Tracy Abamont, president of the Mineola-Garden City Rotary Club, has announced that interviews to select four individuals to serve on the Rotary Foundation's Group Study Exchange trip to Baja, California Mexico, will be held on October 14 at 423 Beach 122nd Street, Rockaway Park, N.Y. The picked team, led by a Rotarian leader, will leave on May 5, 2007 and return on June 4. The trip is free.

Group Study Exchange is an educational program of the Rotary Foundation. Rotary districts in different countries are paired to send and receive professional study groups of four non Rotarian young men and women between the ages of 25 and 40 years of age who have served two years - full time - in their trade or profession, and who are citizens of the U.S. Excluded are applicants designated as honorary Rotarians, or those having a close relative or lineal descendent of a Rotarian.

The GSE program is a unique cultural and vocational exchange for young business and professional men and women in their initial years of professional life. It is designed to develop professional and leadership skills.

The trip to Baja is free. The Rotary Foundations provide the plane tickets. The hosting district provides housing, and hosting and room and board, by the hosting districts individual clubs. The Rotary district to which the this team will travel consists of four Mexican states that make up Baja, California which is separated from the rest of Mexico by the Sea of Cortez. In the past, GSA teams have gone to Japan, the Madagascar area, India, Australia, New Guinea, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, and last year, to the two Congos.

The Mineola-Garden City Rotary Club is part of District 7250 which consists of Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau. Applicants must reside or work in the District and should contact John J. Howley (718) 945-2700; or Mike Muchmore (631) 332-6897.