Team Leader speaks up

It’s quite an honor to have been selected as the team leader for this Group Study Exchange. And I could not be more pleased with the progress we have made as a team. We were all strangers in September, and now we’re almost ready to travel together to Central America to represent Rotary District 5450. The team has been meeting every few weeks, learning about our destinations, about Rotary, and also a lot about ourselves in our new roles as ambassadors. I feel confident that Amy, Jessica, Molly, and Naomi will present an excellent picture of Colorado to the Rotarians and others we meet on our trip. Gale, our alternate team leader, and Rachel, our alternate team member, have both been extremely supportive and fine contributors to our preparations. Soon we will get our itinerary of vocational assignments, as this is the primary focus of GSE. Looking forward to seeing what our hosts have planned for us.

Rolando

Already the Holidays?

When I interviewed in September 2008 for a team member spot on this GSE, the trip in 2009 seemed so far off. I cannot believe we are only two months away from this incredible experience. The holidays are upon us, as we are working hard at our careers, spending time with family, and preparing for this experience. I have not been the best blogger... but will try and step it up a bit!

Our last meeting was productive, in that we ironed out some things we'd been kicking around for some time. We were lucky that Karen Sekich, a person very familiar with Nicaragua was able to provide some in-depth tips, advice and stories to help us prepare.

The attached photo is of our last preparation session. As you can see... we're deep in discussion.

That's all for now...I look forward to our meeting tomorrow. We'll be practicing our presentations and ironing out some more details.

Molly

Proper Introductions

Rolando Cuadrado, Team Leader
I am a real estate broker in Summit County, Colorado, a resort area near Denver, best known for Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, and Keystone ski areas. I specialize in resort residential real estate, buying and selling vacation properties and ski condos, and I am a leader in our local Realtors’ Association. As an active Rotarian, I am very involved in RYLA, Interact, and other youth programs. Paulina, my wife of 18 years is a pre-school teacher. She is a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, and we met in school in Paris, France. We have three children, ages 12, 13, and 15. We enjoy our mountain lifestyle of alpine skiing, cycling, and hiking. My father was born in Cuba, but I grew up speaking only English in Coral Gables, Florida. I have since learned Spanish and French. I have spent a lot of time in Mexico, but this is my first visit to Central America. Leading this GSE experience is a wonderful honor, and I am very pleased with the excellent team chosen by District 5450.

Amy Reichert
I work for the Colorado International Trade Office (ITO) as the Director of Trade and Investment for NAFTA and Central America. In that role, I am responsible for managing Colorado’s export and foreign investment activities related to North and Central America, including managing our trade office in Mexico City, Mexico. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and a Masters of Science degree in International Business, both from the University of Colorado. I was born and raised in Colorado, and most of my family still lives here, including my parents and older sister. I currently live in Denver and enjoy a variety of outdoor activities, playing tennis, traveling, and participating in community activities. I speak Spanish fluently, and am currently taking Portuguese lessons. I have traveled throughout much of Mexico and South America, but have had very little exposure to Central America. My first trip to Central America was to Costa Rica in 2007 for a family vacation, and I am looking forward to learning more about the region through this Rotary exchange. We have a great team, and I’m excited for the opportunity to learn and exchange ideas with our hosts in Central America!

Naomi Blakeslee
I have worked as a structural engineer for the past 9 years with Lopez Smolens Associates in Boulder, CO. I work with architects, contractors, developers, and homeowners to construct safe buildings. Mostly I design new homes and additions to existing homes, but regularly I am designing other structures: escape stairs, climbing walls, circus performance centers, historical building renovations, sculptures, bridge abutments, etc… For the past 4 years I have also taught yoga locally part time. In my free time I practice yoga, paint (oils + acrylics), bike, paddle, read, and travel. I grew up on the water in Traverse City, Michigan and moved to Colorado in 1999. Since moving here some of my family has followed: my mother in 2005 and my grandmother in 2008. I have on sister that lives in Berlin, Germany, the other who lives in Traverse City, Michigan, where my father also lives. I love traveling, as it is always full of surprises, reminding me to keep my eyes and mind open, filling me with ideas. I have never been to Central America and am honored visiting Central America for my first time with this team.


