RYLA EXPERIENCE - SAMUEL RAUERT

A number of weeks back we heard from RYLA participants Rachel Ryan and Matt Reynolds who both spoke in glowing terms of their experience at the RYLA program.

The RYLA program itself took place over 6 days through the Easter period of this year, at Kangaroobie near Princetown. RYLA is a professionally run Rotary program for young adults which aims to instil skills of leadership, public speaking, goal setting, motivation and also the development of self confidence and self esteem.

From when Rachel and Matt first addressed the club a week prior to the program, what was clearly evident to all at the meeting of their follow up address, was the vast improvement in their public speaking ability, their self confidence and motivational development that they had obviously acquired through their participation in the Ryla program.

Terry O'Neill introduced Samuel Rauert who is the grandson of Rotarian Ron Rauert, and at the time, due to University studies, Samuel, was unable to address the club when Rachel and Matt gave their talk to the club.

Samuel provided an interesting account of his RYLA experience, beginning with the ride to Kangaroobie with Matt and Rachel, when they were discussing how little they knew of what they were getting into. One of Rachel's friends had done RYLA the previous year and had given up smoking, so the joke in the car was that as none of them were smokers, they would probably come back as vegans!

Prior to heading to Kangaroobie everyone met up at the Cobden miniature railway where they had a good chance to meet everyone, as well as ride around the train circuit and a have game of mini golf. After that they formed the world's largest convoy of cars on their way to Kangaroobie.

There were 44 participants and 7 leaders at Kangaroobie. The first few days were spent with activities including bonding and team building exercises and the latter half of the week was spent on personal development. This is when Samuel discovered some of them had been through some pretty tough and emotional times. Something they all commented on was how close they had become in such a short time. No-one had experienced such quick and close friendships like that before, especially amongst such a large group.

There were a lot of fun team activities, after which there was always a discussion on what could be improved within the team to achieve a better result. One great moment Samuel experienced during the week was from the adventure course. In this race teams of three were set off at intervals and competed for times. One of the girls on Samuel's team struggled with the physical requirement of the course and when the team behind caught up, instead of passing them, they stayed on to help encourage and support the struggling girl. He thought that was a great show of sportsmanship and teamwork.

The whole week wasn't just spent on games. A lot of time was spent reflecting on themselves, filling many pages of questions, or discussing things in small groups and then coming together as a large group for discussion. Some of the things focused on were short, medium and long term goals, boosting confidence, passing barriers and time management. They finished off each day with an open discussion where they could reflect on anything from that day or one of the past days.

While some gained a lot from the personal side, Samuel was pretty happy with where he was and what he was aiming for. He really gained from mixing with the other Rylarians who had been through difficult times, and had really worked hard to turn it around. He'd never known people who had been through some of the difficulties these young people had experienced and it was a real eye opener.

One of the last activities was impromptu public speaking where everyone took turns in picking a topic out of a box, then while the person ahead spoke, you had to prepare your 1 minute speech. Sam decided t omix things up a bit when he got the topic of UFO's and spoke about "Unidentified Flying Octopi" and how they fly around by spinning their tentacles like helicopter blades.

Samuel had a great time, made many friends and learnt a lot. He thanked RCW for sponsoring him and giving him this great opportunity.