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Rotary History

Rotary’s two official mottoes.

Arthur Frederick Sheldon, the Rotarian whose convention speech inspired Rotary’s secondary motto, One Profits Most Who Serves Best

Service Above Self  and  One Profits Most Who Serves Best , Rotary’s official mottoes, can be traced back to the early days of the organization.

In  1911, the second Rotary convention, in Portland, Oregon, USA, approved He Profits Most Who Serves Best as the Rotary motto. The wording was adapted from a speech that Rotarian Arthur Frederick Sheldon delivered to the first convention, held in Chicago the previous year. Sheldon declared that “only the science of right conduct toward others pays. Business is the science of human services. He profits most who serves his fellows best.”

The Portland gathering also inspired the motto Service Above Self. During an outing on the Columbia River, Ben Collins, president of the Rotary Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, talked with Seattle Rotarian J.E. Pinkham about the proper way to organize a Rotary club, offering the principle his club had adopted: Service, Not Self. Pinkham invited Rotary founder Paul Harris , who also was on the trip, to join their conversation. Harris asked Collins to address the convention, and the phrase Service, Not Self was met with great enthusiasm.

At the 1950 Rotary International Convention in Detroit, Michigan, USA, two slogans were formally approved as the official mottoes of Rotary:  He Profits Most Who Serves Best  and  Service Above Self . The 1989  Council on Legislation  established Service Above Self as the principal motto of Rotary because it best conveys the philosophy of unselfish volunteer service. He Profits Most Who Serves Best was modified to They Profit Most Who Serve Best in 2004 and to its current wording, One Profits Most Who Serves Best, in 2010. 

A name badge from the 1928 Rotary International Convention features Rotary’s mottoes.

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Rotaract Club of University of Moratuwa | Blog

Service Above Self

As written by Rtr. Samadhi Gunawardane

Do you remember writing the first-ever essay on “myself”? Probably it was about family, hobbies, pets, and feelings. Isn’t it? But what if you have none of these things? What will be in your new essay on “myself”? Let us figure this out.

The great Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Even if you lose all your possessions, you will still be “someone” to others when you choose to serve others regardless of yourself, age, position, profession, and status. In other words, your existence itself will be useful and meaningful to the world when you help communities around you with those humble thoughts of yours.

“But isn’t it hard to forget the well-being of ourselves and think about other people in need?”, you may ask. It simply takes only a WHAT IF as the answer to that question. What if that other person fighting cancer is your favorite neighbor? What if the person suffering from poverty is your relation? What if the person being bullied every day is your friend? And what if the person dying from hunger is your family?  Would you get out of your comfort zone to offer a helping hand to them? Service above self is all about acknowledging that we all are the same and giving a helping hand to others at anytime, every time we can, expecting nothing in return, as it is the most elegant way to live a worthwhile life.

service above self essay

Far more than the things we could do, we could say, it is what we choose to do, choose to say reveals our true selves to be seen by the world. All it matters is what we choose to act upon. So, let us always be humble and put away our egos, to serve human beings who need us while building empathy to connect and make everlasting efforts together.

We, Rotaractors have come together to serve and to amplify our humble service mindset from ourselves to beyond, to fulfill this same purpose of creating a positive and long-lasting impact on the world. That is why SERVICE ABOVE SELF has become the motto of the Rotary family.

In the end, your essay on “myself” will not be about what were you born with and what you had in life but what you have become and the things you gave away to become the person you have grown to be. It will show that you have lived one fascinating life.

service above self essay

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Yoshani Ranaweera

A book lover and an avid writer. Adores travelling and spending time with nature. Always ready to lend a helping hand.

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Service Above Self

Basil Lewis

Basil Lewis Essays

Rotary the World over

Rotary the World over 2

Harris at Sea

Kentucky Colonel, Harlan Sanders

From the earliest days of British Rotary, there was deep suspicion about some of the commercial implications of the American style of operation. Indeed, Arthur Sheldon’s suggested slogan ‘he profits most who serves best’ was never officially recognized in Britain, although adopted in America in 1909. As late as 1949, RIBI officially discounted it for the emphatic use of the word ‘profit’.