Molly Dimond
I am a construction supervisor for Xcel Energy, a large provider of natural gas and electricity in Colorado. I manage a work group of 15 employees that install new electric and gas facilities to residential and commercial building sites. I have been married to my husband Kevin for four years, and we do not have any children. We are native Coloradans, and enjoy the active lifestyle Colorado provides. We enjoy camping and hiking in the summer months, as well as riding our bikes on scenic trails around the Denver area. We are members of a lake near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and love spending evenings fishing and relaxing around the shore. We are lucky that many of our family members live nearby, as we are able to spend a great deal of time with them. I enjoy reading novels, and keep a log of all the books I read. I have traveled to Mexico five times, but have never been to Central America. I look forward to traveling with our team as we embark on this amazing journey.


Jessica Trabert
I am the North American Tour Coordinator for Up with People. Up with People (Vive la Gente in Latin American) is a service-oriented, global education program where students from all around the world come together to travel the world while building bridges of understanding as a foundation for world peace. In each city that they go to students stay with host families, participate in community service, and perform a multi-cultural show that celebrates the different cultures that make up our global village. I focus on tour management including: finding host families, arranging service projects, overseeing promotion and marketing of the show and securing donations to ensure a successful tour. I am a native of Colorado and graduated from Colorado State University with a Bachelors degree in Communications. All of my immediate family (my parents and two sisters) call Colorado home and we enjoy being in the outdoors together as much as possible. I enjoy hiking, reading, volunteering, learning new things and spending time with friends and family. This will be my first travel experience “on my own” and I consider myself extremely lucky to share this adventure with this amazing team.

Catching Up with Jessica

Although we may not be keeping on top of our blogging our team has been BUSY! We have been meeting as a group about twice a month. We spend our time together discussing the countries we will be visiting (Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama), practicing our presentations, planning what to take with us and of course - snacking! Our group knows how to set out quite the feast.

Our last meeting we were lucky to have the District Governor Nominee, Karen Sekich, join us. It was a perfect time for her to visit as it was the day we were discussing Nicaragua. Karen's experience in Nicaragua really helped us to prepare better for our visit to this country. I'm sure she will be hearing from us again before we leave! Thank you Karen for your insight!

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I can't believe it is already December! The countdown has officially begun... just over 2 months and we will be on our way to Central America. This thought has me both excited and a little nervous....

I've never really been the real adventurous type...I leave the cliff jumping, "I'm not sure what this is but I'll eat it anyways", let's fly by the seat of our pants stuff to my little sister (wave to Megan). However, this does not mean that I'm boring! I've done a lot of things that most of my friends can't say they've done (who do you think introduced little sister to the world of ice climbing and splunking). But I like to know what's going on, what will happen next, how will this end.... So when I decided at the very last possible second to apply for the GSE program I don't know if I really thought out what it would mean if I were actually chosen and how this would change my plan - "The Plan".

But the unknown is good for me. I've realized that I can't be a "I'll just test the water with my toe" kind of girl. This experience requires a full dive in!

Molly's first post... of many

Thanks Jessica for setting up such a user-friendly blogspot for us. I'm excited to document our pre-trip journey.

I spent today working on my electronic presentation for our meeting next Saturday. I have been sifting through electronic files of digital pictures (boy do I wish those were more organized). I have also taken this opportunity to do complete my Education and Language report on El Salvador. My presentation is coming along well... but as I keep reviewing it, I keep seeing things I want to change/add. I'm excited to show it to the rest of the group to get their feedback and suggestions.

