• Mailing a check to Barbara Tota-Boryczka, GO Executive Director, 4815 Whitetail Way, Appleton, WI 54914
  • Please write "Annual Appeal" in the Memo Line
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Dates and Location to be Determined

Important: Attendance at the 2025 Summer Camp is obligatory for 2024-2025 GO Alumni and 2025-2026 GO Students.  

Please complete your RSVP and Payment below by clicking on BUY NOW. Thank You!!   

2023 Annual Appeal

• Mailing a check to Barbara Tota-Boryczka, GO Executive Director, 4815 Whitetail Way, Appleton, WI 54914
• Via PayPal. See Donate to GO above

Agnieszka Kuszaj, from Poland and  Ema Gromová from Slovakia share their 
American experiences including their appeal to families (married, retired, with children, no children, etc.) to host a GO student

 Since 1991 Global Outreach Exchange Program has brought over
 652 Catholic high school students to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska
This year we are blessed to have welcomed 23 Global Outreach Students from the
 Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine
 who are committed to the Global Outreach Program's mission and vision 
"to build a civilization of love" as young, dynamic, Catholic servant leaders
in their countries as well as in the United States.
We are grateful for the Host Famiies who have opened the doors of their heart and their homes to these students and to our Wisconsin & Nebraska GO Partner Schools in Appleton, Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, Green Bay,
 La Crosse, Manitowoc, Neenah, Omaha (NE), Oshkosh, and Stevens Point.

2024

• June 23: 2024-2025 GO Host Family Orientation @ Mount Tabor, Menasha, WI

• July 7-13: GO Summer Camp at The Community of the Sisters of the Most Holy Soul of Christ, Siedlec, Poland by Krzeszowice near Krakow

• August 8: 2024-2025 GO Students Arrive 
• August 8 & 9: 2024-2025 GO Students accomodated by Arrival Welcome Family
• August 10-14: 2024-2025 GO Student Arrival Orientation
• August 14: GO Student/Host Family Welcome Mass (St. Patrick's Catholic Community, Menasha @ 4:30PM) with Potluck Supper to follow
• August 14: GO Students travel home with Host Family following Mass/Potluck Supper (see above)

• September: GO Staff visits GO Students at WI Partner Schools
• October: GO Staff visits GO Students at WI Partner Schools
• October 13-15 GO Staff visits GO Students at NE Partner Schools
• October 15: 2025-2026 GO Student Applications Due
• October 30: 2025-2026 GO Student Scholarship Applications Due
• October 30: GO Candidates will be notified if selected to participate in "In-Person" interviews
• October 25-27: Together Encountering Christ (TEC) Anchor of Hope, Green Bay, WI (https://www.anchorofhopetec.org) [Choose 1 of 2 available retreat dates (see February). Contact Fr. Kevin Ripley, GO Spiritual Director with your choice]

• November 12 - 26: GO Staff in Europe for GO Candidate Interviews
• November 23: Thanksgiving

• December 1: First Sunday of Advent
• December 7-9: Together Encountering Christ (TEC), Nebraska
• December 24-25: Christmas Eve / Christmas Day - Share European & American traditions

• January 1: Solemnity of Mary / New Years Day
• January 10: GO Candidates notified of results of In-Person interviews
• January 24: March for Life, Washington, DC  (https://marchforlife.org/national-march-for-life/)

• February / March / April / May ~ Church Presentations & Witness Talks ~ Seeking Host Families

• February 1: Book Departure Flights
• February 6-8: GO Student Mid-Year Gathering @ St. Patrick Catholic Community, Menasha, WI
• February 8: Taste of Europe @ St. Patrick Catholic Community (Parish), Menasha, WI
• February 21-23: Together Encountering Christ (TEC) Anchor of Hope, Green Bay, WI (https://www.anchorofhopetec.org)  [Choose 1 of 2 available retreat sessions (see October). Contact Fr. Kevin Ripley, GO Spiritual Director with your choice]]

• March 5: Ash Wednesday
• March 17-19: Easter Triduum
• March 20: Easter Sunday
• May: Begin preparations for GO Student Departure

• June 15: Departure of 2024-2025 GO Students

• July 13-19: 2025 GO Summer Camp (Czech Republic)

• August 1: GO Students Arrive
• August 1-2: GO Students accommodated by Arrival Welcome Family
• August 3-7: 2025-2026 GO Student Arrival Orientation (Mount Tabor, Menasha)

• February 12-14: Mid-Year Gathering (Mount Tabor, Menasha)
• February 14: 18th Annual Taste of Europe (St. Patrick Catholic Community, Menasha)

Father Kevin Ripley, Spiritual Director

I am excited to start this time as Spiritual Director for Global Outreach. I first encountered GO students when on a TEC retreat in Green Bay as a high school student, and I was amazed to see that there were Catholics like me on the other side of the world.

I originally come from Pulaski and went to college at UW-Madison where I continued to stay in touch with TEC and meeting students in GO. After discerning a call to the Priesthood and graduating from college, I attended Mundelein Seminary beginning in 2014. Upon ordination, I spent three years as the Parochial Vicar at St. Raphael Catholic Church in Oshkosh, WI and chaplain at Lourdes Academy, where I was impressed by the difference the GO students made.

