GRS Orientation, Hanover, NH

 The 2012 GRS intern class during orientation

Sitting in logan airport waiting for our flight to London. There are about 15 of us awesome GRS interns on the same flight before we part ways towards Southern Africa!

Where to begin with orientation, the whole thing honestly blew me away. Everything from the enthusiasm and the excitement the orientation leaders provided to the awesome Skillz games we got to learn was a blast, only getting me more excited for Jo'Burg and to be an important part of an organization that ceases to amaze me.

Our orientation leaders- Hooter, Elise, Leah and Austin (our intern coordinator)- had endless energy throughout the whole 5 days, starting from the very moment we got to Pierce's Inn, just outside of Hanover, NH. While waiting for all the interns to arrive we played soccer (surprise, surprise), it was great to get a quick game in and to get to see how good the other interns were! I'm still definitely shaking off my rust from baseball season.

Once all the interns arrived, we made our way to a cabin owned by Dartmouth where we camped out for two days while doing plenty of team-building exercises and GRS-curriculum activities, not to mention teaming together to make some delicious meals (my cheese cutting skills have increased substantially).

On Friday, we headed back to Pierce's Inn where we began a two-day blitz of powerpoint presentations, meet-and-greets with the various branches of the organizations, kilos (the official cheer of GRS), and constant "energizers" that the leaders used to keep us engaged, energized, and having fun. I can't wait till I get to see a bunch of 11 year olds chase down and kill an imaginary bug in Jozi!

The bottom line about orientation was that it was inspiring to see how powerful and influential GRS's practices really are. Here's a top 5 on what I'm so far impressed by:

1. We've now had over 520,000 youth go through our skillz curriculum, all of whom are now educated and empowered in raising awareness in the fight against HIV.

2. GRS has an amazing track record of monitoring, evaluations, data collection and constant curriculum innovation that has led to a number of strong partnerships with a series of major private and government donors (The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Elton John AIDS Foundation, USAID, Nike, and the Peace Corps to name a few). I was particularly impressed by our growing relationship with the Peace Corps who have now began adopting a modified version of our "Skillz" curriculum in their rural sites accross the world. The sky's really the limit for this partnership.

3. Tommy Clark, the Founder and CEO of GRS, led a panel at the International AIDS Conference in DC last month on sport-for-development and not just a warm response from the crowd upon the completion of his speech but also a kiss from Sir Elton John backstage!

4. GRS's staff, all the way from the coaches on the ground to Tommy and the members of the Board of Directors. Not only is everyone enthusiastic and crazy energetic but they also breed a culture of community and mutual commitment that has lead to sustained success since it's formation.

5. GRS's sound business model. Charity Navigator, the go-to site when looking for NGO productivity, gave GRS a perfect 4/4 star ranking on transparency and finances, making it one of the highest ranked US-based NGOs and also one of the country's fastest (and most sustainable) growing NGOs.

With orientation done, it's off to Jo'burg! See ya there.


KILO!

Karl