Rotary News: Dunwoody Rotary Hosts International Students

During Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, Jan. 13-15, the Rotary Club of Dunwoody again hosted the Georgia Rotary Student Program (GRSP) Leadership Conference at Oglethorpe University.

The Rotary Club of Atlanta and the Halle Foundation are also sponsors of GRSP, a state-wide program in which Georgia Rotary clubs sponsor students from foreign countries who study at Georgia colleges for one year with costs covered by the host Rotary Club.

Dunwoody Rotary’s Leadership Conference provides many motivational speakers to assist the 50 participating students in developing plans for meaningful community service.

Dunwoody Rotary President Nominee Harvey Rosenzweig served as conference chair and Kathy Brandt, past president of Dunwoody Rotary, served as program chair.

Fifty students attended the conference, where they learned and were challenged through presentations by current leaders in Rotary and Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars.

The highlight of the weekend was guest speaker Eduardo da Costa, who is from the Amazon rain forest area of Brazil and overcame tremendous obstacles to become a Rotary Peace Scholar at Duke University. His expertise is finding ways to promote development while preserving indigenous populations. His story truly resonated with the students.

At the Friday session, the students prepared short “commercials” or presentations to describe how they would address global issues in the future.

Saturday afternoon the students, Rotarians and their families participated in PaintFest, where they painted murals that will be donated to hospitals and other health care facilities.

At the final session on Sunday morning, students, with the assistance of their Rotary coaches, prepared personal plans to address community issues when they return to sponsoring Rotary clubs in their home countries.