Boothbay Harbor Rotary - International Service

The Group Study Exchange (GSE) program is a cultural and vocational exchange travel opportunity for young business 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 two different countries.

Each year, a team of four young people selected from our Rotary district travels abroad on this program, and in exchange, a team from the selected host country visits our Rotary district.

The purpose of the exchange is better people-to-people understanding and professional learning. For four weeks, the GSE team are guests of Rotarians in the host country, they develop personal and professional relationships, share ideas, and have the chance to observe their own vocation as practiced abroad.

In 2008, the GSE exchange was with the Philippines. Our club sponsored team members Juliette Coombs, an RN at St. Andrews Village, and Evelyn Andrews, HR manager at Hannaford. The team leader that year was Boothbay Harbor Rotarian Marty Helman.

GSE team member Juliette makes friends in the Philippines (left), and then the Filipino team comes to our Region (right).

In 2009, the exchange was with Poland, and our club sponsored team member Kate Morkeski, a river biologist whose parents live locally.

In April 2009, the club sponsored Kate (photo at left, third from left) on the GSE trip to Poland. In exchange, we helped host five members of the Polish team when they visited here in the Region a few weeks later (photo at right).

In 2012, the Group Study Exchange trip will be in northern Germany. And in 2013 it will be a trip to Nigeria for grade-school teachers. Interested Boothbay Region residents should contact the club for further information about applying for this trip.

Link to GSE trip information on the District 7780 site

For more photos of the GSE exchange with the Philippines, visit our Photo Album.