Participation is mandatory for all new GO students (2023-2024) and current GO Students (2022-2023)

Date:  Sunday, July 23-Saturday, July 29

Location:  Šaštín, Slovakia

Additional Information: Will be provided in Spring 2023

Check back for more information in Spring 2023

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

2022 Annual Appeal

• GO Annual Appeal Letter 
• GO Wish List
• Ministry to the People of Ukriane (personal testimonies from our GO Alumni)

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

 Since 1991 Global Outreach Exchange Program has brought over
600 Catholic high school students to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska
We are blessed to have welcomed 22 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, Oshkosh, and Stevens Point.

2022

• June 26: 2022-2023 GO Host Family Orientation @ Mount Tabor, Menasha, WI

• July 9-24: 2022 GO Summer Trip for Americans - "Holy Heroes of Poland and Hungary Pilgrimage"
• July 17-23: 2022 GO Summer Camp at Piarist High School in Kecskemét, Hungary
•  
• August 5: 2022-2023 GO Students arrive in the U.S.
• August 7-11: 2022-2023 GO New Student Arrival Orientation 
• August 11: GO Mass for Host Famiies & GO Students with Potluck Supper to follow

• September: GO Staff visits GO Students at WI Partner Schools
• October: GO Staff visits GO Students at WI Partner Schools

• October 10: 2023-2024 GO Student Applications Due
• October 15: 2023-2024 GO Student Scholarship Applications Due
• October 24-26: GO Staff visits GO Students at WI / NE Partner Schools
• October 25: GO Candidates will be notified if selected to participate in "In-Person" interviews
• October 28-30: Teens Encounter Christ (TEC) Anchor of Hope, Green Bay,WI (Contact Fr. Larry) [Cancelled]

• November: GO Staff travels to Europe for GO Candidate Interviews
• November 24: Thanksgiving
• November 27: Advent Begins

• December 25: Christmas Day

• January 1: Solemnity of Mary / New Years Day
• January 6-8: Teens Encounter Christ (TEC) Anchor of Hope, Green Bay, WI (Contact Fr. Larry)
• January 10: GO Candidates notifed of results of In-Person interviews
• January 20: March for Life, Washington, DC

• February 9-11: GO Student Mid-Year Gathering @ Mount Tabor, Menasha, WI
• February 11: Taste of Europe @ St. Patrick Catholic Community (Parish), Menasha, WI

• February 22: Ash Wednesday

• April 8-10: Easter Triduum
• April 9: Easter Sunday
• April 22-23: Teens Encounter Christ (TEC) Anchor of Hope, Green Bay, WI (Contact Fr. Larry)

• June 15: Departure of 2022-2023 GO Students
• June 25 (Anticipated): 2023-2024 GO Host Family Orientation @ Mount Tabor, Menasha, WI

• July 23-July 29: 2023 GO Summer Camp in Šaštín, Slovakia
• August 10: 2023-2024 GO Student Arrival
• August 12-August 16: 2023-2024 GO Student Arrival Orientation @ Mount Tabor, Menasha, WI

'Eighteen-year-old Hana Hrmova, a 2020-2021 GO Student from Bratislava, Slovakia who studied at Pacelli High School (Stevens Point, WI) found herself in a precarious situation in the Spring of 2020. She, like many of her GO classmates was confronted with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. She found a unique way to face her struggles and shared her highs and lows durning an interview with Catholic Life. We invite you to learn more about Hana and her journey. Please visit the following link and enjoy Hana's Story of Trust a World Away from Home.

Catholic Life is the official magazine of the Catholic Diocese of La Crosse, published eight times a year for the people of the Diocese of La Crosse.

Here you can watch the spiritual message shared by Father Larry, Global Outreach Spiritual Director, dedicated to the whole Global Outreach Community, families, friends, supporters, and visitors in the age of CoVid-19 difficulties.

Kinga Świętoń and Laura Baníková talk with KVSS Spirit Catholic Radio about the Global Outreach program in Nebraska its mission and vision and its role in the life of a young Catholic.

If you are interested in knowing more about their journey, listen here.

   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.