International RYLA - Salt Lake City USA
2007!!
Jane Heyworth
was
this years's District 1040 candidate to attend the 2007 International RYLA convention in
Salt Lake City. She attended the 2004 RYLA and was originally sponsored by the
Thirsk Rotary Club.
She is a Rainbow
Leader with the Girl Guiding Association and is presently working towards
becoming a Senior Section Leader. Jane is also involved as a volunteer with a
local group which supports young physically handicapped people during their
school holidays and has achieved the Duke of Edinburgh silver award and is
hoping to achieve the Gold award. Jane has been an ambassador for RYLA when she
attended the Rotary Conference in Scarborough with Ken Robertshaw.
Jane penned this
on her return....... 
"I
was selected to attend International RYLA after having completed the local RYLA
course in
Yorkshire
during the summer of 2004. The international RYLA course took place in Salt Lake
City, Utah, USA from the 14 until 17 June 2007.
My
main contacts were Tony Jordan from Thirsk Rotary Club and Ken Robertshaw from
Halifax
Rotary Club. Judith Poole from Brighouse Rotary Club, was one of the English
mentors for the course, she gave me an invaluable amount of support and
information. Unfortunately Judith and I could not travel to the USA together as
she was required to be there before the course started.
Therefore, I travelled alone flying from Manchester to Atlanta then onto Salt
Lake City. I had never flown by myself or as far before and felt very nervous
but was also excited about the adventure. Once I arrived in Salt Lake City
Airport I got the coach to
Utah
University. I arrived late in the evening on the 13 June went straight to my
room.
The following morning I met Alys, the other British girl, and we both went on
the organised
excursion into Salt Lake City. At lunch time the course started. We worked
together in small groups of approximately six people of mixed nationalities.
Each group was allocated a mentor; my mentor was Anupam Goyal from India. We
often joined together with another group and
completed
a variety of sessions including conferences, group discussions, presentations
and role play scenarios incorporating personal goal setting and action planning.
These more formal sessions were led by the mentors and were the basis of the
leadership element of the course. Throughout the course there were a number of
other less formal sessions where all the candidates got the opportunity to get
to know each other and socialise.
On the last evening everyone took part in a cultural event where we delivered
presentations about our county to the rest of the RYLArians. These were very
interesting and gave everyone an insight to the varied background of all of the
candidates.
At the end of the course I returned home having had the best experience of my
life. I encountered a number of challenges, learnt how to deal with them and
gained knowledge and valuable experience to use in my future career and
throughout life.
I would like to thank Rotary District 1040 and especially the Ryla committee
for giving me the opportunity to take part in the International Ryla 2007.
Jane
