RYLA 7690 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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What is RYLA?

Started in 1959 in Queensland, Australia, the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards is a thriving international leadership program actively endorsed in over 528 Rotary International Districts, including District 7690 in North Carolina. The program promotes leadership skill-building, networking and preparation for college for upcoming high school juniors and seniors who display leadership potential. In District 7690, Rotary Clubs award a scholarship to one or more participants whom they feel has demonstrated beginning leadership skills or who have an interest in developing those skills.

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Conference (RYLA) is a leadership development conference run by Rotary District 7690 and include presentations, activities, and workshops that cover a variety of topics, including:

Leadership fundamentals and ethics
Communication skills
Problem solving and conflict management
Community and global citizenship

Who Attends RYLA?

In District 7690, students who are currently Sophomores or Juniors in high school apply to their local Rotary Clubs to become a participant. These students should have already shown some leadership potential or interest to be selected. The goal is for them to apply the skills learned from the conference in their school and community service endeavors in the short-term and in their college and career endeavors in the future.

What does RYLA intend to accomplish?

The aim is to launch already talented young people back into their communities, inspired and provided with fresh ideas, understandings, and skills. RYLA also seeks to send participants back to their communities better equipped to become leaders of tomorrow and prepared to apply what they have learned at the conference.

How many participants will be attending RYLA?

Around 65 current sophomorse or juniors will be attending this year's RYLA.

What does it cost to send a participant to RYLA?

The cost per participant is $650 and it will be paid by the Rotary Clubs that sponsor each student.  There is not any cost to the RYLA participants themselves.

What are your procedures for vetting your staff?

Counselors and Junior Counselors go through an application process including their prior community service and youth involvement, as well as a video application. This all is reviewed by our Board who makes the final decision. Almost all are prior attendees of the conference with clear knowledge and expectations since they have attended in the past. We run background checks on any staff member staying at the conference with our RYLArians. Session speakers will not have individual access to participants or their contact information, so they will not need criminal background checks.

       RYLA also has a NO person alone policy. Our staff is trained if anyone ever needs a moment away from the group we grab two staff members and another RYLArian for the situation. Always.

We also have boys vs. girls dorm spaces and opposite genders are not allowed in the other spaces, with an immediate removal from the conference if that rule is broken. This includes our staff unless reason is given for needing to break that rule beforehand.

     We are VERY clear at the conference of expectations and ramifications for lack of following our rules about this. Each student has the director's personal cell phone number on the back of their nametag and we encourage the openness to text or call ANYTIME during the conference if they are concerned about anything.   

What if my potential RYLArian is not an upcoming Junior or Senior?

We always recommend upcoming juniors and seniors, but this is simply a recommendation. Most students younger than that are not mature enough or ready to work on improving themselves fully to really get the most out of RYLA, however, there are definitely some upcoming Sophmores who are more than ready! As for the not encouraging graduatating seniors, usually Rotary clubs are hopeful the students will go back and help be involved in Interact and encourage others to get involved, so we encourage them to stick to upcoming junior and seniors. Your identified RYLArian would still get the maximum out of RYLA however, and every year we do have several graduated seniors as well as upcoming sophomores. We do sort the counselor groups by age so they would be with the other RYLArians around their own age at RYLA so as to benefit from the students around them being similar spots in life as well. 

What if my potential RYLArian needs to come late, leave early, or step away during the conference at some point due to another commitment?

It is absolutely ok if your RYLArian needs to step away for a small portion, or be a few hours late, or even leave the conference a few hours early. It happens sometimes, we just require that we have parent approval, either by picking the student up themselves, or to talk to us on the phone to confirm they recognize the student is leaving and we have a plan for the student's travel movements together! We do askif a student needs to leave for an evening event that she shows up for the day events. If the student is going to miss over a day of the conference when it is only a 3.5 day conference you have really started to miss more of the conference than is able to catch up on. The counselor groups start forming connections as well as some of the curriculum that builds throughout the weekend so if you miss a whole day it is unfortunately not worth attending and we would encourage the Rotary Club to find a student that can attend the whole conference. 

What if my potential RYLArian is a student that learns differently or has other special needs? Are they able to attend, but more importantly be welcomed at RYLA?

We honestly can not recommend a conference more highly than RYLA. We work from the first day on that we are all different and how to work together, both from personality styles, learning styles, traumas and life experiences. We work on how to see past physical or "obvious" differences to truly see each person for their worth and that it takes all of us to "Be the Good". We also train our counselors on being inclusive and working diligently on making each student feel welcome and wanted in the counselor groups, as well as to help watch in the group times for students on the fringe that may not be finding the experience as comfortable right away. 

   If there are any more specific questions about the experience the RYLArians will have, or special needs (both learning needs or physical needs) you may want to ask us questions about, we would love to answer them, and are here to help you so you will have the utmost confidence sending their students to join us. 

What should I wear during RYLA?

There is a whole What to Bring List to help know what to pack!  It can be found on the Student page and the Parent page, as well as is the What To Bring List is sent out in the "Student Welcome Packet" when a student gets selected for RYLA 7690. (Click HERE to go to the Student Page to find the What To Bring List)

Who hosts RYLA 7690?

The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards and Rotary District 7690 are part of a much larger organization called Rotary International. Rotary International is an international service organization whose stated human rights purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and to advance goodwill and peace around the world. It is a secular organization open to all people regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, or political preference. There are 34,282 member clubs worldwide. 1.2 million individuals called Rotarians have joined these clubs. 

Click below to learn more about Rotary International.