RYLA, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, is a program designed for outstanding high school students to help develop qualities of leadership skills and good citizenship, as well as to emphasize the advantages of the free enterprise system.
Tattnall County and Long County Rotary Clubs were well recently represented with the attendance of six students.
From Tattnall, Glennville Rotary Club was represented by Tattnall County High School students Brooklyn Waters, Madison Page, Audrey Graham, and Dixie Waters. Long County Rotary Club was represented by Long County High School students Jojo Hewitt and Trent Rutherford.
The four-day event was hosted at the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick June 12-15, 2024. Leslie Mattingly, coordinator of the RYLA event, provided sessions that featured experienced and knowledgeable leaders in business and government during the four days. Also, Rotary District Governor 6920 Felix Smith spoke to the RYLA attendees when they arrived on Wednesday and closed out the event with words of encouragement and the presentation of their course certificates. The RYLA participants learned what Rotary is and what it does for the local community, the nation, and world. Dr. Jason Umfress, Vice President of the College of Coastal Georgia, spoke at the opening dinner about the many opportunities for students at the four-year College of Coastal Georgia. He is also an alumnus of RYLA.
The Thursday session included learning about communication skills in effective leadership from Dr. Kyle Fox of the College of Coastal Georgia (CCGA). Later in the day, the RYLA students visited MAP International in Brunswick where they toured the facility and packed disaster relief boxes as part of their instruction on community and global citizenship. They ended the day with sessions on building self-confidence and self-esteem and fundamentals and ethics of leadership. After a pizza party in the evening, they learned about international service that Rotary offers, followed by a movie night.
On Friday, in addition to several hours spent on the beach of St. Simons Island learning about the environment and conservation from a Department of Natural Resources representative, the students learned about problem solving and conflict management and how they as students can impact their community through service and involvement.
Many parents joined their teens on Saturday morning for breakfast, followed by the closing comments and awards ceremony.
RYLA is a four-day leadership and citizenship training program for rising high school juniors and seniors held at the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick, and the fee is paid by the sponsoring Rotary Club for the students the club sends to the event.
If any local students are interested in the RYLA program in June of 2025, please contact Pam Waters at 912-237-0248 or Donald Fountain at 912-237-2531. The Glennville Rotary Club usually sends two to three students, and the Long County Rotary Club plans to send one or two students next year.
