Rotary Scholar Orientation

On Saturday March 6 – we had an orientation for all of the incoming scholars. There were about 12 of us – mostly American with a Canadian guy, British girl, and French girl to mix it up a bit. Most of the other scholars I knew from my program. There are 6 Rotary scholars in the Political Studies postgrad department. I thought that was kind of interesting – this scholarship definitely attracts social science students and people interested in this field, but I guess I didn’t realize how much. We had our orientation at a wine estate in Durbanville (suburb about 25 minutes outside of Cape Town). Tony picked me up bright and early and we got started at the orientation about 7:45. We were introduced to Trevor and Helene who assist the inbound scholars – Trevor held the official position until recently when Helene took over. It seems that they are both very involved. We also heard presentations from several Rotarians – two from my club! After a few presentations and some general discussion, we did a few activities with the horses on the estate. One of the presentations was from some of the trainers who use the horses for social programs with at-risk youth and disabled kids and we got to play some of the games that they do with their programs. There was one beautiful horse that I especially liked that I nicknamed Savannah. I don’t think I ever actually learned the horse’s real name. anyway, the activity was nice and allowed us to get to know one another much better. We had a lovely lunch and finished the afternoon with a presentation from the organizer of Ubuntu Africa (an organization that works with children with HIV/AIDS), a former Rotary scholar, and a Rotarian who is a judge for one of the high courts. Rotary has such an intricate network of members and supporters -- it's quite amazing to see all around the world. It was nice to meet the other scholars and to hear the various presentations. The wine estate was also quite nice and I enjoyed getting to know other Rotarians. The only suggestion I would have for the event is that they hold it sooner for other incoming scholars. Most of us had already been in the country for five or so weeks before meeting one another and having a chance to discuss some of our concerns and ask questions of each other. This sort of meeting would be more beneficial earlier into the program.

Following the official orientation, several of us went to town and hung out during the evening. It was a nice informal way to get to know some of the other students.