The idea emerged in 2006 from the desire to enable connections among people who work on similar issues/fields but live in different locations. The first official name was voted by the executive board as Global Romanian Student and Young Professionals Society (GRSPSociety). The organization launched with a conference in Budapest, Hungary in November 2008. This conference gathered more than 50 students and young professionals coming from over 12 countries and enabled discussions on the content and activity of GRSPSociety. The organization has been legally registered as a non-profit and non-partisan organization in Bucharest, Romania as of October 2009.The 2nd Annual Conference took place in Boston, USA (Harvard & MIT) in December 2009. Project Romania 2020: What We Can Do for Romania in the Next Decade was the milestone conference where working groups in the fields of business and finance, culture and arts, democracy and participation, Romania’s image abroad, public policy and public administration, education and research and healthcare were established. Eighteen projects have been launched at the same conference, nine of which are still ongoing.
In 2010 and 2011 GRSPSociety grew as an organization and gained more and more clout among the global audience of young professionals. In order to be more appealing and accessible to its audience, in 2011, GRSPSociety went through a complete rebranding process and became GRASP – Global Romanian Society of Young Professionals.
