Group Study Exchange

Most years our Rotary District (1080), which covers Norfolk, Suffolk, most of Cambridgeshire and small parts of Hertfordshire and Essex, participates in the Group Study Exchange where a group of professional young people led by a Rotarian visit a different country in the world.        The visit lasts approximately one month and partcipants have a mixture of vocational days where they observe how people having similar careers work in that country, as well as experiencing the culture of that country.

Subsequently there is a visit from a similar group from the exchange country where they experience life in East Anglia.

Recent Group Study Exchanges to our District have been with

Argentina, Australia, Turkey, Philipines, Bangalore, India, and in 2010-2011 it was with Southern Illinois in the USA.  

In the GSE visits,  those coming from overseas are hosted by Rotary families for a week, and in 2009-2010 it was the turn of the Rotary Club of Norwich to host those from Bangalore. Most years the Club arranges an Environment half or full day for the visiting group which local Rotarians and their friends are welcome to join.

In 2011, the day started with exploring the Low Carbon Strategies at the University of East Anglia and then visited a Renewable Energy firm.   Exploring how East Anglia is becoming an important renewable energy area with both offshore and onshore wind, solar etc formed the early part of the afternoon while problems associated with coastal erosion concluded the day.