Omega School Executive Director Oscar Mireles was presented with the Rotary Club of Madison 2022 Youth Service Award for “his passion about helping young people realize their educational goals” at the monthly Rotary Club Luncheon on Wednesday, July 27.
Mireles, who has been a member of the Rotary Club of Madison for 14 years, was presented with the award by Charles McLimans, the president-elect of Rotary Club of Madison.
“It’s an honor to get this award. Rotary is one of the premier organizations in town and they give out hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants and scholarships to the community a year,” Mireles tells Madison365. “For one of the larger organizations in town, they really do a lot of hands-on work and I’m glad to be a part of that.”
Each year, Rotary recognizes up to six members for their service to the Rotary Club in one of the five avenues of service which are club, community, international, vocational or youth service.
Mireles, the City of Madison’s first Latino poet laureate, has been executive director of Omega School for the past 28 years where he has helped thousands of young adults earn their GED certificates. For the past seven years, Mireles has served as a member of the Rotary Scholarship Committee.
“I really enjoyed my time with the scholarship committee and working with the first-generation students who have done really well and to be in a position to provide scholarships for them,” Mireles says. “I’ve always been on the speaker’s committee where I’ve focused on making sure that they had speakers that focused on on youth and on youth issues.”
Each of those seven years, Mireles read over 35 lengthy scholarship application forms, helped conduct the student interviews and helped select recipients for Rotary of Madison’s annual four-year college scholarship program. Mireles also mentored several Rotary Scholars to help them navigate their college years since most of the Rotary scholarship recipients are the first in their families to attend college.
“To receive this award from the Rotary Foundation is truly an honor. They take very seriously the kind of work they do and I’ve learned a lot, I’ve met a lot of people through the organization, and Rotary has been a very positive experience for me,” Mireles says.
Mireles also serves as a trustee of the Madison Rotary Foundation. With the 2022 Rotary Club of Madison Youth Service Award, the Rotary Club has made a $200 gift in Mireles’ name to The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International.
