International Service

Group Study Exchange (GSE)

Auburn Rotary Club attempts to host a Group Study Exchange (GSE) team each year. The team is able to stay with a host Rotary family and learn our way of life while sharing with the club about their own.

GSE is Rotary Foundation's program. GSE experiences offer unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunities for young business and professional men and women between the ages of 25 and 40 and in the early years of their professional lives. 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.

Rotary Scholarships

The Rotary Scholarships Committee of the Auburn Rotary Club is responsible for publicizing the prestigious Rotary scholarships and for recruiting and developing applicants to pursue these scholarships. These scholarships include Ambassadorial Scholarships, Rotary World Peace Scholarships and Rotary Grants for University Teachers. This committee publicizes the availability of scholarships primarily to the students of two local institutions: Auburn University and Southern Union State Community College. After identifying potential applicants, we assist them in preparing their applications and preparing for their district-level interviews. When our applicants win the scholarships, we introduce them to the ideals of Rotary, and we invite them to get to know our club. We then help to prepare them for their trips abroad, and we have follow-up programming for our club's membership when the students return.

Youth Exchange

The most powerful force in the promotion of international understanding and peace is exposure to different cultures. The world becomes a smaller, friendlier place when we learn that all people — regardless of nationality — desire the same basic things: a safe, comfortable environment that allows for a rich and satisfying life for our children and ourselves. Youth Exchange provides thousands of young people with the opportunity to meet people from other lands and to experience their cultures. This plants the seeds for a lifetime of international understanding.

International Students

Because of its proximity to Auburn University and the vast international cultures represented among the university's undergraduate and graduate students, the Auburn Rotary Club works with AU's Office of International Education on a number of efforts. Among its collaboration efforts, Auburn Rotary provides annual support for the university's annual World's Fair, which celebrates the diverse world cultures represented on campus—not that different from the diversity Rotary Clubs internationally celebrate.