You're Going Where? With Who?

By far and away the most common questions I receive when I say that I have been chosen to be part of the Rotary Group Study Exchange (GSE) in Central America. So what better way to get started on this journey than a good old fashioned FAQ section. If you have more, please feel free to add them in the comment section and I'll get back to you.

Photo Courtesy of Rotary District 6080

What is the GSE?

According to the GSE website:

The Rotary Foundation’s Group Study Exchange (GSE) program is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for businesspeople and professionals between the ages of 25 and 40 who are in the early stages of their careers. The program provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits in paired areas of different countries. For four to six weeks, team members experience the host country’s culture and institutions, observe how their vocations are practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas.

In layman's terms please?

It's this insanely unique opportunity to be completely immersed in a different culture and not only learn about their trade and workforce but see what I do job-wise in the other countries. So, I'll have the opportunity to go to different educational facilities. I know. Crazy.

Where are you going in Central America?

El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, which is Rotary District 4240. Team members from 4240 came and visited our district (6080) in October. So now we are exchanging with them.

We? Who else is going?

Our team is comprised of 4 team members and a team leader from our district. There are 2 other members from Springfield, as well as our team leader and one from Columbia. Three of us also work in higher education so that is pretty cool.  You can read more about each of the team members here.

So are you just going to be hanging out on beaches all day? Sounds miserable.

No. Not at all! While it is true that I love warmth and beaches, that is not what this exchange is about.

In a typical day we will have vocational visits during the day (visiting our occupations there as well as the popular workforce in the area), then in the evening we will attend Rotary meetings and present on our home district.

Present in Spanish. I'm going to have to work on that...

We also will have other cultural and site tours as well as attend their district conference.

Where will you be staying?

At each stop we will have host families who will be staying with, which is one of the coolest parts of this exchange. The host families will be part of Rotary as well. And sometimes these will be the same people we will be going with to work.


And no, I'm not freaked out by this. I think this is the most awesome part of the exchange. If you have ever traveled with me, you know I am trying to find the people who are native to the area and find out what they like about living where they live. Whether that is in other towns in Missouri, other cities in the US, or other countries. I want to learn about it all. So this is right up my alley.

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And this blog post has officially became entirely too long. So, if you are still with me, I hope this answered some questions and I hope to answer more in the coming weeks and months as we prepare for our journey. Like I said, feel free to ask more questions in the comments section.