Rachel introduced our two guest speakers, Tiana and Rhianna, who were our RYLA participants this year. RYLA is a 6 Day Leadership camp for youth aged 18-25 years.
Tiana and Rhianna shared about there week at RYLA.
Firstly, we want to thank all the Rotarians for giving us the opportunity to go to RYLA. If you haven't been you don't know what it is you are sending us to. We will share a little about it but we can't tell you much about it because that's the secret of RYLA. We learnt to be honest and to be ourselves, and that's enough.
Tiana shared her fear of public speaking and how she developed in this area over the week, acting as the fines sergeant at the final dinner. A very proud moment. Rhianna said that in first meeting Tiana at Rotary she saw how nervious she was but on the last night of RYLA she was amazing!
The ladies talked about the leadership development they received at RYLA. While Tiana had never seen herself as a leader she learned that she could lead. Rhianna learned when to hold back and when it is important to step in and be a leader.
Both spoke of the amazing people they got to know and of how comfortable everyone made them feel in the group. The leaders were beautiful, genuine and lovely. One leader, Claire, particularly stood out. She was real, she was honest. Rhianna said, “The skills that she gave to me I have used every day since I got home.”
Both Rhianna and Tiana benefitted from learning their personal values and about goal setting in logical and practical ways and have been able to put them into place in their lives since RYLA.
Tiana shared about about giving and receiving compliments. “Something that hit me was that giving compliments is like giving a gift. So to receive a compliment we should say "thank you".” It was hard to hear the positive things others think of you but it was really nice to hear those things.
We were confronted by the negative things we thought about ourselves but learned to replace them with the positive things we received in compliments. This is an ongoing journey.
Rotary is about community and Rotary sponsored us to go to RYLA. We learnt about how we can be involved in our community and how Rotary helps our community.
None of the participants wanted to leave on the final night. They had made such good and life-long friends. Throught a debrief at the end they were helped to realise that they had skills they could use. They had made friends and shared things that they never share.
At the end of their speech Rhianna and Tiana played a song that one of the group had written at RYLA.
Tiana's mother, Jenny, spoke thanking the club for the sponsorship given to young adults to attend RYLA.
