June 2019 Rotarian of the Month:
Michelle Tsui of the Rotary Club of Menlo Park

Michelle Tsui represents what “Service Above Self” really means. Her lifelong commitment to make our Menlo Park community and Rotary District 5150 a better place to live and work is unmatched.

Michelle Tsui joined the Rotary Club of Menlo Park in 2007.  She served as the 2015-2016 Club President.  Previous to leading as President, Michelle served as the club’s Membership Chair and initiated “Bring a Guest Day” and also started using social media to attract more new members.  She then went on to serve as District 5150’s Area Membership Coordinator and supported several neighboring Rotary clubs. Michelle is currently serving as the District’s Area Foundation Coordinator supporting other clubs with efforts in raising funds for The Rotary Foundation.

Michelle’s passion for service is education.  Shortly after Michelle joined Rotary, she endowed the Tsui/Tsiang Math & Science for Women Scholarship.  Besides giving out this scholarship to one high school graduate heading to college every year, Michelle participates in local high school events to encourage students to study Math & Science and get them interested in hi-tech careers especially students from low-income families who don’t get much exposure to technology.

In 2014, Michelle saw a need to enhance the Rotary Club of Menlo Park Foundation’s Scholarship Program and started the College Student Mentoring Program to complement it.  Michelle assigns a Rotary mentor to every scholarship recipient attending a 4-year college.  Her Mentoring Program Committee holds career and life skill events for these students throughout the year.  It is Michelle’s hope that by creating this Rotary bond, the students will continue to benefit from the worldwide network of Rotary even after college, and may even give back to their community as Rotarians someday. We have 76 students in the mentoring program since it was started 5 years ago.  We currently have 27 Rotary mentors. Working with this program.

Since 2014, Michelle has chaired a fundraising event, Taste of Menlo, that brought in around $20,000 each year for the Scholarship Program.

Michelle is an avid attendee of the annual Rotary International Convention.  Through one of the conventions, she made a connection with the Rotary Club of Kampala, Nsambya in Uganda.  Later on, she helped their club start a scholarship program, and she is sponsoring a young woman attending college in Uganda studying Engineering.  Michelle is bringing a delegation of Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Kampala, Nsambya to visit California and to attend the 4-Way Fest Conference in May 2019.  Michelle’s goal is to connect the group to Rotary clubs in the US that are interested in doing projects in Uganda so they can work together to bring positive change.

She has met the 6 area Areas of Service; foundation service, membership service, vocational service, community service and youth services, public service. She stands out in her willingness to be a better Rotarian with highest ethical standards in all occupations, and we enthusiastically congratulate her as District 5150 Rotarian of the Month!

EDITORS NOTE:  An earlier version this post incorrectly cited Josie McHale, Rotarian of the Month for June 2018, as this month’s honoree.  We apologize to Michelle and the Rotary Club of Menlo Park for this temporary mix-up.