Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, or RYLA for short, is an annual event run by different Rotary Districts around the world. Miami High Interact Club advisor Mr. Perez said, “Each year, thousands of young people ages 13–30 are sponsored by Rotary Clubs to attend the event run by the club’s district committee.”

RY-what?

“The purpose of the program is to help you become a better and stronger leader,” claims two year RYLA attendee and junior Elizabeth Astacio, Interact secretary.

This year’s RYLA took place February 10-12^th at Florida High Adventure Sea Base in Islamorada in the Florida Keys right next to the ocean. “There was great sun, a nice breeze, and it wasn’t too humid,” said junior Alexa Melgar, Interact vice-president.

Junior Interact member Lucia Galeano said, “There was a long dock, a game area with ping pong and jenga, and even a beach volleyball court,” she claims.

Rotary’s main aims for RYLA are to provide an effective training experience for selected youth and potential leaders, encourage leadership of youth by youth, and recognize publicly young people who are rendering service to their communities.

The Attendees

This year, Miami High’s Interact Club sent a record six students to RYLA, including junior Vice-President Mingli Yactayo, junior Historian Melanie Millo, and senior District 6990 Governor Olvin Villatoro.

“They were chosen based on their involvement not only with the school’s club, but their involvement with the District 6990 Board,” said Mr. Perez.

All six attendees looked forward to the weekend-long trip. For first-timer and junior Melanie Millo, it was the excitement with which last year’s group spoke about RYLA that made her want to attend. “Everyone that went the previous year told me how fun it was and how much they missed it,” she said.

Junior Mingli Yactayo, who remembered the impact last year’s RYLA had on her, couldn’t wait to experience it all over again. “At the end of the day, this is a leadership conference and I was just anxious to absorb as much as I could,” she said.

 What did they do?

Many different events were planned throughout the weekend. On Friday, everyone was assigned to teams to do little projects and ice breakers that helped us get comfortable with each other, said Elizabeth Astacio. They were also assigned their dorms and went over the general rules for the weekend.

Saturday was, for many, the best day of the weekend. After going on a boat ride to historic Lignumvitae Key and Indian Key, Melanio Millo said, “It was interesting to see history staring right at me, as I scrutinized all of the artifacts.”

There were also many team-building games, such as one where blindfolded people had to be verbally led by teammates through an obstacle course, that everyone had fun with and learned from. “These exercises strengthened our communication skills and helped us work as a big group instead of individual teams,” said Lucia Galeano.

The last day was full of mixed emotions. Tasked with creating a community service project with unlimited funds and resources, each team presented what they had come up with. “One of our projects was a community garden where everyone could grow their own fruits and vegetables,” said Mingli Yactayo.

After the presentations and lunch, everyone prepared for departure. Elizabeth Astacio felt saying goodbye to all the new people they had met was the hardest part of the conference. 

What did they learn?

   Above all else, Rotary Clubs invested a lot of time and money to make sure that the conference helped students become better leaders. Junior Lucia Galeano learned that for a team to achieve a goal, everyone has to be on the same page.

Junior Alexa Melgar claimed, “I learned that working with leaders is a lot harder than being the sole leader. Everyone wants to do things their own way, but we can only do it one right way.”

Kodak Moments

   With such a long and eventful weekend, there were surely many highlights. For Alexa Melgar, it was the boat ride to the historic islands. She said, “We even saw a dolphin—it was my first time seeing one!”

For Melanie Millo, that happened when everyone went to the dock after dinner to watch the sunset on the second day. “It was a beautiful sight…it seemed as if time had stopped and everything in the world was perfect at that exact moment. There was an immense connection between all of us,” she said.