rotarian donations made in his honor, totaling US$2 million, launched the Foundation's first program — graduate fellowships, now called Ambassadorial Scholarships. Today, contributions to The Rotary Foundation total more than US$80 million annually and support a wide range of humanitarian grants and educational programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international understanding throughout the world. In 1985, Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio. Working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and national governments thorough its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign. Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. By the 2005 target date for certification of a polio-free world, Rotary will have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause.As it approached the dawn of the 21st century, Rotary worked to meet the changing needs of society, expanding its service effort to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk.MembershipThe organization admitted women for the first time (worldwide) in 1989 and claims more than 145,000 women in its ranks today. Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 31,000 Rotary clubs in 172 countries.
Rotary International Milestones
1905 First Rotary club organized in Chicago, Illinois, USA1905
Second club formed in San Francisco, .
Rotary Club of New York organized in 1909,
First Rotary convention held in Chicago1912.
The Rotary Club of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, becomes the first club outside the United States to be officially chartered. (The club was formed in 1910.)
1917 Endowment fund, forerunner of The Rotary Foundation, established
1932 Four-Way Test formulated by Chicago Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor
1945 Forty-nine Rotarians help draft United Nations Charter in San Francisco
1947 Rotary founder Paul Harris dies;
1947 First 18 Rotary Foundation scholarships granted
1962 First Interact club formed in Melbourne, Florida, USA
1965 Rotary Foundation launches Matching Grants and Group Study Exchange programs
1978 RI's largest convention, with 39,834 registrants, held in Tokyo
1985 Rotary announces PolioPlus program to immunize all the children of the world against polio 1989 Council on Legislation opens Rotary membership to women worldwide
1989 Rotary clubs chartered in Budapest, Hungary, and Warsaw, Poland, for first time in almost 50 years
1990 Rotary Club of Moscow chartered first club in Soviet Union
1990-91Preserve Planet Earth program inspires some 2,000 Rotary-sponsored environmental projects1994Western Hemisphere declared polio-free
1999 Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution established
2000 Western Pacific declared polio-free 2002 Europe declared polio-free; first class of 70 Rotary Peace Scholars begin study
2003 Rotarians raise more than US$118 million to support the final stages of polio eradication
Rotary International Administration
Rotary is organized at club, district, and international levels to carry out its program of service. Rotarians are members of their clubs, and the clubs are members of the global association known as Rotary International. Each club elects its own officers and enjoys considerable autonomy within the framework of the standard constitution and the constitution and bylaws of Rotary International. Clubs are grouped into 529 Rotary districts, each led by a district governor who is an officer of Rotary International and represents the RI board of directors in the field. Though selected by the clubs of the district, a governor is elected by all of the clubs worldwide meeting in the RI Convention. A 19-member board of directors, which includes the international president and president-elect, administers Rotary International. These officers are also elected at the convention; the selection process for choosing directors and the nominating committee for president are based on zones, each of which comprises approximately 15 districts. The board meets quarterly to establish policies. While the Rotary International president is the highest officer of RI, the chief administrative officer of RI is the general secretary, who heads a staff of about 600 persons working at the international headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, USA, or in one of seven international offices around the world.
Object of Rotary.
The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster: FIRST. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service; SECOND. High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to serve society; THIRD. The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian's personal, business, and community life; FOURTH. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service. The Four-Way Test From the earliest days of the organization, Rotarians were concerned with promoting high ethical standards in their professional lives. One of the world's most widely printed and quoted statements of business ethics isThe Four-Way Test, which was created in 1932 by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor (who later served as RI president) when he was asked to take charge of a company that was facing bankruptcy.This 24-word test for employees to follow in their business and professional lives became the guide for sales, production, advertising, and all relations with dealers and customers, and the survival of the company is credited to this simple philosophy. Adopted by Rotary in 1943, The Four-Way Test has been translated into more than a hundred languages and published in thousands of ways. It asks the following four questions:"Of the things we think, say or do:
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?"
Four Avenues of Service
Based on the Object of Rotary, the Four Avenues of Service are Rotary's philosophical cornerstone and the foundation on which club activity is based:
Club Service focuses on strengthening fellowship and ensuring the effective functioning of the club.
Vocational Service encourages Rotarians to serve others through their vocations and to practice high ethical standards.
Community Service covers the projects and activities the club undertakes to improve life in its community.
International Service encompasses actions taken to expand Rotary's humanitarian reach around the globe and to promote world understanding and peace.
R.I. Mission Statement: The mission of Rotary International is to support its member clubs in fulfilling the Object of Rotary by Fostering unity among member clubs; Strengthening and expanding Rotary around the world; Communicating worldwide the work of Rotary; and Providing a system of international administration.
History of Rotary Youth Exchange Since 1927, students and host families all over the world have had their horizons broadened and their lives enriched by the generosity of Rotary's Youth Exchange program. Administered by Rotary clubs, districts and multidistrict groups, the program today involves more than 82 countries and over 8,000 students each year.The first documented exchanges date back to 1927, when the Rotary Club of Nice, France, initiated exchanges with European students. Exchanges between clubs in California, USA, and Latin American countries began in 1939, and exchange activities spread to the eastern United States in 1958. In 1972, the RI Board of Directors agreed to recommend Youth Exchange to clubs worldwide as a worthwhile international activity that promotes global peace and understanding.
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