The Interact Club, sponsored by Spanish I and II teacher Marcela Sample and Delta pilot Chris Boehm, is an organization at the Mill that volunteers throughout the community but mainly focuses on meeting and getting connected with new people.

For two of their Wednesday meetings , Sample and Boehm invited two members of the Peachtree City Rotary Club to give students some background about their professions and different opportunities in the community that high school students might not know about.

“They had a lot of great information for the students and can teach them a lot about volunteering,” Sample said.

The Rotary Club members, State Court Judge Jason Thompson and Capt. Allen Arant both gave 15-minute speeches.

On Thompson’s visit, he started his speech by giving students some background on what he does for a living. “I started out just like you, 22 years ago, not knowing what I wanted to do after high school until I decided to go to law school,” Thompson said. “If you’re unsure of what’s next like how I was, Rotary Club offers money to students who might be interested in the law field through an essay contest.”

The Georgia Laws of Life contest is an essay competition that is held across the state. Students are prompted to write about their personal “laws of life” or basic morals through a written argument based on their ethical beliefs. The essays are due mid-February of each year and the winners are announced in March. Last school year, Rotary Club awarded more than $17,000 to students throughout Georgia.

Thompson also offered an internship in which a Fayette County student can visit the state court and see cases he presides over first hand. “I wish I had this opportunity in school,” Thompson said. “The students get to actually sit in on a case and when it’s over, review it with me and give me feedback on how I enforced the law in that specific situation.” Thompson explained that it’s a great opportunity for anyone seriously interested in going into the law field.

Thompson also explained the incentive behind Rotary Club’s sponsorship to the students. “We sponsor your organization obviously for support but also to ensure that the future of Fayette County is in good hands,” Thompson said. “We have high expectations for you all to do great work for your generation.”

For Capt. Arant’s visit the following week, he also gave students some background of his army career and what he participated in while serving in the southern Regional Command (RC South), which is similar to an American state, in Afghanistan. Also, like Thompson, he shared a memory from high school and what his generation saw during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “I distinctly remember I was eating a sausage biscuit in the cafeteria when I heard about the terrorist attacks in New York,” Arant said, “so, unfortunately, my generation consisted of war.”

Arant, who is 28, was deployed to RC South in December 2013. Growing up, he said he always wanted to be a pilot. “While in Afghanistan, my job was to fly ahead of the main force and find the enemy so we would be able to plan before attacking,” Arant said.

During his speech and again at the end,  Arant made something clear to the students. “I’m not here to recruit you to join the military, that’s not my job,” Arant said,  “but I do want you guys to be involved more, do more and set yourselves apart.”

Both meetings were open to the student body.