International Business Student Training in America through Rotary
Program Description for Applicants
IBSTAR contributes to Rotary's goal of enhancing world peace through understanding, as people from one country experience another, exchanging cultural and personal perspectives. (Information about Rotary in general can be obtained by logging on to the Rotary International website at www.rotary.org)
The service project called IBSTAR is sponsored by the Rotary Clubs in the Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin, USA region and seeks to expose participants to "for profit" or "not for profit" economic institutions of the United States of America. The goal is to expand the economic and cultural experiences of aspiring business professionals from countries that are in transition to a free market business structure and philosophy.
The program provides an immersion experience to upper level students or recent graduates of business universities in Eastern and Central European countries, and Russia.
The eight to ten week summer experience is in institutions selected to match the interests of the participants. For example: a participant interested in the hotel industry would be sponsored by a local hotel, and a participant whose focus is utility management would be sponsored by a local public or private utility. Non profits such as universities, charitable institutions, and various local convention and tourist organizations have also served as sponsoring institutions for participants whose interests lie in similar areas.
During the program, participants live with "host" families in the community.
Participants must be at least 21 years old prior to arriving in the US, and should be in or have recently completed their 4th year of university or college level study toward a professional degree in an economic or technical field. Since the program is conducted in English, it is important that those applying for IBSTAR be somewhat proficient in spoken and written English.
Applicants for participation must have the endorsement both a local Rotary Club prior to submission of their application. (You can locate a Rotary Club in your area by visiting the Rotary International website at www.rotary.org, clicking on the "Club Locator" button on the top banner of the home page, and entering the name of a city - all the local Rotary Clubs in the area will be listed, including their meeting dates and times, meeting location, and a method by which you can contact the Club.) All applications are screened by these sponsoring local Rotary Clubs for appropriateness of the application, language ability, age, etc., and those acceptable are forwarded to the Rotary Clubs in the Duluth, Minnesota area that are participating this program. The participating Duluth area Rotary Clubs then match the candidates with institutions that have volunteered to open their operations to a trainee. The institution "hosting" the participant in a professional training setting makes the final selection decision.
At this time we are not accepting application to this program. We are in the process of reviewing our procedures and practices.
