The Rotary Club of Tyler recently recognized our secondary campus teachers of the year, along with two top students per campus, at their 95th Annual Awards Banquet. For one of those teachers, Maggi Vestal Cook, at Boulter Middle School, it was like unlocking a chapter 18 years later.
In 2006, Maggi was a 15-year-old student in the Philippines when the Rotary Club of Cagayan de Oro hosted its annual Youth City Council for Rotary Youth Week. Two outstanding students in each public and private school in the city were recognized to represent their campus in the New Generation Forum. This forum commenced by allowing the students to vie for city official positions. They were then given a chance to be elected to take the lead in running the city for a week. Maggi was one of 30 students elected among 200 top student-leaders. “This commemorative event was what started it for me,” Maggi said. “It opened my heart and eyes toward youth civic engagement and the passion to touch lives.”
“I honestly felt like I traveled back in time listening to our keynote speaker,” Maggie continued. “I felt like it was the 15-year-old me listening to our then city mayor as he talked about how we should grow where we are planted, that we are the hope of the future, and that we will make a difference wherever we go.”
During the event, Smith County Judge Neal Franklin talked about how things just rightfully fall into place at the right time. “I felt it to the core. I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason, and on that very day, all the love I poured into loving and serving others was affirmed by the growth I've seen in me over the years,” Maggi said.
For more information, contact Jennifer Hines at Jennifer.Hines@TylerISD.org.