From the
Rotary International website:
- Interact is an international organization of service and social clubs for young people of secondary school age that fosters leadership and responsible citizenship and promotes international understanding and peace. The name was created by combining the words "international" and "action." Interact clubs are sponsored by Rotary clubs as a program of Rotary International. Rotary clubs provide guidance and inspiration, but the Interact clubs are self-governing and self-supporting. Clubs take a variety of forms, both single-gender and mixed as well as large and small. The membership base of a club can be drawn from the student body of a single school or from two or more schools from the same community.
Through their service activities, Interactors learn the importance of:
- -developing leadership skills and personal integrity
-demonstrating helpfulness and respect for others
-understanding the value of individual responsibility and hard work
-advancing international understanding and goodwill
The first Interact club was initiated in 1962 by the Rotary Club of Melbourne, Florida, USA. Two months later, the first Interact club outside the United States was established in Tanjore, India. Today there are more than 7,780 Interact clubs in some 107 countries and geographical areas, making Interact a truly worldwide phenomenon.
Clubs usually consist of a
sponsor (usually a
teacher or other
administrative adult),
president(s), and leadership board, in addition to
general assembly. Thanks to colleges' insistance upon
community service for admission, many students join merely for the
application credit.
Quite a few
colleges also have a similar program called
Rotoract.