In fact, Paul Harris himself was unhappy about the way in which the Chicago Club had developed. His original idea had been to found a club, based on fellowship, which should do something for the community from which it drew its members. The Chicago Club, however, had become a self help organisation, even having a ‘transactions register’ in which members recorded business deals resulting from their weekly meetings. It had effectively become, as some people realised, a closed shop. Restricting membership to only one person for each trade or profession gave extra emphasis to this, and Chicagoans even objected to the creation of clubs elsewhere in the United States. It was not the Rotary which Paul Harris had envisaged, in which service to the community was to be a direct result of the fellowship engendered in the regular meetings. *

It was another four years before another member of the Chicago Club, Chesley Perry, was able to support Harris in developing Rotary as a service organisation. With Chesley’s aid, Harris could now look for extension’ and several clubs were opened from 1909 onwards. Britain, however, had retained a more puritanical approach to business ethics, and Paul Harris had always considered that London would be a suitable stepping off point for a Rotary Club based on his concept of what Rotary should be.

The above piece is based on ‘Towards My Neighbour’ by C.R.Hewitt, published by Longman Green in London in 1950. This is definitely out of print and almost certainly unobtainable. The idea of giving work to fellow members was officially abandoned in the 1920s.

Written by Basil Lewis , RGHF Senior Historian

 * From Rotary In Canada – “75 years of Service Above Self” Page 5 “The 1912 Convention…. At the same meeting, it was decided to drop the “personal gains” idea and branch out into fields of unselfish works, a Service Organization — No. 1.”

Information provided is courtesy of members of the International Genealogy and Heraldry Fellowship of Rotarians in cooperation with Rotary Global History.

service above self essay

   ROTARY: OUR MOTTO IS "SERVICE ABOVE SELF"

service above self essay

The Talent of Servant Leadership: Giving Service Above Self

  • Categories: Community Service Effective Leadership Leadership Styles

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Moral courage, leading authentically, spiritual motivation, transforming influence, relationship focus, most important dimension, obtaining and maintaining transforming influence, avoiding leadership pitfalls.

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service above self essay

service above self essay

Service Above Self Essay- MG

Posted by Madeline Gersemehl   "Service Above Self” Essay     Throughout my childhood, service has been an extremely important virtue to me. Service not only helps other people, but it also satisfies me knowing I positively impacted someone else's life. Seeing other people who are less fortunate than I can be heart-wrenching but knowing I can help them, comforts me. To me, one of the most important aspects of living is helping those who are in need also live their life to the fullest. Everyone deserves to be living comfortably and that is why I believe it is our job, as people who are blessed with more than enough, to help those who are less fortunate.   One of my favorite acts of service is helping those in need by creating shoes out of jeans.   As a service project, I volunteered to take old jeans, and, with the help of others, create shoes for those who have none. The moment I knew that there were thousands of children whose health was declining because of the infections they were getting in their feet I knew I had to help.   There are so many children around the world who unfortunately have no shoes to wear, however, this project allowed us to create these shoes so their feet could be protected. Although it may not seem like a lot, these shoes protect children from getting infections and other injuries on their feet. For many, these donated shoes mean so much more than we can truly understand. When we see the happiness and amount of gratitude, they have it truly makes the service project worth every minute given.   As president of the National Honors Society, I have had the amazing opportunity to come  up with many different service opportunities.   For one project, we found a family in need in Faribault and gifted them with presents that they could not afford for Christmas. After raising  money, we were able to gift this family over six hundred dollars’ worth of presents. The best part about this service project was seeing the children's faces light up when we put their presents under the tree. They had never received this many presents before which is why it was even more meaningful to us volunteers. It was so heart warning to see the family's thankfulness but also to see my fellow NHS members involved and excited to provide this sweet family with wonderful gifts.   One of my favorite things to do is protect the earth. From buying natural products and recycled materials to cleaning our environment; I love it all. That is why another one of my top favorite service projects has been cleaning our earth.  It is eye-opening to see the amount of garbage and waste that people will throw on the side of the road.  After multiple hours cleaning the one side of the road it was clean. It is sad to know that in a couple of months it will be dirty once again from people mistreating it. But we will go out there again and clean it up because that is what our earth deserves: to be clean. Another way I love to take care of our community is by taking care of our school gardens. I volunteer my time by planting flowers, pulling weeds, and  just taking care of the garden. I love that people of our community can share the joy that these beautiful gardens bring me each season.   As a result of my community service, I have grown as a person, scholar, and peer. I have learned the most beneficial ways to help those in need by tending to their individual needs first. Although it may be challenging to find a lot of extra time in one's schedule, service will always be there for when you are able to find that time. These service projects have made me eve1more grateful and appreciative for everything I have in my life. I look forward to being of even more service to my community in the future.

