Georgia Rotary Student Program Recipient
The year was 1946. Thomasville Rotary Club member Will Watt initiated the Committee on Foreign Student Scholarships with the assistance of a $1 contribution from every Rotarian across the state, to start what has become known as the Georgia Rotary Student Program.
It’s not exactly an exchange program, since no Georgia students have actually been “exchanged,” but over the years, clubs across the state have participated by hosting students from around the globe in a concerted bid to promote world peace and understanding.
Two Romans, Pete McDonald and Cheryl Huffman, have been recognized as major participants with the GRSP Program. Huffman currently serves as the GRSP coordinator for District 6910, which stretches across North Georgia from Rome and loops north of Atlanta around to Augusta. McDonald fills that role for the Rome club.
Rome was one of the clubs that joined the program during its early days, and today, the Rome Rotary Club and Rome Seven Hills Rotary Club jointly sponsor a student. This year, Elvira Batra, from Stockholm, Sweden, was chosen to come to Rome and study at Berry College for the year.
The two clubs alternate years providing a host family for the student, although she actually lives in a dorm on the Berry campus. Bill and Kate Daggett, along with their daughter Charlotte, a senior at Rome High, are serving as hosts for Batra this year.
Elvira heard about the GRSP program from a guidance counselor in her high school who was talking to a class about opportunities for study abroad. A young woman who was a couple of years ahead of her in school had participated in the program, which is known in Sweden simply as the Georgia Scholarship.
The entire process started a year ago when Batra was accepted for the program in Sweden. The Daggetts were chosen to serve as the host family and actually made Batra their number one choice from among the scores of students who wanted to come to Georgia. Batra said that one day she received an email indicating that she had been selected to study at Berry College, and a couple of days later she got an email from the Daggett family.
Elvira arrived with her parents, David and Anna, in August. Her studies at Berry are not based on any particular course of study, but are meant to give her a taste of American culture and perhaps a little bit of societal background. She receives grades just like any other student, but her credits are not designed to transfer back to a college in Sweden in the future.
It did not take Elvira long to develop a group of friends both at Berry and amongst the group of more than 70 GRSP students across the state.
As a GRSP student, she is expected to participate in at least eight events which bring the entire cohort of students together over the course of the year.
Batra’s adjustment to Rome, Berry, and the U.S. has not been too difficult, though she did stress that she was not quite prepared for the dependence of Americans on their cars to get around. “You definitely have to drive everywhere, I think that’s been the biggest obstacle for me,” Batra said. She doesn’t have a car or a driver’s license and didn’t drive back home in Sweden either.
She said that transitioning from the massive population center of Stockholm to the smaller community of Rome has also been a little bit of a challenge.
Asked what she really enjoys about Berry thus far, she was quick to say, “Nature, the beautiful campus and all the animals.”
Elvira does plan to continue her education at “university” when she returns to Sweden but has not made up her mind what she wants to study. “Maybe law, maybe even politics,” Batra said. Her mother, Anna, has been a significant figure in the politics of her Scandinavian home country.
