• Mailing a check to Barbara Tota-Boryczka, GO Executive Director, 4815 Whitetail Way, Appleton, WI 54914
• CLICK TO DONATE PAYPAL ACCOUNT HOLDERS - NO FEE!

 

Congratulations 2023-2024 GO Class!!
You have joyfully, enthusiastically, and faithfully completed the 2023 GO Summer Camp in Šaštín, Slovakia

Thank You Ema and Matej & Slovakian Team for organizing Summer Camp!  Thank You to         ALL GO Alumni and GO Staff/Volunteers
for your participation and assistance!
God Bless You Abundantly!!

Poland will host the
2024 GO Summer Camp

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

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

 Since 1991 Global Outreach Exchange Program has brought over
630 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, 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, Fond du Lac, Green Bay,
La Crosse, Manitowoc, Neenah, Omaha (NE), Oshkosh, and Stevens Point.

  Summer Camp 2023

2023

• June 25: 2022-2023 GO Host Family Orientation @ Mount Tabor, Menasha, WI

• July 22-July 28: 2023 GO Summer Camp in Šaštín, Slovakia

• August 10: 2023-2024 GO Student Arrival in the US
• August 12-August 16: 2023-2024 GO Student Arrival Orientation @ Mount Tabor, Menasha, WI
• August 16: GO Student and Host Family Welcome Mass & Potluck Supper 

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

• October 10: 2024-2025 GO Student Applications Due
• October 15: 2024-2025 GO Student Scholarship Applications Due
• October 25: GO Candidates will be notified if selected to participate in "In-Person" interviews

• November: GO Staff travels to Europe for GO Candidate Interviews
• November 23: Thanksgiving

• December 1-3: Teens Encounter Christ (TEC) Anchor of Hope, Green Bay, WI (https://www.anchorofhopetec.org) [Choose 1 of 2 available retreat dates and contact Fr. Larry with your choice]
• December 3: First Sunday of Advent
• December 24-25: Christmas Eve / Christmas Day - Share European & American traditions

• January 1: Solemnity of Mary / New Years Day
• January 10: GO Candidates notifed of results of In-Person interviews
• January 19: 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 8-10: GO Student Mid-Year Gathering @ Mount Tabor, Menasha, WI
• February 10: Taste of Europe @ St. Patrick Catholic Community (Parish), Menasha, WI

• February 14: Ash Wednesday
• February 23-25: Teens Encounter Christ (TEC) Anchor of Hope, Green Bay, WI (https://www.anchorofhopetec.org)  [Choose 1 of 2 available retreat sessios. Contact Fr. Larry with your choice]

• March 28-30: Easter Triduum
• March 31: Easter Sunday

• May: Begin preparations for GO Student Departure

• June 15: Departure of 2023-2024 GO Students

• July: GO Summer Camp in Poland

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.