The Mahatma Residential School campus at Alagarkoil buzzed with college students for three days. Together they explored, experienced and excelled in various activities conducted by the Rotary Club of Madurai West as part of the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) programme.
Meant to develop leadership qualities in youth, RYLA allows students from different city colleges to mingle with each other, attend special talks and sessions with professional experts and develop their personality and self-confidence.
Rotarian Nan Narayanen who has been conducting RYLA programmes for years says it is an amazing opportunity for the young adults between 18 to 30 years to come out of their shells and also come up with new ideas.
Being an interesting and challenging leadership programme exclusively for youth, a lot of counselling sessions are held too. “The main problem of youth today is that they do not share their problems with their parents, says Nan, but once they come here to the RYLA camp, I find they open up to us with much ease.
The camp last weekend saw the participation of 44 boys and 35 girls from 14 city colleges. The RYLA programmes are gaining ground slowly and the organisers had to turn down requests from many colleges to join. The programme included host of activities and inputs on self-evaluation, knowing your destination, exploring mobile application, how to market yourself and reach the top how to be creative and values to be followed in life. Resource persons were drawn in from all fields who not only guided but also counselled the young minds.
The Special Address by Mrs.Premalatha Panneerselvam, the founder of Mahatma group of schools, enlightened the participants of their duties and responsibilities to the family, society and the country. She said there was no dearth of opportunities for students today and exhorted the participants to go full on. She cited several success stories of her old students to motivate the young gathering.
Swami Siva Yogananda, Acharya from Chinmaya Mission, Madurai, guided the Rylarians to lead a responsible life. He cautioned against the varied temptations in life that can deviate impressionable minds from the desired path and said how important it was to evolve as respected citizens of the country.
Rtn.SL.Setumadava, Chairman – Awards Committee, RI Dist.3000 and his spouse .Rtn.Vasumathy Setumadava listed vital tips in the form of ten commandants to make use of opportunities that come our way and help us to choose our careers. Vasumathy praised the standards of RYLA content, arrangements and the commitment of the members and shared with the audience how the same had helped to mould and shape her personality.
Special awards like Mr. RYLA, Ms RYLA, Runner Up & Popular Rylarian were given away by President Ravee to the participants based on their performances during the three-day camp. P.Swaminathan of Madura College and K.Shridhivya of Thiagarajar College of Engineering were crowned as Mr.RYLA and Ms.RYLA.
"RLYA is a different and essential experience for all teenagers. I am happy that I took part,” said Shridhivya.
Members of the Rotary Club of Madurai West strove to bring out the best in every participant. It was a process of self-realisation, added Shridhivya.
