Group Study Exchanges

The Group Study Exchange (GSE) program of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for young business and professional men and women between the ages of 25 and 40 in the initial years of their professional lives. The program provides travel grants for teams of participants to exchange visits between paired areas in different countries. For four to six weeks, team members study the host country's institutions and ways of life, observe their own vocations as practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas. Team members can come from corporations, small businesses, community organizations, medical and educational facilities, government offices, and nonprofit agencies.

Teams are composed of four to six non-Rotarian team members, usually of various business and professional backgrounds, and one Rotarian team leader. The GSE experience spans four to six weeks. During the exchange, teams will visit local businesses, government offices, and community organizations in the host district, tour historical and cultural sites, stay with Rotarian host families, and make presentations about their home countries and professions.

Team members receive orientation and cultural preparation from the sponsor Rotary District before their departure. This may include language training, practice of oral presentations, visits to Rotary Clubs, and background about Rotary International's mission and the programs of its Foundation. The host country is determined before a team member's application and selection.

Rotarians in the host area provide for meals, lodging, and group travel within their district an auto dealer, an attorney, a travel agency manager, an accountant, a banker, and a university professor. This team visited businesses and industries in our area, and they were lunch guests on April 10.

In 1985, the District fielded an exchange team to visit South Africa. Henry R. Gibbel, of Lititz, was a member of that team.  He had been part of a six-man team of the Rotary International Group Study Exchange Program. He had been impressed by the coronation of a new, 19-year-old king in Swaziland. Mr. Gibbel learned on that occasion that the old king had 300 wives, and the new king picked his first wife from among the coronation dancers.

As part of the Club's international service to humanity, the Group Study Exchange program is unrivaled. The personal perspectives shared by both the inbound and outbound participants with their hosts is indispensable in promoting peace and understanding and in broadening everyone's perspectives on the global reach of Rotary.

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