Fair Lawn Rotarians sponsored eight Fair Lawn High School Juniors to attend the 2017 RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) Program at New Jersey City University in Jersey City from June 25th through June 28th. These eight students joined close to 100 high school juniors from throughout Rotary District 7490 to participate in a concentrated motivational and leadership program.
Fair Lawn Rotary is proud to provide Fair Lawn High School students the opportunity to attend this annual event. During the following school year, RYLA graduates are asked to come to a Club meeting to discuss their thoughts and feeling of their RYLA experience.
On September 28th, six out of the eight RYLA students were able to come to our meeting. Those attending were Kristina M., Dean C., Melissa S., Chloe G., Elias R, and Jacob R. Not able to attend were Aghatta C. and Grace K.
Throughout this program, participants are given tools and examples of servant leadership and are shown examples of such leadership through community and world service projects undertaken by Rotarians. Students are also introduced to Rotary philosophies; specifically what it means to provide “Service above Self”. The concept of service was front and center as RYLA participants packaged over 4,000 meals for delivery to a food bank in Kearny.
During the program Rotarians from various professions participated in lunchtime round table sessions each day. These sessions focused in several topics, including the importance of developing interpersonal skills without the assistance of technology (e.g. smart phones), and in preparation for college and/or job interviews.
This is an immersive program where students experience living on a college campus. The participants worked as group on a variety of projects in order to demonstrate various leadership qualities and team work lessons. The program culminated to a final night ceremony where participants discussed the lessons learned during the session.