The document discusses the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) program that the author attended. Over the course of a week, 75 young potential leaders participated in workshops, seminars, and activities aimed at developing skills in self-development, leadership, and discovery. Speakers shared their success and failure stories to encourage pushing personal barriers. Participants challenged themselves through physical activities and team challenges. The program helped the author learn about themselves and how to influence change, leaving feeling it was a life-changing experience.

1. Faculty of Engineering, University of Wollongong
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Rotary Youth Leadership Awards
In January this year I was
lucky enough to attend
RYLA, the Rotary Youth
Leadership Awards at
Stanwell Tops Confer-
ence Centre. Here, 75
potential leaders were
cooped up for a week to
engage in activities, work-
shops and seminars with
the aim of developing
skills in self development,
discovery and leadership.
The week started off like
any other camp with ice-
breakers and strange, silly,
generally embarrassing
games and “get-to-know
-yous”, But, by the end
of day one, the formali-
ties had been stripped
away, we had met our
new family for the week; “camp Mum and
Dad”, our 4 team leaders and the other 75
strangers we were stuck with, and had already
begun a journey of development, unbeknown
to us.
From that very first Saturday afternoon, we
were constantly learning,
listening, engaging, and
fuelling each other’s devel-
opment. We had motiva-
tional and inspirational
speakers, such as Ron Lee,
the corporate ninja, Tania
and Warren Hayes, Deborah
Homewood and Diana Ry-
all, just to name a few. Not
only did these amazing and
talented people share with
us their stories of success, as
well as failure, they encour-
aged us to push ourselves to
the next endeavour.
Some of us began conquer-
ing our barriers during Ron
Lee’s workshop, where we
were lucky enough to break
boards with our hands, and
break through some of our
personal barriers; for others it
was during the session with
Youth Insearch and learning
the many techniques of a safe
and fulfilling hug; while the
majority of us challenged our-
selves with the Leap of Faith
and the Flying Fox rope activi-
ties.
Alongside these physical chal-
lenges, we were subjected to
many team challenges and
team building activities during
the week. These activities
sought to give us the skills and
techniques needed to be able
to see the dynamics of a team
in action, how to improve
them, and the types of leaders
that exist within a team. It was
these different types of leader-
ship skills that became evident
during our Team Challenge, which we suc-
cessfully completed, what we call Cirque du
RYLA.
The week came to an end with a number of
sessions on goal setting, how to connect
with our truer self to realise our goals and
ways to achieve them.
The week as a whole has been a life chang-
ing experience for me and for many of my
other RYLArian companions. The week has
not only taught me a lot about myself and
how I can choose to influence, change and
be a productive part of all my endeavours,
but it has also taught me a lot about the
world around me and the people with
whom I surround myself.
I would recommend the RYLA experience
to everyone, it’s a hard experience to explain
and many of the descriptions can hardly do
it justice. RYLA has improved my whole life
in every aspect and my ability to push my-
self beyond my barriers. I’ll leave you with a
short quote that truly sums up the RYLA
experience and what it has taught me when
it comes to life, “you get out what you put
in.”
Melissa Gaspari
Melissa Gaspari as ‘Bob the
Builder’ during a workshop with
Youth Insearch at the Rotary
Attendees at the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards at Stanwell Tops Conference Centre, January 2009