The Interact Club is a Rotary International-sponsored organization for high school students that’s focused on leadership, personal development, and community service.

The Manteca Interact Club officially launched, uniting students from the local high schools thanks to the support of Rotary Club of Manteca.

Since its founding, the Interact Club of Manteca has already expanded with active member chapters at East Union High and Sierra High while continuing to welcome students from the other Manteca Unified high school campuses, according to Nihar Jain.

The East Union High senior is the president during this inaugural year while Sierra High’s Claire Carrol serves as vice president.

The club advisor is Monica Cabrera – she’s an English and Yearbook teacher at EU – with longtime Rotarian and the Assistant Governor of Rotary District 5220 John Trueb providing guidance and support as the Rotary advisor.

The Interact Club board of directors, meanwhile, recently attended the Global Goals Local Action Conference in San Francisco, where they were introduced to a broader Rotarian world. During that time, they gained new service project ideas to bring back to Manteca and drew inspiration from Rotary International President Francesco Arezzo.

The Interact Club of Manteca is open to all high school students interested in volunteering in the community – the first general meeting was earlier this month at the American Legion Hall in Manteca.

Officers also consist of Grace Beglinger (treasurer), Aanya Rao (secretary), Melanie Chavez (EU committee chair), Lennie Mateo Cervantez (SHS committee chair), Rohan Aravind (social media committee chair), Alexander Freeman (service committee chair), Katrina Enteria (International Understanding committee chair), Zainab Sami (finance committee chair), and Benevolence Wa (club committee chair).