Rotary Youth Leadership Academy

It's been another successful RYLA year! We engaged sixty one 16 year old students and fourteen staff counselors over the June 20 – 22 weekend. We had students from District 7850 and students from our southern District, 7870. The fourteen staff counselors were graduates from previous RYLA events, who got the opportunity to practice their leadership skills.

 

Throughout the weekend, the students get to participate in activities, figure out how they did, and what to adjust to improve how they performed. We pulled all students out of their comfort zone. We had a few scheduling changes to overcome, but the team made the weekend a success again.

 

I want to thank the Rotarians involved with this program. Bob, our Registrar, and those in person for the weekend: Mike from Plymouth, Jason from Middlebury and Marti from Lincoln Woodstock. Also, our leadership from District 7870 Robert MacDonald.  Katie from Southern Connecticut came up and shared how to be a public speaker and identifying “what is a leader”. Roger, a former Sherbrooke Rotarian, is still highly involved in this program, encouraging the youth to reach out of their comfort zone and lead.

 

Finally, thank you to ALL of the Clubs who sponsored RYLAians to attend, building their confidence and showing ways to be good citizens. Without your support, we would not have this Leadership Academy!

 

Next year, RYLA will be held on June 19 – 21, 2026. Please consider sending students. 

 

INTERNATIONAL SERVICE OPPORTUNITY! We are looking for clubs to contribute $500 each to support the food packing event that happens at RYLA. We will pack at least 10,000 meals for families IN OUR COMMUNITIES. The packages meals will be available for Clubs in our Districts to support local community Food banks. This allows us to stay in budget and not increase the cost to send the students. Please let me know if you are willing to help feed the hungry. Larryvrotary@gmail.com