While this is a lot of work, rest assured I've made some time to do some fun pre-trip activities.... can you guess what it is? SHOPPING!!!! I keep telling my husband Kevin that I have to plan ahead... he thinks it just another excuse to stimulate the economy. I've purchased some nice travel wear that will be cool in the warm climates, wrinkle resistant, and hopefully will still look nice after being schlepped all over Central America.

Speaking of my husband... Kevin and I have both been working a lot lately. While we see each other daily, I found myself missing him this week, as we saw eachother only in passing. Perhaps this is yet another method of preparation for this journey. I know I'll miss him more than I realize, but at least it will be for such a good reason.

I always look forward to our group meetings, as it gives us an opportunity to learn more about each other. I know we'll be leaning on each other a lot for support during our trip, so learning more about one another and our likes/dis-likes will make this much more fun.

I suppose I'll sign off... and save more for later!
Molly

** We were blessed by another weekend of beautiful weather.... hopefully it's not the last one!

A Message from Amy

Well, I'll give Jessica a break from blogging since she so far has been the leader in setting up the site (thanks Jessica!!).

I'll start by saying that this is such an exciting experience for all of us - the GSE team (of course!) but also our friends, families, co-workers and sponsoring clubs. I can't believe how much support I've received from those around me and how interested people are in learning about this journey we're about to take together.

I also visited a Rotary meeting this week at the Mile High Club (my sponsor). This was my third visit to the club, and people are starting to recognize and remember me, which is great. But probably the biggest surprise was that the guest speaker was none other than my former boss, who is now CEO at the Denver Botanic Gardens. He, naturally, gave a presentation on the gardens, plans for remodeling, community relations, and the workplace culture....while obviously a completely different topic than the economic development talks that I'm accustomed to hearing from him, the message was incredibly relevant. And that's what he talked about - Relevance.

And by relevance, he talked about how in our own lives - whether we work in economic development, or gardening, or we're out traveling the world - we should always think about how these experiences are relevant to our day-to-day lives, and how our actions are relevant to those around us. He talked about a number of things, but this is what I took away: our actions have an impact on those around us and on ourselves, and this is something we have control over. When we travel to Central America on the GSE exchange, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to make that impact be a positive one.

So, I'll leave it with that. Que este viaje sea llena de experiencias positivas, tanto para las comunidades de America Central a que vamos a visitar, como para cada uno de nosotros!
~Amy

The Extra Mile

In my job I visit a lot of Rotary clubs. I have visited Rotarys in large metropolises (Chicago, IL) and small cities (Brenham, TX) and it is always fun to get a feel for the club's "personality" (and yes, they are different). But no matter what club I visit they welcome me with open arms. What has made the biggest impact on me has been Rotarians' willingness to help - living up to their motto: "Service Above Self".

Today I was able to attend the Rotary District 5450 State of the State Address with keynote speaker Govenor Bill Ritter. To open the event the District Govenor, Steve Cantrell, updated the audience on Rotary's advancement in eradicating Polio. It is truly amazing what this club has done for children around the world. I learned that the spread of Polio has been limited to 4 countries. Rotary will not stop until Polio is wiped from the world.

What a perfect example of people working together to make a difference...

~ Jessica (GSE Team Member)

GSE What?!

An amazing trip - YES! But this opportunity is much more than that....

"The Rotary Foundation’s Group Study Exchange (GSE) program is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for businesspeople and professionals between the ages of 25 and 40 who are in the early stages of their careers. The program provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits in paired areas of different countries. For four to six weeks, team members experience the host country's culture and institutions, observe how their vocations are practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas. "
- Rotary International Website

Colorado Rotary District 5450 will be exchanging with Central America District 4240. Our journey will take us to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Panama!

Hello World!

Welcome to the 2009 Rotary GSE 5450 Team blog! We are excited to begin blogging about our preparations and experiences to keep our families, friends, employers and Rotary districts up to speed on our GSE experience. There is no doubt that we are in for a wild ride! Enjoy!