RYLA 2012
By Sophie Latta
Through school, I
applied for the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. The interview panel believed
that I had ‘leadership potential’ and granted me a place on the first course in
the summer of 2012. In all honesty, I had no idea what to expect. When I
arrived, I was rushed from my Rotarian’s car to a series of ‘icebreaker’ games,
designed to help awardees get to know each other.
We were then
informed of what we had ‘signed up to.’ The course is run by ‘Awesome
Adventure,’ a team of predominantly ex-military staff. The selected outdoor
activities on the course are all based on elements of problem solving,
communication, organisation, delegation and teamwork. The personal development
side of the course is based upon the ‘Kolb’s Learning Cycle’
The course was
the busiest week I have ever experienced, so here are the highlights…
o We learnt to work in a
team, using delegation effectively
‘Bell-boating’ – working as a team to travel along a
canal in a canoe, delegating roles to manage the opening and closing of the
locks.
o We became more effective
communicators
‘Murder Hunt’ – completing mini tasks, to earn money to purchase clues to solve a murder.
This involved lots of organisation in the briefing and debriefing of tasks.
o We learnt problem solving skills
…And we had a lot of fun learning all of the above!
My team (‘Dudes
of Hazard’) won the competition that ran throughout the week, based on points
earned in tasks.
We performed
RYLA themed ‘Would I Lie To You?’ at the talent show at the end of the week,
To conclude;
from my week at Hebden Bridge, I met some great people and the experiential
learning style of the week has equipped me with leadership techniques and a
developed range of skills that I hope to apply at Cadets, in sport and in my
future career.
dd
