Rota-Monica #7

Tom Larmore introduced us to Janeth Alamo Mejia, she was one of the two recipients of the Archie Morrison Scholarship, a $2500.00 award presented by The Rotary Club of Santa Monica to a student at Santa Monica College.  Janeth joined us live from UCLA’s campus where she is working on her Bachelor of Psychology degree.  She plans to continue and get her masters degree to become a Therapist.  She says, I come from a family where things have never been easy for us. In my parents’ childhood, education was a privilege, they were not able to even attend high school because they needed to work instead. And because of what they went through, they have always pushed me to go to school and become a successful person. I have always appreciated their support and everything I do is always for them. Since our family is not wealthy, I would have never thought I could live my dream of living on campus and getting that experience. But thanks to scholarships like yours I will be able to fulfill those dreams. Congratulations to Janeth.

Our program of the day was Craft Talks.  Tammy led us off with a quiz to test our personal knowledge about our Craft Talkers.  Lisa Alexander, a Past President of our Club started the program off by sharing that she is fulfilled in her profession as a Lawyer specializing in Estate Planning Trust and Probate.  She cherishes her lifelong friendships and relationships established with classmates, special friends, and clients.  Lisa is in Hawaii this week at a friend’s wedding.  Lisa enjoys running and hiking with her friends.

Carole Stein took us on an adventurous journey from Long Island, New York as she enjoyed the singing of Aretha Franklin.  As the 70’s grew older she and her family climbed aboard the Orient Express to Teheran for her father’s employment. Her cultural experiences included the undertones of resentment for Americans. Moving on to Paris, France for college and her musical taste moved to The Grateful Dead. In the 80’s she had moved to Los Angeles where her first car was a Toyota Celica.  By the mid 90’s she applied for an Executive Scholar Program at UCLA and USC, being accepted at both she chose UCLA.  She then met and married David and joined the Los Angeles Times and fell in love with publishing.  She now publishes three Magazines in addition to serving with her husband at their Synagogue. Carole’s desire is to travel the world with Rotary.

Ken Waltzer our Club’s President Elect told a three-part story and the impact that Music, Medicine, and Money had on his life’s journey.  Ken’s love for music came from his Mother, a professional singer on WLIB Radio in New York.  Ken started playing piano as a child and moved to saxophone and the organ and then the clarinet.  He also played the Church Organ and in college he played the piano.  He loved playing opera and produced three operas. While at Harvard Ken decided to major in pre-med.  He practiced in internal medicine for twenty years.   Medicine became boring for Ken, so he started investing as a hobby and eventually turned the hobby into a Wealth Management Career and launched KCS Wealth Advisory.