Parkwood Rotary Club - Ambassadorial Scholars

Ambassadorial Scholars

Ambassadorial Scholar - Lauren Skaskiw - 2008/2009

Edson Cearense Segundo of Central Parque - Sorocaba - Sao Paulo - Brazil
Ambassadorial Scholar 2008

Carla Ulakovic

(Click photo)

Co-ordinator Mark Twyford with Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Carla Ulakovic
who was Guest Speaker at the Club Meeting on 13 June, 2006

(Click photo)

Carla had a chat to incoming Secretary Susan Tyrrell before the meeting

Carla gave an excellent address relating to her home town of Lehigh Acres, Florida USA;
her family and her studies at Bond University as an Ambassadorial Scholar. She explained that
since 1947 nearly 37,000 men and women from 100 nations have studied abroad under this
program of The Rotary Foundation. Nearly 800 scholarships were awarded for study in 2005/6.
She expressed appreciation to Rotary for the opportunities offered to so many people through
this and other programs of the Foundation. Carla distributed photos and literature relating of
her family and her home town which had doubled in population in recent years to about 55,000.
She expressed an interest in becoming involved with Rotary community work in Australia.
During question time Margaret Grummitt pointed out that Fort Lauderdale in the vicinity of Lehigh
Acres is a sister city to the Gold Coast City Council. Allan Richards mentioned the leaflet relating
to the Edison-Ford Estates in Florida distributed by Carla and its links to these two engineering
giants. Carla conducted a small quiz about Ambassadorial Scholars to conclude her address and
distributed some memorabilia to those with the right answers. President John in his thanks to Carla
said that he would pass on her name to Ken Bonython, Community Service Director.

To introduce myself, I am studying International Relations for a master’s degree at Bond University.
I started my one-year postgraduate course last May, and I have been residing on campus for about
six months now. My sponsor Rotary Club (RC) is Senri RC which belongs to Rotary International
District2660 of Osaka, Japan. There is a website of the district 2660 (http://www.ri2660.gr.jp), however,
it’s written only in Japanese! As far as I know, the only English website available regarding my sponsor
district is that of the past GSE program (http://www.gse2660.com/ENGLISH/about2660.html). According
to the information I have, my sponsor RI District2660 consists of 86 clubs and about 4,800 Rotarians in
total. As for a link to my home prefecture, Osaka, I recommend http://www.octb.jp

This website is run by the Osakan prefectural/municipal governments, and English translation is available!
15 November 2005

Hello, Parkwood Rotary!
I’m Kathryn Baney – everyone calls me Katie. I’m from Longview, Texas, and am studying business
at Bond University for two semesters on an Ambassadorial Fellowship. My sponsoring Rotary club is
the Longview Greggton Club in District 5830, which covers northeast Texas, and a bit of Oklahoma
and Arkansas. The Longview Greggton Club is one of 4 clubs in Longview and has 95 members.
Longview is a fairly large town of 85,000 in the piney woods region of East Texas, but it has definitely
kept its country atmosphere. One of our hometown boys made it famous recently by making a
documentary about a yearly contest held there in which people compete to win a pick-up truck
by standing around it with their hands on it. The last person to remove their hands wins the truck.
The film won prizes on the independent circuit and played in some theatres for over a year. The closest
city to us is Dallas, about 2 hours away by car.

I’m 22 years old and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with an undergraduate degree in
finance and liberal arts in May, just before I came to Bond. At UT Austin, I was involved with the student
volunteer board, helping coordinate publicity for campus-wide volunteer and fund raising projects, which
was exciting on a campus of 54,000 students. I also worked with a student group that helped match small
businesses and students looking for internships. Living in Austin for the past four years was quite different
than living in Longview, and I’m glad that I’ve been able to keep in touch with the Longview community by
representing Rotary here.

At Bond I’m taking postgraduate finance classes this semester, and postgraduate strategy classes next
semester. My classes are challenging, which I feel will help a lot when I start work. So far, I think I’ve done
a pretty good job of keeping up with the MBA’s! I’ll be returning to Dallas, Texas, in January to work as a
financial analyst at an investment bank. I’ve committed to working there for two years, after which I will
probably finish my MBA. Eventually, I hope to help entrepreneurs from lower-income communities get
financing and information to help them build businesses in their areas. The Texas-Mexico border region
is a fascinating example of a place where people who want to work hard are doing wonderful things for
communities where opportunities don’t come too easily.

My e-mail address is katiebaney@yahoo.com, and I would love to hear from you. I look forward to seeing
you when I speak to the club, and hope we can get to know each other better.

Warmest regards,

Katie

		Eri Yuasa Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar 2004-2005 Sponsor District 2660 Japan (click photos to enlarge)
PRIT Brian Knowles AM and President John Smith with Eri at presentation of banner at club meeting of 15 November 2005.

		Eri addressing the meeting of the Parkwood Rotary Club on 15 November 2005

AN INTRODUCTION TO ERI YUASA