My 2024 RYLA Experience by Bethany Bradford

Coalville Belvoir Rotary Club put forward a candidate for this year’s Rotary Youth Leadership Award. This is a week long intensive course that enables young people to push themselves and develop life skills whilst gaining confidence in building and maintaining relationships in both their personal and professional lives. This was made possible through the support of the Rotary Clubs of Coalville Belvoir, Ashby, Ashby Castle and Ashby Hastings, as well as a donation from Mander Cruikshank Solicitors.

Our candidate this year was Bethany Bradford. Read on for Bethany’s thoughts after completing the course:

‘’From the 3rd -10th August I undertook the Rotary Young Leadership Awards Course. Within my first day I saw such a big change in myself. So it’s safe to say that within a week my whole life has been changed. The course was intensive and achieved its planned outcome. I had an amazing time, pushing myself to try things I never had. Overcoming my fears and learning resilience and mental strength. When I first arrived, I didn’t know what to expect, by the end of the week all my expectations had been exceeded and I was disappointed to leave. If I could go and do it all over again I would. No two days were the same and there was a plethora of opportunities to take leadership and learn team building skills. It was genuinely the best week of my life, I had so much fun whilst undertaking the course. 

The course instilled a confidence to me, confidence in myself, and in my ideology. It taught me to be assertive, to maximise my potential, realising the difference between limitations and boundaries. By the end of the week, it felt I had no limits. Everyone in my network has been able to see the immense difference in myself and my mindset since coming home. I’ve realised that I can do anything when I put my mind to it.

I forged strong connections with the people around me, and every day was a pleasure to watch how much they developed and how we developed as a team. Seeing how people fell into their roles whilst still challenging themselves. Learning to respect people’s boundaries while utilising their strengths. We remain in touch, and I can see these friendships continuing to progress through adult life. It’s safe to say we were all on the same page about our experience at RYLA.

I would recommend the RYLA course to anyone, from any background. For a while I’ve felt like something was missing in my life, I never realised that the course could fill that hole. I have developed leadership over my own life and skills to successfully lead a team in any aspect. The skills I developed will help as I progress my career and I have already put these into action and will continue to implement them throughout the rest of my life. The RYLA experience is so surreal. A week can feel like months and the people you meet can feel like you’ve known them your whole life.

Following RYLA, I have now been researching on how to complete the Duke of Edinburgh award, now having the confidence to go straight for Gold. I hope to begin this shortly, I feel the skills I developed at RYLA will assist me through this process and has given me the confidence to push myself to do it in the first place. 

Thank you to everyone who made this possible for me. I will carry these skills with me for the rest of my life and career.’’