Currently, I am appointed as the Director of the Kairos Year for the Green Bay Diocese (the first year of seminary) and as the chaplain to the UW-Green Bay Campus Ministry.

May the Lord bless you and keep you in His loving arms

Fr. Ripley joined the GO Family on May 1, 2024.  He began as GO's Spiritual Director on July 1, 2024. Welcome Fr. Ripley!!    

Therese Vinz, GO Student Exchange Program Coordinator

Greetings! My name is Therese Vinz, and I am excited and grateful to be taking on the role of Student Exchange Program Coordinator for Global Outreach. All of you reading this are already aware of what a beautiful and inspiring organization this is, on so many levels. Even though I was familiar with the mission of Global Outreach, I feel as though I am just beginning to discover what a truly unique and special endeavor it is.

I am blessed to be part of a large family that has always been fun and loving and deeply faith-filled. Nearly 30 years ago, my brother and his wife hosted their first Global Outreach student, and they have hosted 2 more since then. My other siblings and I, along with our spouses and children, greatly enjoyed the experience of getting to know each of these students. However, I just took for granted that this is simply one of the many beautiful things that happens in families like the one in which I grew up. I was wrong… these relationships and this mission do not just “happen”.

Without diminishing the love and sacrifice that my brother's whole family has demonstrated over the years, I have been thrilled to learn and appreciate more of this amazing ministry. There is a network of so many loving, hard-working, and generous people who have been the lifeblood of the Global Outreach FAMILY all of these years! And I am humbled to be welcomed into this family. My hope is that the wisdom, Catholic values, and work ethic that I learned from my parents – combined with the skills I acquired during my career at the Postal Service and my volunteer work – will serve me well as I do my part to continue building the Civilization of Love with GO.

A little more about me: My husband and I raised 5 children before he passed away. My retirement has been joyfully filled with grandchildren, volunteering at my local pregnancy support center, at Catholic Charities, and at my parish. I love the outdoors, whether hiking, biking, kayaking, or gardening. I also enjoy word games, travel, and reading. I love meeting new people, but I am more likely to recall an address than a name, thanks to those years with the post office! I look forward to meeting many of you soon, but please understand when I ask you to repeat your name. I will remember eventually!
 
Again, thank you for bringing me into the GO family. I can’t wait to see what the Lord can do with the servant leaders of Global Outreach – past, present, and future!

 Therese began as GO Student Exchange Program Coordinator on May 1, 2024

Noemi Riniková (2023-2024 GO Student), Dee Dzrod (Host Parent), and Allison Dzrod (Host Sibling) talk with KVSS Spirit Catholic Radio's Host/Moderator, Paula Bastian, about the Global Outreach program in Nebraska, its mission, vision, and role in the life of a young Catholic exchange student from Slovakia.

To learn more about Noemi's journey: https://spiritcatholicradio.com/program/witness-local-youth-program/

   In October 2020, Pope Francis published an encyclical – Fratelli tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship (https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_ 20201003 enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html).  Given our inability to actually be “social” during the pandemic, that title might seem oddly discordant with our lives.  Very few of us have recently traveled much beyond our own streets or cities.  But in the chapter entitled “A Heart Open to the Whole World,” the Pope writes of our need to engage with humanity beyond our own borders.  “For a healthy relationship between love of ones’ native land and a sound sense of belonging to our larger human family,” Francis writes, “it is helpful to keep in mind that global society is not the sum total of different countries, but rather the communion that exists among them.”
   Creating “communion” among different countries would perhaps, on its surface, appear to be the task of diplomats: popes and cardinals, presidents and prime ministers, chancellors and heads of state.  But could an individual or a family in the midwestern United States possibly add to this “communion”?  In fact, there is a way that you can contribute to the Pope Francis’ vision of a global society grounded in communal love. 
   The Global Outreach Exchange Program has been bringing Catholic students from central and eastern Europe to the Midwest since 1991.  Based in the Diocese of Green Bay, but reaching beyond to other areas of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska, nearly 600 high school students (from Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine) have been welcomed by families in our parishes.  Students have lived with single-parent households, retired couples, and families with both pre-school and school-age children.  While the program took a hiatus year due to the pandemic, this year it has again welcomed young Europeans into our parish communities. 
   Opening your home to a student can have a tremendous impact on you and your family.  Pope Francis writes that in “seeing ourselves from the perspective of another, of one who is different, we can better recognize our own unique features and those of our culture: its richness, its possibilities and its limitations.”
   Our Catholic – our universal – faith has no geographic boundaries.  Do you have a heart open to the whole world?  As Francis observes in Fratelli tutti, “To see things in this way brings the joyful realization that no one people, culture or individual can achieve everything on its own: to attain fulfillment in life we need others.”   
   In a world that seems to be increasingly disconnected and discordant, we here in the midwestern US can make an intentional step toward Pope Francis’ “global society” and contribute to the communion of love that Jesus Christ calls us to.  You could change a young person’s life, while discovering and tapping into your capacity to change the world.