Group Study Exchange Tour 2010

What's This About??? I'm Nerys Rudder and I've been chosen by the Rotary Club of Barbados to participate in a cultural and vocational visit to Oregon and North California. This blog is my take on the whole affair.

District 7030 (Eastern Caribbean) to District 5110 (Oregon USA)

Friday, April 2, 2010

The Usual Suspects

Here's the GSE District 7030 Team visiting District 5110 this year;


Trinidad Melissa Mattoo
Melissa Mattoo comes from the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago. She works with the Ministry of Finance as a Communications Officer where she is currently involved in several major public sector reform projects. In 2006, Melissa attained her BSc in Management from the University of London.

Prior to taking up the challenge with Government, Melissa worked with one of the region’s largest banks as a Supervisor where she gained a wealth of experience in Banking and Customer Service.

Melissa loves children, trying new food and has recently discovered the joy of spin.


Martinique Olivier Auguste
Olivier has been a video editor for five years and is currently studying communications. He trained in Canada, after he joined the editing team of RFO Martinique and in addition he’s also a video editing teacher.

“I want to produce films and documentaries to teach in primary schools. After working five years, I realized that there were no documentaries about our country wildlife or flora in primary school. Children have no video material about their island, or other Caribbean islands. Unfortunately there is a great misunderstanding about the Caribbean islands. So if I can achieve that goal of producing films and documentaries, I'd be very happy. That's why I created my production company to facilitate innovative and creative audiovisual products.”

Olivier has traveled extensively and has grown from the meetings he has made during his travels. “I hope one day I will work with people from other countries, with the possibility to create trade relations between Caribbean Islands.”


Barbados Nerys Rudder
Nerys is a curatorial consultant working with the Ministry of Culture in Barbados, specializing in Collections Management, Education, and Program Management. She has also run a Design Consultancy for the past seven years and enjoys teaching at tertiary level.

An alumna of the prestigious Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, Nerys was the first Barbadian to gain her Master’s in Industrial Design, as well as a Bachelor’s in Design Futures from the University of Wales, Newport.

She has participated in the Arts from an early age and ironically, never having liked sports as a child, has earned her blue belt in Taekwondo. Nerys keeps very close ties with her extended family and continues to enjoy a love of religious and cultural iconography, reading and cooking.


Barbados Liesl Harewood
Liesl completed both her undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom and holds an LLB in European Commercial Law with French from the University of Sussex and a MA in Diplomacy, Law and Global Change from Coventry University. She has conducted extensive research on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy and presented at various business seminars and trade missions across the Caribbean region. Her works have been published in various publications including “Creating World Class Service Excellence Beyond World Cup Cricket" in the Barbados Business Catalyst 2006.

In 2006, Liesl completed a preliminary ISO 9000:2000 online training course to understand and assist service oriented organizations achieve standards of quality that are recognized and respected throughout the world. Liesl is currently involved in promoting enterprise and entrepreneurship, trade in services and business development.


Suriname Ine Tsai Meu Chong
Team Leader

Ine was born in Paramaribo, Suriname and studied Library Studies in the Netherlands where she married and had two children. She returned to Suriname and was appointed University Librarian at the University of Suriname, retiring in 2002.

Ine also gained her Law degree in 1991, trained library and archival assistants and after retirement became a consultant and volunteer assisting individuals and organizations in both information and legal matters.

Becoming a Rotarian in 1993, Ine has held different positions in the Rotary Club Paramaribo Central including Secretary, President and Paul Harris Fellow. She is a board member of the Rotary Pacemaker Bank, Paramaribo. The major fundraiser of Ine’s club is a Family Fun(d)raising Rally held annually.

Ine’s hobbies are reading, classical music, and gardening.

2 comments:

  1. Good luck with the preparations. I'll get back to wish you a good trip

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cecile is my daughter, she'l follow every step we'll be making

    ReplyDelete