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Service Above Self: Why and How do We Serve Others? by John

John's entry into Varsity Tutor's March 2024 scholarship contest

Service Above Self: Why and How do We Serve Others? by John - March 2024 Scholarship Essay

“Be men and women for others,” a Jesuit ethos, is said in our house almost as often as “did you brush your teeth?” Our family mission is to use all the tools in our toolbox to grow and use our talents to serve our community.

Two summers ago, I applied to be an overnight summer camp counselor at Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp (“MHKC”), a non-profit that offers outdoor recreational programming for campers with developmental, intellectual, and physical differences. I was partnered with one camper (MHKC ensures a one-to-one camper-counselor ratio).

I’d packed for many overnight camps over the years so, while I knew this would be a different experience, I felt prepared. The first day was great. My camper and I got to know each other a little bit, I helped her settle into her cabin, and had dinner with her. I was excited for the rest of the week.

But then anxiety crept in. I was afraid of making mistakes, ranging from “what if I don’t offer her enough water throughout the day?” to “what if I don’t control this tandem bike and we fall down?”

My camper sensed my anxiety. She started guiding me. It was supposed to be the other way around! She told me what to do, where to go and how to get there, and suggested different places we could explore. She assured me we wouldn’t get lost because she was a seasoned MHKC camper and had explored much of the 22-acre campsite before.

She put me at ease, and I had a moment of clarity. I had wrongly assumed she needed my help with everything. That was not true. And, if she needed my help, she was more than capable of asking for it. We began to share stories. She told me about jobs she’d held and how customers often avoided her. Hearing how she had been marginalized struck a chord with me. I had to step outside of my comfort zone. I wanted to interject with solutions or a plan, but I realized that what I really needed to do was be present and listen. That was not easy to do.

As our relationship grew, I clued in on her non-verbal cues. If she felt uncomfortable with certain things like sunscreen (she really hated applying sunscreen) or her clothing, then she would squeeze my hand. She would make a certain facial expression if she had something to say. I noticed that facial expression on zipline day, so I asked her. She wanted to zipline, but she didn’t want everyone clapping because it was so loud. A “jazz hands” solution was born, and she was able to zipline, repeatedly.

This camp experience was life changing. I went into it with the mindset of helping someone “different.” I learned more than my camper did. Service isn’t just about “doing” for others; listening and understanding are essential. We all deserve dignity and respect. Our differences should be honored, and strong relationships can be built despite differences.

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Coronado Interact Club hosts 'Service Above Self' essay contest

service above self essay

“Service above self”

Harvard Kennedy School’s Pat Tillman Scholars reflect on meaning of military service

ONE HAD TO GET HIS PARENTS TO SIGN so he could enlist in the Marine Corps when he was just 17. Another joined the Marines after being inspired by the legend of an ancient Hindu warrior. And a Gold Star spouse is finding ways to help others get through the kind of trauma she endured after her husband, an Air Force pilot, was killed in a crash.

