Mercer Island High School seniors Rory Murphy and Elie Hess were the Rotary Club’s Islanders of the Month for November.

Murphy is co-president of the National Chinese Honors Society and founded the chapter at Mercer Island High School. She is also the vice president of the Key Club, a member of the Super Awesome Fun Events (S.A.F.E.) Club, a member of the National Honors Society, National Art Honors Society and Kids Corps.

Murphy was also one of four students selected by teacher recommendation out of 1,450 students for the Superintendent Advisory Committee.

She earned WIAA recognition for scholastic awards as a member of the varsity softball team. Her international experiences include her volunteerism in Guatemala, where she helped build the roof of a school, completed farm work and assisted hospital patients. In addition, she traveled to Beijing, China for two weeks, visited famous landmarks and researched the differences and similarities between the United States’ and China’s education systems and presented findings in Chinese.

Hess is president of Magic: the Gathering Club; section leader of the Mercer Island High School wind symphony, marching and jazz bands; and a member of the Computer Club and Senior Service Club.

Hess is also a member of the National Honor Society, the French National Honor Society and a recipient of the Bronfman Youth Fellow and the Gold Community Service Award at MIHS.

Hess’ volunteerism includes work at Virginia Mason Medical Center, The Kavana Cooperative Shabbat Minyan and a Teen Feed volunteer.

Hess’ goal is to study the connection between computer science and music at a college with robust computer engineering and music programs. He eventually hopes to program video games to interact with musical scores of his own composition.