The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) camp is a unique leadership program brought to SJHHS by Interact Club that gives Juniors an opportunity to meet new people and participate in fun activities like tree climbing and zip lining. The camp will be held at Idyllwild Pines from April 26-28.
RYLA was started sixty years ago by Mike Arnold who was a board member in the Capistrano Unified District and is now sponsored by Rotary Clubs and is run by RYLA alumni. Rotary is a large organization that rallies certain people to encourage ethical standards and build goodwill in the world. They currently employ over 1.2 million members spread across 200 countries and 33,000 clubs.
The curriculum included in RYLA is: communication skills, fundamentals of leadership, ethics of positive leadership, building of self-confidence, conflict management, and elements of community and global citizenship.
“It’s really great and everyone loves and they really get to go out of their comfort zone and meet people they wouldn’t normally speak to,” said Brianna Baptiste, President of Interact Club.
The main purpose of RYLA camp is to teach kids how to be leaders by coming out of their comfort zones and inspiring change in their communities by promoting leadership skills. The activities revolve around team building where the campers will have to perform trust activities with high ropes and climbs.
Joe Snedeker, who has been the advisor for Interact Club for two years, also expressed his admiration for the program as he described it as “an opportunity to come together with different schools throughout the Orange County area, to establish relationships and talk about leadership and what it takes to be a future leader.”
Snedeker also said that RYLA is a positive high school experience that many students will look back on later in life and appreciate the opportunity that was given to them. Snedeker also said that he has a lot of students come back from the camp refreshed with a break from studying for AP tests and finals with friends that they continue to keep in touch with.
To participate in the camp, students must be Juniors willing to interact with others and challenge themselves in team problem solving activities. There is no financial input or minimum grade requirement to apply for the camp.