These are among the eight Pat Tillman Scholars enrolled at Harvard University this year, bringing to 41 the total number of U.S. military service members, veterans, and spouses at Harvard who have earned the prestigious scholarship since 2008. Harvard has had more Tillman Scholars than any other university, including two currently at Harvard Law School, Nathan Jester and Carl Min.

Harvard Kennedy School counts five current Tillman Scholars—more than any other graduate school in the country in this year’s roster of 60. These students, some of whom are doing joint degrees with HBS, MIT, or Stanford, receive $10,000 per year, but they all say the money pales beside the support they receive from the Pat Tillman Foundation community. The foundation honors the memory of Pat Tillman—who left an NFL career with the Arizona Cardinals after the 9/11 attacks to join the Army and served several combat tours until his death in action in Afghanistan.

The Tillman Foundation has awarded 635 scholarships in total to students at 100 universities. The selection rate is just 2.5 percent—more selective than Harvard. To Dan Futrell MPP 2011, the chief executive officer of the Tillman Foundation who came to HKS after serving as an Army Ranger infantry officer, it’s no surprise that the Kennedy School has had a total of 15 Tillman Scholars over the past 10 years. After all, the School’s mission is about public service.

“The reason is because we share the same values of service above self,” Futrell said. “That’s what draws applicants to the Kennedy School. The same thing holds true for the Tillman scholar community. They have shown through lived experience and through their communicated ambitions for the future how they have and will put service above self in their lives. That’s not a coincidence.”

Here are short profiles of the five current HKS Tillman scholars and reflections, in their own words, on their service and their aspirations. (Another 2019 Tillman scholar, former Army Special Forces Officer Adam Swartzbaugh MPP 2021, is pursuing an MBA at MIT this year and will be at HKS next year.)

The Five Kennedy School Tillman Scholars This Year

Syed faraz mpp 2022, david laszcz mpp 2020, ashley whitlock mc/mpa 2020, timothy bishop mpp 2021, akhil iyer mpp/mba 2022, syed faraz mpp/stanford mba 2022, zuckerman fellow.

Raised in a Muslim family in India and Saudi Arabia, Faraz immigrated to the United States when he was 12. His parents worked blue-collar jobs to support the family. At the University of Texas-Arlington, he was a “short-haired hippie,” active in Greenpeace and the Sierra Club and protesting the Iraq War. Then a family friend introduced him to the military community, and he felt the call to serve, joining the Air Force in 2011.  As a navigator, Faraz flew more than 630 combat hours, played a crucial role in the Obama-directed rescue of 40,000 Yazidis in Syria, and led a campaign to deliver aid to 1,600 earthquake survivors. In his final three years, he worked on national security innovation as the chief technology officer for the U-2 spy-plane community. By pursuing an MPP/MBA, Faraz intends to build bridges between private and public sector innovators to enhance American leadership on the global stage.

Faraz is the highest-flying aviator of Muslim heritage (besides astronauts), and summited Kilimanjaro with his wife for their honeymoon. Their first child was born in September, and the Tillman Foundation sent them a Pat Tillman onesie. He will study in Cambridge this year, at Stanford next year, and then split his studies in the third year.

Reflections:

“Each stage in the Air Force was hard, but because of the people I was with, I remember those days fondly. It was also a time of incredible growth—one of the things we learn at the Kennedy School is that growth and learning come from discomfort—and the military constantly forces you out of your comfort zone.” — “I sometimes focused so much on performance that my attitude suffered. What I learned was that in the Air Force we say ‘attitude is altitude.’ Attitude means more than your mindset; in aviation, attitude means the pitch of your aircraft. So, a nose-down attitude means you’re descending, and nose-up attitude means you’re climbing. Not only is that true in aviation, it’s also true in life.” — “I love that it’s called the Kennedy School. I love that we’re surrounded by JFK’s words—it’s not about what you can take from society. It’s about what you can offer to society.”

