RYLA
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards
May 2009
By Alissa Reddy
Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic High School
Waterford, MI
June 22, 2009
What is RYLA?
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards
 A program for young people
 Designed to develop the qualities of leadership
 Good citizenship
 Individual motivation
 Purpose: to bring students together from Southeast Michigan
and southwest Ontario for a weekend of speakers, skits,
projects, and fun.
 Chance to learn how to be a better leader
 Practice their public speaking skills
 Make new friends
What did I learn?
 As a good leader, I learned to listen to the needs of others in the
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group.
Getting everyone in the group involved in the activity or
conversation.
It is good to be different with your ideas.
I learned how to include those who are not as outgoing. I got
them involved in the group so that they would feel comfortable.
Also, I learned that there are different types of leaders:
 Expressive, Commanding, Steady, and Accurate.
 I am Accurate which has a personality that is controlled, cautious,
precise, and rule orientated.
The first day..arriving at
University of Guelph
Ridgetown Campus
Anna, Eva, and Sierra are the first
friends that I met. We walked around
the campus when we got there and
looked around.
This is the building that we roomed in.
My Group: JABANESSM!
 Everyone was
given a group
which consisted of
students and an
adult leader
 In the group we
worked together
create a skit and a
cheer
 We also did
leadership games
 Each group met in
an assigned room
where we
practiced our skit
and cheer, played
games, and
became good
friends!
Skit
 We had to choose a global issue and make a skit from that
issue.
 We chose ABUSE:
 Child-Child, Adult-Child, and Adult-Adult.
 My group worked really hard and came up with a great skit
which was voted tie for first place.
 In this skit we were a
family with the father
being verbally abusive to
the mother and his
children.
Games
We did group games during
our free time.
In this game, we all grabbed each others hands and tried
to get untangled. We were not successful the first time.
Later in our free time, we got together and did it again.
This showed teamwork and planning.
RYLA had guest
speakers from
Australia. They talked
about their country and
themselves.
Guest
Speakers
Mauricio
Exchange
Student
There was also
exchange students
who attended the
Conference. We had
two students: one
from Mexico and
Germany.
Saturday Night
Banquet
We attended a semi-formal banquet where we had dinner.
After dinner they hosted a dance and it was enjoyed by
everyone.
I have to say I was disappointed that I was missing my
Junior Prom at my high school but it worked out for the
better because the RYLA dance was more fun!
More Friends
At around midnight, I played cards
with my new friends in my room. We
got to know each other better and it
was really fun.
This is my group with our certificates of
participation.
Thank you….
 Overall, I had so much fun!
 The most important lesson I learned on this trip was: to be true to
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yourself and a good leader is a “great” listener!
I loved meeting new people friends.
I think I am a stronger leader now because I attended RYLA.
I would recommend RYLA to anyone because you not only learn how to
be a better leader, you also learn more about yourself.
Usually, I am really shy but I “got out of
my box” because of RYLA and this
experience.
I have kept in contact with my teammates
through Facebook and we are planning a
summer trip to Cedar Point.
I would just like to say THANK YOU once
more! Thank you for sponsoring me. I had
tons of fun and I will remember this for the rest of my life.