RYPEN 2019 - Reflection

On Friday 29th – Sunday 31st March, six students (Ruby Upfield, Esther Elwood, Tyana Tsai, Rachel Chiu, Tiffany Li and Sabriah Peterson) went to RYPEN – a leadership camp run by Rotary District 9800. Below are some reflections of the camp written by the students.

I had a great time on RYPEN! It was a good chance to meet new people from a variety of schools and be in a different and interesting environment to what I’m used to. I learnt more about myself and others, especially during the group challenges and activities which definitely expanded my comfort zone! My favourite part was definitely meeting new people and the memories we made together. I would definitely recommend the program to others as I had a lot of fun and started some really strong friendships. This experience will definitely stick with me into the future!

Ruby Upfield – Year 10

RYPEN was a packed weekend, filled with building leadership skills, challenging ourselves and setting personal goals to develop positive attributes. We learned about the qualities of being a good leader and the types of leadership styles. I really enjoyed the team-building activities, which put into practice all the new skills we learned along the way. Throughout the weekend, we were split into different groups where we were able to meet other students from across the state around our age group. It was interesting to compare and relate some of the similarities that we share. One of the activities we did was bidding for some key values which we had to rank as a group and bid on the value of what we thought it was worth. This was a clear demonstration of what we and others prioritise in life. Values such as ‘health,’ ‘family’ and ‘compassion’ showcased in the top. We also were able to experience what it would be like to have a ‘meal’ in other less advantaged countries. This showed that we are in the top 15% of the population who have 3 decent meals per day. At the end of the camp, we were advised of other Rotary activities available to us in the future, how we can give back to communities less privileged than us and what it means to be part of Rotary.

RYPEN opened our eyes to how much we take for granted simple things in our everyday life. I would strongly recommend students wanting to further develop leadership skills to go on this amazing camp!

Rachel Chiu – Year 10

Me and five other girls from MGC got sponsored to attend the annual Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment. We all left school on Friday March 29th not knowing what we were in for, once we got there it wasn’t so bad after all. We all met some great people, and we started to feel more comfortable around them. Some highlights from the camp for me were, on the first night we were in our colour groups and we did a scavenger hunt then we had to show/present the items we had found, it was a great activity to communicate and bond as a group. Another highlight for me was a struggles discussion on the second day, in our colour groups we discussed some struggles we were facing it and it really made us trust each other more and that listening to other people could help us as well. Another big highlight for me was when it was free time, we were all just singing, having fun and jamming out as someone brought their ukulele and so it was great to see everyone joining in. All in all, I really enjoyed the camp, on the last day none of us wanted to leave but we had to. This camp has really opened my mind about how we are as people and it has also made me see things in a different but better way, but I also made awesome friends and many memories that I won’t forget.

Tiffany Li – Year 10