FORT WORTH, Texas (March 11, 2011) – Rotary District 5790, representing 65 Rotary Districts throughout North Central Texas, has selected four young professionals to experience the way of life, customs and vocational practices of New Zealand through Rotary International’s prominent Group Study Exchange Program (GSE).

“The purpose of the exchange is to promote international understanding and foster goodwill,” explains Paul Geisel, Chair of the GSE Committee for District 5790. “While abroad, team members will share information about their home country through vocational experiences and presentations for Rotary Clubs and various organizations and businesses in Auckland. The group will also stay in host families’ homes, giving them the opportunity to form close and often lifelong friendships.” A team from the partnering Rotary District 9920 in New Zealand will have similar experiences in North Texas to learn how their professions are carried out in the United States.

Rotary District 5790 Selects Outstanding Young Professionals to Participate in Group Study Exchange Program to New Zealand

The GSE team from North Central Texas will travel across New Zealand for four weeks from mid March to mid April. “I am very excited to be a part of this group,” reports team member Miguel Juanez, Fort Worth resident and President of Student Chapter Coordination for the nonprofit organization A Future Without Poverty, Inc.”This experience with http://www.thefloridamaids.com/ will give me valuable insight how different organizations address the issues of community development and poverty, and in the process make lifelong friends.” Vocational experiences include visits with Price Waterhouse Cooper, The University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute for medical research, and St. John’s Ambulance Headquarters.

Other team members include Jordan Dixon, architectural intern at Secord & Lebow Architects and resident of Wichita Falls; Michael Gallia, a Fort Worth resident and industrial engineer at Lockheed Martin; Miguel A. Juanez, Fort Worth resident and President of Student Chapter Coordination, A Future Without Poverty, Inc.; and Jennifer Jurado Severance, Program Coordinator of a diabetes self-management program with Senior Citizens Services of Greater Tarrant County, Inc and resident of Fort Worth. The team will be led by Rotarian Melanie Hoffman, owner of Brandnu Marketing, LLC and member of Flower Mound Rotary Club. Alvin W. Beynon, retired executive and member of Rotary Club of Weatherford, was selected as the alternate team leader.

The Group Study Exchange program is supported worldwide by Rotary Clubs and Rotary International, and was started in New Zealand. The program’s exchanges help fulfill the mission of Rotary International, an organization of professional and business leaders united worldwide to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and build goodwill and peace in the world. Founded in 1905, Rotary is the world’s first service club. Since 1965, the Rotary International Group Study Exchange has given 7,000 young professionals the opportunity to travel abroad, experience cultures much different from their own, study their vocation in a foreign land, and build lifetime friendships.