On Thursday 2 May 2019, four aspiring young leaders left Southern Cross Schools full of energy and anticipation. Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Hoedspruit, SCS Grade 11 learners Kgaphy Mathole, Maria Pica de Oliveira, Selsha Ramohlodi and Leonie Wiltshire headed off to attend a Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) camp at the Warrior’s Camp in beautiful Magoebaskloof for the weekend.
The Rotary Club of Hoedspruit decided some months ago to sponsor and support young people from local schools to attend the RYLA camps in order to commit to developing leadership skills among young people in the Hoedspruit area. RYLA camps are aimed at just that, building leadership skills, developing personal skills and confidence, and making friendships with other young people. All of this is accomplished through a weekend of challenging activities including both practical and theoretical activities to promote team building, problem solving and insight into leadership.
The ‘RYLA ists’ were greeted enthusiastically by the Warriors Camp facilitators and from then onwards they had an action-packed weekend in the beautiful mountain setting. Favourite activities selected by the 4 young people were the Journey of Self Discovery – creating a collage about self, a Respect and Love group discussion, and the hike, culminating in swimming in a waterfall pool.
The overwhelming conclusion was that the whole experience taught the participants much about themselves ‘you can’t get somewhere unless you know where you are’, and how to apply this new self-knowledge to lead other people.
All the participants unanimously agreed that they would have loved to spend more days at the camp as they were having ‘so much fun’ whilst learning more about themselves. They were even able to put a positive slant on the cold showers by stating ‘we appreciate our school’s boarding house – please tell them that!’. All too soon the weekend was over and the four returned, rather reluctantly, somewhat exhausted, but elated. Definitely an experience to be repeated!
Well done to these star pupils from Southern Cross College! You certainly are great ambassadors for your school.