Rotary’s New President Pushes For Multifaceted Diversity

The Rotary Club of Cupertino has elected its first Indo-American president, Savita Vaidhyanathan, becoming the first of more than 50 clubs in the district to have a female Indo-American president.  

Vaidhyanathan (pronounced Vie-dhee-uh-NAH-thun) assumed the presidency of Cupertino’s Rotary Club at the beginning of July.

Asian Indians make up 22.6 percent of Cupertino’s population, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. The Asian community as a whole constitutes 63.3 percent of the local population.

Club members said they believe that her presidency reflects this Rotary’s effort to keep up with Cupertino’s growing diversity — and not just cultural diversity.

Vaidhyanathan describes it this way.

“I see diversity beyond ethnic diversity,” Vaidhyanathan said. “It’s age, it’s temperament, it’s what you want to see happen in the world and your personal choices. It doesn’t have to do with color.”

The club does make a concerted effort to maintain and support diversity, said Beverly Lenihan, past president of the Cupertino Rotary and a board member on the Cupertino Rotary Endowment Foundation. For this reason, Lenihan said, Cupertino Mayor Orrin Mahoney and a couple of other people have put together training sessions to teach other Rotary Clubs how to do the same.

She added that it is important for Rotary Clubs to identify who they want in their club, invite them and give them something in which to be involved.

“We have a very conscious approach to making sure we have a diverse club,” Lenihan said. “Other clubs are just realizing how important that is. Many clubs have lost membership because they have not kept up with the trends.”

One of the Rotary’s Vocational Committee co-chairs, Padma Chari, said that the diversity of the club’s leadership has created a broader sense of understanding and awareness within both the Rotary and the community.

“We have this diverse community here — an Indian woman could become president — but it’s also helping to create this awareness among everybody in this world,” Chari said.

A press release announcing Vaidhyanathan’s presidency in June said that her theme for the Cupertino Rotary would be “Local Heartbeat, Global Outreach.”

Vaidhyanathan said her primary focuses as president are consideration for the environment, a push for increased youth involvement and empowerment, an effort to remain current with Silicon Valley culture and increasing community awareness of the Rotary’s work.

She is working to achieve her goals for the Rotary through the Youth Services Committee, Vaidhyanathan said. She wishes to find members who have a youthful outlook, in order to more successfully empower youth and encourage them to get involved.

“I would hope that I achieve all my four goals, and if I can build awareness in the community and the world … I would be so happy at the end of it,” Vaidhyanathan said.

Vaidhyanathan indicated that the Rotary’s push for diversity is in line with this theme. She said that the Rotary often tries to work on projects that reflect the Rotary and the community’s diversity, in both culture and interest.

These international projects appeal to Rotary Club members such as Colleen Hudgen, Executive Director at Live Oak Adult Day Services, who said that she loves being able to “reach the world through the Rotary.” She added that she is able to do this partly because of the club’s diverse leadership.

“As members, we all belong to the local community,” Vaidhyanathan said. “Our heart beats for the local community, but when we raise funds, we raise funds both for the local community as well for the larger global community. We do projects internationally, and our outreach is worldwide.”

Lenihan said that Vaidhyanathan has embraced the multicultural nature of Cupertino.

“Savita, as with many of us, believes people are people,” Lenihan said. “Regardless of what your past is, you’ve got a rich past and let’s find out what it is. It’s probably got cultural differences from us, but she embraces all people.

“Her idea is to embrace a really rich multicultural club and so however that happens, that’s what we’re working on. That’s what she’s working on.”

In applying this approach, Rotary Club leaders also have to remember that their members have lives and families outside of their work with Rotary. Participating in Rotary can be a significant time commitment, but members can use their occupations and involvement in other parts of the community to increase awareness of the Rotary’s work.

Ultimately, Vaidhyanathan wants to remind the Cupertino community that the Rotary’s projects would not be able to succeed without its members’ heavy involvement.

“These are people who dedicate a big chunk of their time to transforming the lives of people worldwide,” Vaidhyanathan said. “It’s where Rotary magic happens.”