As this semester comes to a close and vaccinations are being administered nationwide, I’d like to reflect on this past year as President of USC Rotaract. Just as everyone has experienced difficulty navigating through this pandemic, USC Rotaract has faced hardships of its own: an inability to host in person service events led to lower involvement and philanthropy than a typical year for our club. It was definitely not the year I hoped to have serving as president.

A few months ago, President Matt Ball asked me to give the inspirational message for one of the Rotary meetings. That message read: when things get tough, you have to keep moving forward - a message based on a quote from my favorite Disney movie, Meet the Robinsons. Following my own advice, Rotaract has kept moving forward, navigating through the pandemic and, now, preparing for the transition back to being in person. With that being said, I’d like to use this space to introduce Rotaract’s 2021-2022 president, John Tolar, along with our major plans for next year. 

John Tolar is getting his undergraduate degree in Economics with a double minor in French and Finance. In addition to that, he is in the process of finishing a progressive degree program to concurrently earn his Masters Degree in Finance. For the 2020-2021 academic year, John served as Director of Finance, and for the 2019-2020 year, Director of Public Relations. John and I have been ironing out plans for his presidency over the past few months, focusing on ways to increase membership involvement and to create a better relationship with Rotary LA5 and the District. I have no doubt that John will be a fantastic president, one that will exceed in further progressing the club in all ways. We are very excited to see what next year brings USC Rotaract.