Youth Adventure in Leadership (YAIL) is a program offered by District 5050 of Rotary International, the world's oldest service organization. The YAIL mission is to give participants opportunities to utilize their new (undiscovered) leadership skills, create interpersonal bonds, embrace challenges and learn the value of teamwork.
This year, our Club sent three Interact members to the YAIL 2020 event on February 7-9 at the Alexander House in Surrey, BC. Registration is open to 65 applicants from District 5050. Candidates are sponsored by a local Rotary Club with a mix of young men and young women, Canadians and Americans. Below is an example of three incredible lades that we sponsored and their experiences at YAIL. Anna, Karley and Mary were our guest speakers this past Friday, June 5th at our ZOOM meeting.
These three incredible young ladies reported on the various activities they experienced during YAIL weekend. The three were split into different groups upon arrival for the weekend session of YAIL.
Anna learned about the concept of working together to forge new ideas with different personalities allowing each member of the team to bring something to the table for discussion. Anna mentioned that each group had to design/build a project plan to serve our communities. Some of the areas addressed were depression and the environment. Anna designed a bracelet, Bond 4 Change. Anna commented that they are the generation Z of change. Ideas such as bringing change to social media. Anna felt she wasn't contributing to the community enough but with the project she undertook, she felt must more connected to our community.
Karley's view of the YAIL conference was a cultural experience of huge change of feelings. One of the exercises the next day was a game where you couldn't speak English during the exercise. Karley said it was a "really cool experience." Karley (below) discovered a new "best" friend during the weekend. Walking into the YAIL experience blind ended up being an eye-opener for her.
Mary felt the YAIL experience was very moving, learning a lot about herself. More of an introvert in the past with a small comfortable group of friends. YAIL with 65 participants from several different countries was about opening up to them. In the past, Mary has had a hard time socializing with her peers but that is changing which was acknowledged by Karley. Mary's favorite was the cultural circle. The cultural circle made Mary feel less alone with her own stories. Mary would love to attend YAIL again.
They were all able to step out of their comfort zone with so many representatives of different countries and cultures. Each felt that the leadership skills taught at YAIL will go forward with them the rest of their lives. All are much more confident with themselves.