Reflection On Rotary Youth Leadership

This past summer has been one for the records! I have been with friends I have never talked to, and have done things I have never thought about doing. During my junior school year I was chosen to apply for the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) Program. I talked to previous alumni from my high school which have gone and they all shared the same feelings towards the program; they treasured their time at RYLA. I expected to learn in a classroom and take notes about different strategies that would shape me into a better leader; however, this was far from the truth.
While at RYLA, our main instructor, Ted Baumhauer Ed.D., supplied us with an ample amount of challenges. We learned that by giving trust to a group earns more trust and respect in return. One of my favorite qualities about RYLA was how each individual assignment called for a specific set of skills. One example of the specialization of skills was swinging from one side of a sidewalk to the other. On both ends of the sidewalk there were two cones with a pole resting on top. The final goal was to get everyone onto a small landing platform without knocking either pole off of the cones. In this case the most athletic out of our group was the leader. They had to grab the rope to swing across and guide the others over onto the landing platform. On the contrary, other problems we faced needed both, those strong in school and having street smarts. Another task we were faced with was being …show more content…
We were not chosen to go to a camp and learn about leadership, we were chosen to share our unique skills and characteristics with the group. Everyone at RYLA had previously or is currently holding a leadership position in multiple in-school or out-of-school clubs. The more I talked to the other kids at the camp, the more I learned and could use in the future. I learned as much from each distinct individual experience as I learned from our leadership instructor, Mr.