The Rotary Club of Schaumburg-Hoffman Estates sponsored 20 local high school students to attend the District 6440 RYLA this spring. RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) is a Rotary program designed to recognize young people who have demonstrated leadership skills or shown the potential to be leaders, and to provide them with an opportunity to explore and further develop these skills with other with similar capabilities. A number of the students joined us for lunch on 26 April and reported on their experiences. Photos are available in the Photo Album section of this Home Page.
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The basic goals of this program are for the young people to
• learn and incorporate new concepts of leadership and citizenship.
• have opportunities to express ideas and concepts.
• feel and give acceptance of and to each other.
• experience the joy of learning teamwork.
• become comfortable in expressing opinions in a supportive group environment.
• meet new friends and learn how to reach out and make new friends without the usual conventions (cliques, etc.).
• be challenged to “Return to Serve” their community.
Our participants reported that these goals were not only accomplished but exceeded and that the experience was life-changing for each and every one of them.
