District Events
Check this page for up-to-the-minute information about the great happenings in District 5320! Here’s the scoop on the District Foundation Dinner, District Conference, District Assembly, the Rotary International Convention, training events and more!
Register now for the Rotary District 5320 Foundation Dinner!
Special Guest Speaker: Ambassadorial Scholar Jean Irwin
Jean Irwin is a retired teacher of the deaf who currently resides in Rancho Cordova California. She has taught in grades pre-school through 12th grade in 12 schools. Jean was an Ambassadorial Scholar in 1989 . She speaks to many Rotary groups about the long term effects of investment in the Foundation.
The Ambassadorial Scholarship Jean received allowed her to do research into reading and deafness 20 years ago which earned her a Master’s Degree from Nottingham University in England. After this education, her students broke what is considered a glass ceiling for the deaf and achieved high levels of reading. She is now District 5190′s Literacy Chair and wants to use what she learned about reading to help encourage and foster more literacy involvement from clubs, especially in the development of having those in Rotary youth programs read to young children.
One of the most important roles Jean has had was as a grassroots coordinator for the passage of a legislative bill to make the testing of hearing mandatory before a baby leaves the hospital in Nevada. Nevada moved from 36th to 8th in the nation for children tested at birth for hearing loss in just two years after this bill passed , resulting in the early intervention that is so critical to language development.
She has spoken to over 275 conferences for both Rotarians and teachers of the deaf about what she learned as an Ambassadorial Scholar. In 2009, she received the “Service Above Self” award from Rotary International. Jean is the mother of Kent, age 21 who is a University student in Reno, and daughter Katy 26, who is an actress in New York CIty. Jean married David Hatfield in June of 2010 and part of their honeymoon was at the International Convention in Montreal, Canada. Dave is quickly getting up to speed on life as a Rotary spouse.
