Category: Rotary Fellowships

District adds Rotary Means Business Fellowship

SRCrotaryLeave a comment

Rotary FellowshipsRotary offers a wide range of Fellowships, regional and international groups of Rotarians united by common interests for social formal and informal activities and exchange of ideas.

The range is tremendous — motorcycling, cooking, antique autos, chess, bird watching, craft beers, curling, boating, education, medicine, fishing, hiking, home exchange, music, running, magic, law, military vets, photography, law enforcement, art, rowing, skiing, travel, wine, whiskey, yoga, and on and on and on.

One that harkens back to Rotary’s origins more than a century ago in Chicago is a Fellowship called “Rotary Means Business,” and a chapter of that particular Fellowship has just been formed in our District 7190.

It is a Fellowship for those who want to network and do business with fellow Rotarians. While Rotary is dedicated to “Service Above Self” and public service, there is nothing inherently wrong with business networking among Rotarians. As founder Paul Smith, who created Rotary as a business-oriented organization for mutual enhancement and public service, said back in 1911 in the vernacular of the time: “If anyone tells you that it is reprehensible to make a dollar or two for the wife and babies from club associates in straightforward business transactions, tell that person that some foreign substance had gotten into his carburetor.”

The Rotary Means Business Fellowship encourages Rotarians to support the success of their fellow Rotarians by doing business with them, and by referring others to them.

You can join the District chapter of the Fellowship by visiting online. If you have specific questions, simply email District Governor-elect Larry Jones.

 

Peace Fellows: A Rotary educational opportunity

SRCrotaryLeave a comment
Screen shot 2016-06-22 at 2.41.07 PM
The 2016 Class of Rotary Peace Fellows included Americans (first two from left) Ahmed Mohibbi and Kate Lonergan, as well as students from Gambia, Australia, France, Canada, Japan, and Somalia. (Two graduates are not pictured.)
Screen shot 2016-06-22 at 2.54.35 PM
Lonergan

Rotary International encompasses many more venues and efforts than you might be aware of. The Rotary Peace Center is one such example.

The master’s degree-level program, headquartered in Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden, recently graduated a class of nine young professionals who had completed the two-year course of training, study, and practice in peace building and conflict resolution.

“Uppsala has prepared us to meet the headwinds of today’s winds of madness.”

— Krystal Renschler, a Peace Fellow from Canada

The Rotary Peace Fellows joined 30 other students at a graduation ceremony in the town’s medieval cathedral attended by friends, relatives, host families, and members of the local Rotary clubs. The Peace Fellows’ studies were supported by The Rotary Foundation, and a lineup of Rotary clubs and individual members. A U.S. student, Kate Lonergan, was honored with the department’s Mats Hammarström Prize for “Outstanding Essay in Peace & Conflict Studies.”

Although the Uppsala class is the latest to graduate, it is not the only one. Each year, Rotary selects up to 100 individuals from around the world to receive fully-funded academic fellowships at one of its peace centers. The fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all internship and field study expenses.

In just over a decade, the Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 900 fellows for careers in peace building. Many of them go on to serve as leaders in national governments, NGOs (non-government organizations), the military, law enforcement, and such international organizations as the United Nations and the World Bank.

It offers master’s degree fellowships at premier universities in fields related to peace and conflict prevention and resolution. Programs last 15 to 24 months and require a practical internship of two to three months during the academic break. The institutions involved (fact sheets, further information, and application information on each are available here):

• Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• International Christian University, Japan
• University of Bradford, England
• University of Queensland, Australia
• Uppsala University, Sweden

If you know any young professionals interested in this field, you can point them to the Rotary Peace Centers’ Facebook page to get current activity information.

 

Connect with other Rotarians who share your interests

SRCrotaryLeave a comment

ROSN320Rotary Fellowships are more than 60 independent groups within RI that allow people to connect with like-minded Rotarians and Rotary spouses nationally and globally to enjoy their vocations, hobbies and leisure pursuits.

This side benefit to Rotary membership offers a very wide range of topics — and, if you want to start a group on a topic not currently represented, there’s a mechanism for that, too.