Students enjoyed the GRSP Leadership Weekend in Atlanta over MLK weekend - read more in a separate article in this newsletter.

STRATEGIC PLANNING AND PILOT PROGRAM

This year we have two students being selected through the pilot program. The Rotary Club of Dunwoody selected its first student, Yermariam Workneh from Ethiopia for this Rotary year, and it has been such a wonderful experience that they will continue in the pilot for 2020-21. Brookhaven and North Atlanta will also be selecting a student through the pilot program to help them address that the expense for the two smaller clubs has gotten too high. Both students will be attending Oglethorpe.

We had been concerned that the only universities that would be able to participate in the pilot program were the private universities; however, we are finding that the public universities are very anxious to work with us and may want to put our link on their website. It would be promoted as a scholarship opportunity and would link directly to the GRSP website application. The basic qualifications for the student will not change. They still must have never lived nor studied in the United States for more than four months and they must be at least 18 and not over 24 on August 1 of the scholastic year. It is our recommendation that the clubs not review student applications until they have been accepted by the university and started their registration process. Some of the public universities are spending a lot of funds on enticing international students to their programs and applications are numerous, but not all students will be accepted by the university. We could benefit from these advertising dollars spent by someone else.

A student selected through the pilot program will be no different from any other student. The student will be asked to sign a contract and the student must agree to abide by the program requirements.

UPDATE ON STRATEGIC PLANNING

The Strategic Planning Committee continues to meet to improve the Program and the Diversity and Marketing Committee is working to develop a program that will increase the supply, quality and diversity of applicants. They will identify methods to improve the diversity on the club and program level. This committee is currently working on an ambassadorial program utilizing the talents of our alumni.

Looking at where we were a year ago, we have a new website and have created more depth to our current corporate structure. We formed the Marketing and Diversity Committee and the pilot program, which could very well be what saves the program. We have a new website and, although the application process for selection was a total disaster this year, it should work fine for next year. We will be hiring a Marketing and Development Director this year and will be hiring a firm to assess our office structure. A subcommittee was formed over a year ago to create a separate entity for the GRSP Endowment and the documentation will be filed immediately to form this new corporation. District 6900 will have an extra seat in this new corporation at least in the beginning.

Of great concern is the escalating cost of the tuition. The Endowment was created many years ago to mitigate the issue, but it has not been able to keep up with the increasing costs. Contrary to popular belief, the Endowment cannot be used for operations and all trustees and host families are true volunteers. No one except for the staff in Savannah receives reimbursement for services, unless the individual clubs assist. Tax rules for an endowment only allow the income from the corpus to be paid out. The corpus is to remain untouched.

SELECTION FOR THE CLASS OF 2020-2021

Each year trustees and the executive committee meet in January in Savannah for a semi-annual meeting which culminates in selection of students for the following academic year. Your fellow Rotarians who serve GRSP are some of the most generous of Rotarians, along with the host families who open their homes to total strangers who usually end up becoming family members after only a few weeks. Rotarians who have agreed to be GRSP Trustees travel to Savannah on their own dime to discuss ways of improving the experience for both the student and the clubs and it’s always so wonderful to see the dedication of these very special people. As always, selection was interesting. And yes, the blue eraser is still being used!

We were concerned this year that we did not have enough qualified applicants to fill our Clubs’ wants and needs; however, by the end of the meeting it seemed that everyone was happy with their selections, even though they might not have won their first choice. Like universities all around the United States, international applicants are reducing, but we believe that because of our host families, GRSP is still the scholarship of choice.

It looks like we will again be offering 41 scholarships this year, including the two Pilot Program scholarships. The mix is the normal 1/3 male and 2/3 female. The scholarship offering process will take awhile and trustees and host families are discouraged from trying to contact their student until they are accepted by the university chosen by the club.