Chichester Rotary Club sponsor students to attend leadership event

This years’ students were Harriet Coomber, Oliver Hilditch and William Cage, as seen with the rest of the participants. After having spent 5 days at the event held at Boxhill they came to one of the Rotary Clubs breakfast meetings to tell club members about their experience.

The Club's principal RYLA coordinator Teresa Hounsham said: "This course, held at Box Hill, teaches leadership skills to young people, aged between 15 and 18.

"Communication skills are also nurtured and there is considerable emphasis on teams; how they work, how to get the best out of team members and how to get them to work together successfully.

"The course builds confidence with a huge range of activities, both practical and intellectual, aiming to push participants out of their familiar comfort zones into trying new things such as the high ropes course or public speaking.”

One of the students said: "This was a fantastic opportunity for me to meet new friends, it helped improve my confidence levels by taking me way outside my normal comfort zone.

"I learnt so much about the importance of good team work to successfully complete unfamiliar tasks. It was a really fun week."

The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is a leadership programme co-ordinated by Rotary Clubs around the world. Each year thousands of young people aged between 13 and 30 years participate in the programme.