His family was displaced for three years and his father, a Polish immigrant, lost his job in Lake Charles, Louisiana, after Hurricane Rita struck in 2005. They struggled for years. Laszcz had to persuade his parents to let him enlist in the Marines in 2010 before he turned 18, just as he finished high school with a 2.64 GPA. He was deployed to Jordan amid Arab Spring tensions, was promoted to sergeant, and earned an appointment to the Naval Academy in 2014, one of a handful of enlisted Marines in his class. Laszcz plunged into economics study there, spent a summer at the London School of Economics, and was assigned to the Council of Economic Advisors. In 2017, during his junior year at the academy, he won a prestigious Truman Scholarship. He is attending HKS while on active duty and hopes for an infantry unit posting after graduating.

“I was intimidated [at the Naval Academy] because I was literally surrounded by the smartest people, and I was four years removed from any kind of education. My classmates didn’t have that fear. They were valedictorians; they took all these high-level courses, so graduation wasn’t a question. The question for them was can they hack the military lifestyle and culture: ‘How do I prepare myself to one day lead Marines and sailors into harm’s way and to protect them or prevent them from going into harm’s way?’ So where I lacked, they had strengths and where they lacked, I had strengths.” — “Once I got to Navy, I realized that this is my only shot. For all the enlisted Marines I grew up with, I told myself that they deserve better than what we had. I told myself that my family deserves better than what I had. And I knew that was my only shot. I wanted to come [to HKS] to be a better officer because the enlisted men and women deserve a good officer. Once I leave Harvard, I hope to go back into the infantry community and get back on the ground. I think the best way to really show and exercise leadership is in the trenches on the ground, like in the thick of it. And to me that is what an infantry Marine is.” — “My family struggled severely after the storm with mental health and it’s been an increasing problem in the military—I have lost twice as many friends to mental health than to the War on Terror. For our HKS policy analysis exercise, we’re trying to increase the voluntary uptake on mental health counseling in the Navy by designing policies with economics and decision science. I feel this is the most direct way to leverage my education to create and implement policies to save lives in the Navy. Because now that that we’re not really in war, the war we have is within ourselves.” —

After growing up in a Savannah, Georgia, suburb, Ashley Whitlock went to Mercer University in Macon, where she met her future husband, Nick Whitlock. She supported his passion for flying and his decision to enlist in the Air Force. After officer training school, he was selected for the U-28A flight program and joined a Special Operations Squadron. He logged 800 combat hours; on his fifth deployment, Nick Whitlock was killed when his plane went down near his base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. Whitlock struggled to cope, moving from their home in Florida to Atlanta, and then to Washington. She launched the Whitlock Foundation in Nick’s memory to support service-minded young people with scholarships and veterans through community. At HKS, she is imagining a future service career that lets her use her own journey through loss to help other Gold Star families and other survivors of trauma.

“When Nick joined the Air Force, I joined with him, and it was part of our collective goal and aspiration. I did have my own job, but that’s how I thought about my opportunity to help serve as his wife, collectively supporting this endeavor with him. That’s what for me was the most challenging part of losing him. I lost the future we had imagined together.” — “And so coming out of that experience, thinking about how to rebuild a new vision for myself that didn’t lose our history together was an important part of my journey to the Kennedy school, with much support, financial and emotional, from the Pat Tillman Foundation. And that’s been difficult for me up until this point. I’ve kind of kept personal and private very separate. And I think one of the unique elements of both the Kennedy School and the Pat Tillman foundation is that both are encouraging me to make that connection more strongly because it will make me a better leader, because it will make me a stronger leader. It will make me a more compassionate leader.” — “I was starting to crave this opportunity to take a step back and to think about how I might have a different sort of impact through the work I was doing. How do we make sure that we’re thinking about the continued support and what [families will] need two, three, four, five years down the road as they work through their grief and healing journey? So this was born out of my experience, but also conversations I had had with other women who had lost their husbands and just starting to see what the challenges look like three years out.” —

