Rotary International is the world's first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self. 

Program:  Dr. Bobby Fong, President of Ursinus presented the reasons he chose to come to Ursinus and his goals for Ursinus.  Dr. Fong was former President of Butler University.  He was originally from California, and attended Harvard (B.A.), and UCLA (Ph.D. Literature, Oscar Wilde). He currently serves on a number of National Boards and task forces for higher education

Dr. Fong sees the strength of Ursinus in its focus on the individual, with small class size and personalized education.  He believes in the tradition of liberal arts, because graduates will change careers numerous times and they will need a broad fundamental background.  He believes that the gifts of each student need to be matched with their education to engage them to develop their talents, and contribute to society.  He would like Ursinus to develop interdisciplinary programs, experiential education/internships, undergraduate research and civic education.  He would welcome more collaboration with business and civic groups to achieve these goals.

Rotary’s 1988 initiative to rid the world of Polio is close to an end.  For a full year and 3 months there have been no cases reported in India, one of the few remaining countries with wild polio as of 2010.  The stats are remarkable – in India there were 741 cases reported in 2009, 41 cases in 2010 and 0 in 2011/2012.  Rotarians from India, 119,000 strong, joined the effort to administer vaccine, and staff and fund the information campaign.  Rotarians from all over the world support efforts like these through their donations to Rotary International, while also working to improve lives in their communities.  Together, we do change the world.