This trip is not a vacation.  It’s a “Group Study Exchange” trip from Rotary District 5610 (South Dakota, and parts of Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa) to Rotary District 3700 (Daegu City, South Korea).

 

Our trip lasts four weeks.  We depart Monday, March 27, and return Sunday, April 22.  Our schedule will be very full from Monday through Friday, but we have our weekends off.  Most of our days will be spent in Daegu, an industrial city known for its textile production and fashion industry, but we will also visit Busan, a seaport to the south, and several other cities around the area, including some very old ones.

 

District Governor Roger Wiltz says, “I personally chose South Korea as it offered a new experience for our district.”

 

The Group Study Exchange (GSE) program of The Rotary Foundation is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for business and professional men and women.  The program provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits between paired areas in different countries. For four to six weeks, team members experience the host country's institutions and ways of life, observe their own vocations as practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas.

 

For each team member, The Rotary Foundation provides the most economical round-trip air ticket between the home and host countries. Local Rotarians in the host area provide for meals, lodging, and group travel within their district.

 

The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty. The Rotary Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation that is supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.