Timothy Bishop MPP/MIT-MBA 2021, Rappaport Fellow

From his home in northern New Jersey, Tim Bishop went to Williams College, then was admitted to the Army’s Officer Candidate School, followed by Ranger School and Airborne School, earning the coveted Ranger Tab. He was an infantry officer in the 10th Mountain and First Armored Divisions. Over seven years in the Army, Bishop deployed twice to Afghanistan; as chief of operations for Task Force Southeast, he directed operations maintaining security along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. He was awarded a Bronze Star. He worked for the Massachusetts governor’s Strategic Innovations Group this summer. He is pursuing both an MPP degree at HKS and an MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

“There’s a really incredible veterans community here, probably even more robust than you would get at many other schools. The Kennedy School also gets a lot of veterans who are still in the service as well as the National Security Fellows. There is such a span of where veterans are in their careers, whether they’re just starting out, they’re senior commanders, or they’re now retired officers. I don’t think any other school could really compete with that.” — “In my time here at HKS, I feel like I’ve not shied away from doing security and international relations-focused stuff, but I’ve tried to find subject areas where I have little to no experience. I took classes on income inequality last year, classes on state and local government turnaround. And so I’m really trying to just get a breadth of experience.” — “My military service was an incredibly deep and valuable experience, but in some ways it was also pretty narrow. They have one definition of leadership, and that definition works well. Coming here and seeing all different kinds of leadership has been incredibly worthwhile. If you’re sitting in a school council or if you’re an executive in a nonprofit or if you’re an ambassador, those are all different kinds of leadership that need to be worked on. One of the perks here at the Kennedy School is that it does a great job of providing a lot of opportunities to progress as a leader, but it doesn’t define that for you at the outset.” —

Akhil Iyer MPP/MBA 2022, Black Family Fellow

The son of immigrants from India, Akhil Iyer grew up in Buffalo in a family that instilled in him a sense of responsibility to give back to the nation. He recalls being fascinated by all things military since his days building model planes and reading stories about great ancient Hindu warriors. That helped engender a fascination with military technology and leadership through service. At Stanford as an undergrad, he was one of a handful of students to join the ROTC program. He commissioned as a Marine Corps officer after graduating, serving as a platoon and company commander, and then as a Marine special operations team commander. He wants to use his joint degrees to better connect private-sector tech expertise with public security needs.

“There are very few places where you get to be 23 years old, leading a platoon of 40 Marines, and experience everything that comes with that—not only the challenges and struggles but also the immense reward, opportunity, pride, and honor of serving.” — “The Black Family Fellowship to me is the most tangible, current precedent being set by HKS to make service a conversation. What I do enjoy about this school is it’s not about what you did yesterday. It’s about what are you going to do to tomorrow. We’re coming here with the perspective that we can build to contribute going forward. That’s the beauty of things like the Black Family Fellowship and the conversations at a very interdisciplinary place like HKS.” — “The Tillman community prioritizes taking your military service and continuing your impact and leadership and service going forward. And to me, I think that’s something that I certainly struggled with as I was debating leaving the service because I had grown up wanting to be a warrior and now I was leaving. But could I use the definition of a warrior maybe in a broader way? Can being a warrior transcend the uniform? Can it be serving in a couple of different capacities where I can still protect the nation or still support national security?” —

Banner image: The late Sen. John McCain spoke at a memorial service in 2004 for Army Corporal Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who was killed in action in Afghanistan. The Pat Tillman Foundation has given more than 600 scholarships to veterans and spouses to study at US universities, including seven students at Harvard this year. Photo by David Paul Morris.

Portraits by Raychel Casey

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Military and civilian students join forces for day of community service, among the most promising leaders of a rising generation: at harvard kennedy school, members of the active duty military and veterans gain and contribute in unique ways, honorable charge: rye barcott mpa 2009 has set out to change the political culture in congress by helping elect veterans.

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