Strong Rotarian leaders and volunteers are key to investing in young people through mentorship and service learning. Impactful Rotary youth programs such as Interact, Youth Exchange, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) all begin with extremely committed Rotarians. When we are People of Action, Rotary Opens Opportunities to enrich the lives of everyone involved.
Last year, District leaders, Youth Exchange, Interact students and RYLA alumnus traveled to the United Nation in NYC to celebrate our longstanding relationship with the UN to commemorate the organization’s 75th anniversary. As a shared vision, Rotary and the UN serve as examples of global cooperation that lead efforts to promote peace, economic development and improved health among nations.
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Current impact of youth programs:
- Camp Neidig – Growing Young Leaders Since 1950- Over 8,000 Alumnus in D7430
- Youth Exchange - Most experienced YE Program- Over 1,000 hosted and sponsored in D7430 since 1963
- Interact- Since 1962 - 9,000 clubs in over 110 countries with an estimated membership of 2,000,000 youth worldwide.
- Four Way Test Speech Contest – every year we involve more than 100 high school students from over 25 high schools, helping students think critically and develop their public speaking skills
This year, under the direction of District Governor Janet Kolepp and the DLT, our district is exploring two new pilot youth program options that will impact underserved students in our communities.
The District 7430 STEM Youth Explorer Academy (STEM-YEA) will be designed in collaboration with the SETI Institute out of Mountain View, California. SETI is a non-profit government funded organization that does research and education in the search for life in our solar system and beyond. Our plan is to have the pilot program roll-out in the summer of 2022.
The STEM - YEA will be a residential academy where middle school students convene from throughout the District to participate in a multi-day program, akin to Camp Neidig. The activities and curriculum will be built around the STEM disciplines and how STEM impacts the RI Seven Areas of Focus (Our Causes | Rotary International). We are in discussion with a local college as the educational partner to provide facilities and to assist in curriculum development along with faculty training.
In addition, an 18-student virtual Discovery Youth Leadership Program in collaboration with Friends Forever International (FFI) out of New Hampshire is planned to start in the Fall 2021. This program will encourage world peace with individual learning plans, service learning and a global FFI alumni for future engagement. FFI is an independent 501©3 nonprofit organization that works with communities around the globe to build the leadership abilities of youth from diverse backgrounds to tackle local and global issues.
Investing in any Rotary sponsored youth program is an investment not only in the participants future, but in Rotary’s future. We cannot foresee the future, but we get to steer ourselves to where we want Rotary in our communities and around the world to go! Working together, we can lay out the path that will lead to a future of growing youth programs while mentoring future Rotarian leaders. Want to learn more or get involved? Please contact Darlene Scott, District Youth Service Chair.
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