Oxford Area High School students Stephanie Norris and Brianne Roper were honored as Oxford Rotary Club Seniors of the Month for March.

Stephanie, daughter of Gerilyn and Michael Norris, is a member of the Helping Hands Community Service Club, the Student Diversity Council and the Spanish Honor Society. She was instrumental in organizing the newly-established chapter of Interact, Rotary International’s service organization for high school students, which is sponsored by the Oxford Rotary Club. 

As president, Stephanie helped coordinate projects including participation in the Oxford Halloween Parade and hosting a community dinner at Oxford Presbyterian Church. At last fall’s Rotary District 7450 Conference, the Oxford Interact students joined chapter members from throughout the region in preparing nutritious food packages which were delivered to schools in Africa that educate both boys and girls.

Stephanie became interested in Rotary after living and attending school in Brazil during her junior year as part of its Youth Exchange program. During her exchange year she and other Rotary exchange students volunteered each week at a school in an impoverished area of southern Brazil. Stephanie also learned to speak Portuguese during her ten-and-half month exchange.

After graduation, Stephanie plans to serve in the U.S. Air Force and attend the University of Delaware to study international business. She would eventually like to work overseas, perhaps as a staff member at a U.S. embassy.

Brianne, daughter of Audrey and Chip Roper, is treasurer of the high school’s chapter of National Honor Society and historian of the Spanish Honor Society. She has played on the tennis team throughout her high school years, serving as varsity captain this past fall. 

Last summer Brianne and classmates Jackie DiGiacomo and Hannah McComsey qualified to attend the Future Business Leaders of America National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, California after their project placed second in the Digital Video Production competition at the 2013 Pennsylvania FBLA State Leadership Conference. The three seniors will attend this year’s state conference, to be held from April 7 to 9 in Hershey, after being named finalists in the Public Service Announcement event.

Brianne teaches fifth and sixth grade Sunday school at Living Faith Community Church in West Grove and has been on five church missions to the village of Puebla, Mexico in the past three years. For one week each January, the mission group members volunteer at an orphanage where they celebrate the extended Christmas holiday with the 50 resident children. A weeklong summer mission helps to turn the village’s contaminated water into a clean and sanitary water system.

After graduation, Brianne will attend Messiah College in Mechanicsburg to study for a degree in engineering.