Rotary Youth Leadership Awards.. summer leadership camp, scholarship, interviews, senior counselors, junior counselors, team building, learning about yourself, friends, family, love…best week of your life.<\/p>\n
“You should apply for RYLA” my high school counselor told me. I didn’t have time in the middle of Junior year to apply for anything but she kept nagging. Little did I know that application would affect the next four years of my life in more ways than I could ever understand.\u00a0 I was so nervous going in and came out inspired, in touch with my emotions and with a group of friends that knew me better than friends I had known for years.<\/p>\n
The motto of RYLA is “Be The Change” and the idea is to motivate students to use their skills, talents and passion to give to the world in one form or another. I was learning about vocation years before the Jesuits introduced me to the famous word.\u00a0 It was the first of many experiences of being vulnerable with a new group of people, talking about the pains of this world and how we would use our passion and experiences\u00a0 to make a difference.\u00a0 The week was packed with team building activities, inspiring speakers and reflections to better understand who we were so we could better understand our place in the world.<\/p>\n
One of those experiences that you come out of high on new friends, inspiring speakers and being surrounded by an excited group of people, listen to the CD a million times over and in two weeks forget. But I wasn’t going to forget. In the middle of high school I needed something. Home was hard. And after switching schools I was just starting to find my niche. RYLA was mine and I wasn’t going to let go. Not to mention I had a super passionate Rotarian in my district that wanted to take it further, and I was his chosen assistant.<\/p>\n
I came home and started an Interact club- a club for high school students focused on service and international engagement. I knew nothing about international engagement and we focused on local service but the curiosity and excitement was sparked. I applied to be a junior counselor and returned to the middle school version of Young RYLA for the next three summers. Being a counselor was even more inspiring. I saw hope in the 8th graders eyes and knew that change could come in this world. I was continuously reminded of the suffering that more people than we would ever guess live with and was surrounded by adults and peers with big dreams who gave me a space to keep following and building my own dreams.<\/p>\n
After two years I heard about RYLA North America, a conference in DC for 18-30 year olds that reached a much larger demographic and invited people from across the world. I wrote a letter to the local Rotary club asking them for their support and a few months later was on a plane to DC. RYLA North America was a little different from the last three summers of RYLA. Much of the reflection, learning about our selves and “touchy feelyness” was replaced with brainstorming ways to take action and exploring the ways others are taking action. There were people from all over the world; Haiti, Egypt, London and many other places. We visited embassies, had sessions on furthering our service and international engagement commitment and learned about what people were doing in their countries. One of the men from Haiti talked about his country before and after the earthquake, all that had been lost and how he had to leave if he wanted a future. Attendees from Egypt explained the great inequalities and oppression they saw. Story after story of suffering was shared yet each coupled with stories about the hope they felt, the passion they had to work towards a better life for all and the actions they were taking. My eyes were opened to a world of need, opportunity and hope and I came back with a new found excitement for international engagement.\u00a0 I was even more aware of the privilege I had in solely having an education and knew I had to do something worth while and I was surrounded by 50 other young people who wanted to do the same.<\/p>\n
I came back to Santa Clara wanting to do something with this new found excitement, I declared an International Business minor in an attempt to incorporate the wise words of my brother with this new interest in the International Side. Yet it still didn’t seem like the right fit. I didn’t think I needed accounting and finance classes to do what I wanted, I want to working with the people. I searched and searched for some combination of these different passions, needs and skill sets and with the advice of a few graduating seniors stumbled upon the Individual Studies program. After months of brainstorming, creating class lists and talking with different professors I declared an International Development major.. hopeful that this mixture of classes would allow me to supplement my passion for serving others and learning about the world with a skill set that would allow me make it into a career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards.. summer leadership camp, scholarship, interviews, senior counselors, junior counselors, team building, learning about yourself, friends, family, love…best week of your life. “You should apply for RYLA” my high school counselor told me. I didn’t have time in the middle of Junior year to apply for anything but she kept nagging. Little … Continue reading