Rotary Youth Leadership Awards 2018

Each year, high school students from around South Alabama visit Camp ASCCA in the spring for the annual Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. More than 50 rotary clubs sponsor students from their areas to represent their communities and grow in their leadership abilities as they near high school graduation. Last Thursday afternoon, the students and their leaders arrived for three days of team-building activities, special speakers, and more.

After introductions on Thursday, everyone woke up Friday ready to learn and grow professionally together. Once breakfast was complete, students split into their designated groups and participated in activities at the low ropes course, cargo net, zip-line, team challenges, and heard from a special speaker. Between rotations, the students were given a few service projects to complete for ASCCA. They were encouraged to pick the project that would fit them the best.

Some students went to lakefront with Aquatics Program Specialist Heather Chumney to help clean up the front beach and pull unwanted limbs out of the lake. Another group helped clean up the campus by picking up items like pine straw and pine cones along the accessible pathways. A few students even helped clean up the suburbans that are used as “people movers” for activities like fishing and demo farm.

Over the remainder of the weekend, the program rotations continued and the students worked together in their groups to develop a skit. While many of the students did not know each other coming into the weekend, they were close friends by the end of the session. The leaders worked hard to teach the students lessons that will help them when they leave high school for their next adventures. Lesson like, how to be a serving leader and proper communication techniques for a leader. During each activity, the students were expected to ask the following four questions of the Rotary Four Way Test:

1. Is it the Truth?
2. Is it Fair to all Concerned?
3. Will it Build Good Will and Better Friendships?
4. Will it be Beneficial to all Concerned?

This year’s RYLA group included a few familiar faces from last year, but most of the students had never been to an event like it before. It was encouraging to see so many students who were strangers on Thursday become strong leaders and great friends by Sunday afternoon.

Check out a few more moments from the weekend here. You can also keep up with everything happening at Camp ASCCA by following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.