Creating new ties to the Springfield community and the rest of the world, Wittenberg hosted Charter Night for its new Rotaract Club on April 16.

Sponsored by the Springfield Rotary Club, the student organization is one of just three Rotaract Clubs in Rotary District 6670, which covers the southwest quadrant of Ohio. The club is the brainchild of Ozge Sayginer ’09 from Mersn, Turkey, who was a member of Interact, a Rotary organization for high school students, in her home country.

“The importance of Rotary is very high in the international community,” said Sayginer, adding that high school and college programs are well-known in other countries.

“While serving an internship at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., last summer, I received mail from my high school Interact Club and spent the next two months finding a sponsor to learn about starting a club at Wittenberg.”

Sayginer found that Springfield’s Rotary Club includes numerous members with ties to Wittenberg, including University President Mark H. Erickson and his wife Lin. She then approached Lin Erickson, who, along with local Rotary member Jane Deer, now serves as adviser for the newly formed group.

In addition to establishing service credit, the organization will work to recruit new members in the fall. Future projects spearheaded by Rotaract will also include a landscaping program with the new high school, an ongoing relationship with the Springfield Peace Center and adopting a Leadership Clark County program on Wittenberg’s campus.

Founded in 1905, Rotary was the world’s first service organization. Today, Rotary has more than 30,000 clubs in more than 160 countries, and Rotaract continues to grow with more than 8,000 Rotaract clubs in 155 countries and geographic areas, with an estimated membership of more than 186,000.