Fiona Campbell - The Importance of RYLA - Thursday 30 July @ 18.45 for 19.00

Fiona Campbell - The Importance of RYLA - Thursday 30 July @ 18.45 for 19.00

The Rotary Young Leaders Award (RYLA) is one of Rotary’s flagship programmes for young people from local communities. The Bridge of Allan and Dunblane Rotary Club has long been a supporter of RYLA, so President David Chisholm was delighted to introduce the speaker for the evening, Fiona Campbell from the Rotary Club of Ellen, herself an enthusiastic advocate of the benefits of RYLA. Fiona reminded members that RYLA events are for young people about to start their working lives or entering further or higher education, who have shown leadership potential but may be lacking in self-confidence.  Working in teams for a week, they face challenging situations, some physical, some practical, designed to develop leadership and team building skills, and to increase their personal confidence. Each day one member of the team is appointed as leader. The activities can include kayaking, gorge walking, mountain biking and rock-climbing, together with problem-solving tasks and practical group leadership exercises. The young people have talks each morning by role models who encourage them to look positively at their skills and abilities, and to consider how best to utilise these in their future work and involvement in the community.  

Home comforts may at times be lacking: they may get cold and wet, but the challenges of the week develop resilience, and there is also a lot of fun to be had, with time to make new friends and to share in games, barbeques and other informal activities. 

Fiona is particularly well-placed to be an advocate of RYLA. As a sixth-former, she wasn’t, she suggested, exactly shy, indeed, she had a degree of bravado; but, behind that apparent confidence, she was in need of confirmation of her capabilities. Having been selected for RYLA, she found the week transformational, building in her the additional confidence she needed.  With that encouragement, she progressed into a successful business career, and also represented Scotland in cricket.  In light of her prowess in both fields, she was invited to return to RYLA to act as a motivational speaker, a role she has undertaken for nine years. Her obvious enthusiasm for the programme led to her being invited to act as a course mentor, looking after and supporting teams of girls, a role she has undertaken with obvious enjoyment for six years.   Over that time, she has seen the ways in which working together in teams has enabled girls to test themselves, frequently out of their comfort zones; to learn new inter-personal skills; and to function positively within a team when not always acting as the leader.

President David thanked Fiona warmly for her talk.  Her enthusiasm for RYLA was infectious.  It was clear members had greatly enjoyed listening to her experiences.