Students share leadership course experiences with Borderland Rotary
Two young people told Borderland Rotary how a week of outdoor challenges in Snowdonia helped build their confidence, teamwork and trust in others
Two students have spoken to Borderland Rotary about how a week-long leadership course helped them build confidence, develop teamwork skills and discover more about themselves.
Abbie Fleet and Sam Grayston visited the club to share their experiences of the annual Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) course, held at Arthog Outdoor Centre on the Welsh coast in Snowdonia.
The week-long programme sees young people take part in a series of outdoor adventures and team-building challenges, guided by instructors.
Using a visual presentation, Abbie and Sam described how the activities helped them overcome initial nerves, work with people they had never met before and develop trust in one another.
One of the first photographs showed a group of blindfolded students moving around a field, prompting laughter among the Rotary members.
Abbie explained that the activity was designed to teach trust and help break the ice between participants.
She said: “This may look a bit silly but in fact it was a great lesson in trust. Being blindfolded means you must trust others to guide you, and it was certainly an early lesson and a great way to break the ice.
“More fun than I expected, and I learnt so much about myself.”
Sam said being placed in a team with strangers had initially felt daunting, but the challenges soon encouraged everyone to work together.
He said: “To start with, it was quite daunting to be teamed up with people I’d never met before but as the tasks went on we all found that the only way to complete them quickly and successfully was to work together and I found that I was actually better at some things than I thought I was”.
Participants are allocated to teams when they arrive and remain with them throughout the course. Challenges range from rope climbing in the mountains to building a raft on a nearby river.
Teams earn RYLA Dollars for each completed task, with the team accumulating the most by the end of the week declared the winner.
The scheme was brought to the UK from Australia by Paul Crosby in 2001. Since then, more than 800 young people have taken part, with participants sponsored by Rotary clubs.