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[vc_row full_width=”” parallax=”” parallax_image=””][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is a leadership development program run by Rotary.  While participants can be any age, most events focus on secondary school students, university students, or young professionals.  RYLA events are typically 3–10 days long and include presentations, activities, and workshops that cover a variety of topics, including:

Leadership fundamentals and ethics,

Communication skills,

Problem solving and conflict management, and

Community and global citizenship.

RYLA participants Kristan VanDomelen and Mia McMahon gave summaries of their experiences with the program and how it has impacted their lives.

According to Kristan, most of the RYLA participants were of college age, but in her opinion those who were already out of college and facing real world challenges felt more impact from the program than those who were still in college.  Workshop participants were divided into small groups who worked through exercises and self-assessments within the framework of four themes:  Self representation, Relationships, Priorities, and Leadership.  Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, students began to explore where they stand in view of their goals, values, and personality type.  Kristan learned the importance of networking and associations, and as a result joined New Generations in Portland.  She discovered that a big part of being a leader is being willing to do the things you ask others to do.  She also discovered that she is more interested in travel than in things and wants to maintain a simple lifestyle that resists pervasive media marketing.  She quit a job that was causing her stress and plans to go back to school to earn another degree that will help her become self-sustaining.

Mia was still in school when she attended RYLA and was in a very different place in her life from Kristan.  She was engaged to be married, and as a result of attending the workshops broke up with her fiance and moved to Taiwan.  She recognized that she needed to focus on being a whole person and wasn’t ready to devote herself to a long-term relationship.  She began to focus on aligning her life with her core values and now lives more pro-actively than re-actively.  She asked herself, “Am I proud of the life I’m living?” As part of this pursuit, she went on a three-day bicycle trip in Taiwan that would have previously been outside of her comfort zone.  She also went on a river tracing trip that required her to wade upstream, climb over rocks and boulders, and carry all her belongings in a waterproof duffle.  She has pledged to keep traveling honestly along life’s path.

Kristan VanDomelen is a 2013 graduate of Pacific University where she majored in Social Work with a minor in Spanish.

Mia McMahon is a mobile advertising consultant who lives in Taiwan.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]