Alf Spears

Alf Spears Scholar Janet Mason from Birmingham, England spent the summer studying youth participation in community service in the U.S. Janet, seated second from right in photo above, traveled to New York City with a group of Westchester Girl Scouts from Rock Hill Girl Scout Camp.

The Peekskill Rotary, in cooperation with its “sister” Rotary Club in Bromsgrove, England, funds a scholarship to promote international understanding and goodwill between the two communities. Created in1997, the Alf Spears New Generation Fellowship is named after Alf Spears, the English Rotary district governor who led efforts to build an “Atlantic Bridge” between English and U.S. Rotary clubs.

The scholarship offers a month of financial and other assistance to study a social, cultural or commercial aspect of the “sister” country. Recipients are selected, on alternate years, from each club and receive up to $1,500 to cover the airfare, health insurance and other expenses incurred while they complete their studies. During the period, recipients live with Rotary families of the host club.

This past summer Peekskill Rotary hosted Janet Mason, this year’s Alf Spears scholarship winner who is originally from Bromsgrove and now lives in Birmingham, England. Ms. Mason received a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from the University of Nottingham in 2005, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education specializing in Secondary Mathematics Teaching in June 2006, also from Nottingham.

Janet stayed with local Rotary families while working on her scholarship project: “Youth Participation in Community Action.” The aim of her project is to explore different ways of getting young people to become more involved in voluntary work within their community.

“I have been involved in different aspects of youth work for several years and it worries me that young people have such a lack of community spirit,” said Ms. Mason. “Many young people feel they have nothing to do and end up hanging around on street corners, which leads to vandalism and bullying. The government (has) attempted to tackle these problems through increased emphasis on citizenship in school and rewarding those who do volunteer work.

“Peekskill has a strong Youth Bureau with links to community action in young people. This is a good place to find projects to study.”

ELIGIBILITY
The scholarship is open to men and women submitting a formal application, giving the reasons for their interest and a proposed action plan. Applicants should be between 17 and 25 during the year of travel, and a resident of either the Peekskill or Bromsgrove Rotary Club areas.

PEEKSKILL ROTARY CLUB CONTACTS
The Peekskill Rotary Club will take applications for this scholarship in September 2007. Club contacts for applications and information are Dr. Roger Swanson (914-737-2620) and Ned Curry (914-737-0083).

FORMER ALF SPEARS FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS (including field of study)

Yvette Tola , Peekskill, NY — 1998
(The effect of stress on young people in the U.S. and Britain)
Rhys Griffiths, Bromsgrove, UK — 1999
(Communications, specifically video conferencing)
Sandra Marie Douglas, Peekskill, NY — 2000
(The quality of teachers in education using surveys in both New York and England)
Kevin McNamara, Bromsgrove, UK — 2002
(American foreign policy in the 21st century)
Jill Curry, Peekskill, NY — 2004
(Disability issues in legislation and education in the US and UK)