Rotary Alumni Committee Provides Resources
Check out how our Dist. 5950 Rotary Alumni Committee can be a resource to your club and what help they'd like from you.
The Alumni Committee needs YOUR help: Please help identify Alumni in your Clubs and Communities. Alumni are individuals who have been sponsored by Rotary for various programs: Ambassadorial Scholars, Peace Fellows, Group Study Exchange, etc.
Contact Carol MacDonald, Alumni Committee Chair and Burnsville Breakfast Rotarian, at 952-857-9392 if you can share names and contact info for Alumni (Rotary Members and non-Members) for a socials/networking opportunities in 2014. The committee will also be reaching out to Alumni to engage them in activities.
AND if you're looking for energetic alumni speakers to tell about how Rotary programs made a major difference in their lives, contact Carol for that as well.
Both RYE and the Peace Fellow program had a tremendous impact on Amanda's life!
Amanda Ottman, pictured here between EP AM club president Craig Blixrud and EP Noon club president John Steinlicht, is a Shakopee native and former Rotary Youth exchange student in Argentina. In 2005 she graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a B.A. in Global Studies: Governance, Peace and Justice; Spanish and Portuguese Studies, during which time she had a Semester study abroad at PUC Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Amanda spoke at the joint Eden Prairie Rotary Club meeting about her experience as a Rotary World Peace Fellow in 2011-12 (1 ½ years) when she earned her Master’s Degree in International Relations: International Development and Cooperation at the Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
She encouraged all of us to introduce the Rotary Peace Fellow program opportunities to like-minded individuals. There are three primary eligibility criteria to be considered as a Peace Fellow:
1. Must have completed an undergraduate degree.
2. Must have experience in primary field of work. Amanda spent time working in the Dominican Republic and worked as a social worker in Twin Cities area.
3. Must speak a foreign language. Amanda speaks Spanish and Portuguese.
The Peace Fellow initiative is second to only Polio in terms of scope of The Rotary Foundation programs. There were seven Rotary Piece Centers and each site accepts 10 students. Amanda said that the applications are not difficult but that the process takes a very long time.
Amanda especially relished the “opportunity to go home” to Argentina where she spent a school year as a youth exchange student.
Her Peace Fellow Group included eight from US and one each from Australia and Columbia. As a Peace Fellow she was expected to develop relationships with Rotary by working with a local sponsor and attending regular Rotary Club meetings. She was able to share her Rotary experiences with a local Argentine radio station.
Every Monday night at 10 p.m. she joined with a group who went out and shared hot beverages with the homeless. She also got together once a month with a group of clowns who rode the Subway to cheer up people who seemed tired and not very happy.
Peace Fellows are expected to apply what they learned. After she finished her Peace Fellow term in July 2012, Amanda worked with Save the Children in Spain for three months working on program development. She wrapped up her term by attending the International Peace Forum with Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka.
Amanda thanked Rotary for giving her this opportunity and finished her presentation with a quote from Mother Teresa- “I alone cannot change the world but I can cast a stone across waters to create a ripple.”