Ryla Leadership Conference

April 26-29, 2007Jaime Werenka

Details

• Ryla is a leadership conference held annually for high school students.

• This year the conference was held at a beautiful lodge near Edson, Alberta.

• The ages ranged from grade nine to grade twelve students from all around Alberta, but there were also students from Saskatchewan, and one student was from the Northwest Territories.

How I got involved?

• It was Mrs. Giacobbo who told me about the opportunity and she encouraged me to take it.

• The rotary sponsored two students from Edwin Parr to go to Ryla. The two students were Graham Poirier and Myself.

• Graham and I didn’t have to spend a dime and it was an excellent retreat.

• To get to Edson, Graham and I were driven to the Edmonton Bus Depot where we were to catch the bus right to Edson.

• While at the Depot we met several other students who were attending the conference.

• In Edson we were driven by school bus to a magnificent lodge between Edson and Jasper.

• Transportation home was also provided once the conference had finished.

Transportation

Ed Holten-the organizer of Ryla in Edson.

The Conference

• The night we got there we were assigned cabins that we would stay in with about three other people.

• I thought this was great because it influenced us right from the start to meet people and open up.

• Shortly after arrival and unpacking we were fed. Oh my goodness the food was amazing. We even had dessert.

• After supper we had our first presentation.

Having Some Fun!

Colorful Personalities

• Our first presentation was called “Colorful Personalities”. The presenter was George Boelcke and he taught us about how personalities could be classified into color groups. Each color represented a different personality.

• At the beginning of the presentation each student filled out a sheet and tallied up points to see which color best described them.

Colors• The colors were:

– Orange: risk-takers, open minded, entertainer, spontaneous, dramatic, fast-paced, etc. (Graham)

– Green: visionary, does not show emotion easily, intellectual, brief and concise, etc.

– Gold: dependable, task oriented, planning, organizing, makes lists, stays focused, etc.

– Blue: warm, caring, intuitive, attentive listener, polite, apologetic, avoids conflict, easily feeling the pain of others, etc. (Jaime)

• George split us up into our color groups and told us about what works for us relationship wise, family wise, and work wise depending on what color you are.

• It was a really good presentation that gave you insight on the why you feel the way you do.

• All us students were given the book that Mr. George Boelcke wrote called “Colorful Personalities”.

Brittany, Liam, and Myself posing up on a tree stump. We hiked up this huge hill and found it. Perfect for the three of us.

7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teens

• The second presentation at Ryla was on how to become more effective.

• The presenter explained to us that as a person we must mature from being dependant to independent and finally to becoming interdependent. He explained to us the steps in between and how to get there.

• We were given work booklets, which we all had a chance to start filling in.

Corey Johnson

• Later the same day we listen to Corey Johnson, who told us an inspirational story about his life.

• Corey has cerebral palsy. He wasn’t expected to walk as a child but was motivated to. A couple years after learning how to walk he had a stroke. He was just a young boy and had to relearn all body movements. This included walking. He still has trouble as the right side of his upper body is paralyzed.

Red Mile

• Mr. Johnson spoke of his life struggles and how people treat him day to day.

• He told us that he is a Calgary Flames fan and often goes to watch the games on the Red Mile.

• Corey has never drank alcohol in his life but often is mistaken for being drunk, especially by the hundreds of drunk hockey fans on the Red Mile. For this reason he created a shirt which he wears under his hockey jersey.

The shirt reads “I’m Not Drunk….I’m Disabled”

Last Day

• On the last full day we spent at the Ryla Conference we had one presentation.

• The presentation was on Grizzle Bears.

• We learned about decreasing population of these bears in the Jasper area and why they were dropping.

Tracking and GPS• Part of the Grizzle Bear

presentation was learning how to use GPS and a common Tracking System.

• In groups of two we got to hide things in the bush and mark the coordinates with GPS. Then we with the coordinates given we were to find the hidden object of another group.

• In larger groups we got to track down a tracking device. The Tracking System used frequencies to determine where the device was hidden. The higher the frequency the closer you were.

On the last night a dance was held. Everyone got a little dressed up. It was so much fun too. They served munchies and punch and they even had a DJ playing tunes.

Exploring

• When we weren’t attending a presentation or a delicious meal we were hanging out with the students we had met.

• We were encouraged to go for walks up some of the hills, play basketball at the mini court, and we even had the opportunity to go horse back riding.

WOW!

• This was an excellent conference! I had so much fun and I’m so glad that I took the chance I had to go.

• I learned a lot at the presentations about people and their personalities, how to be more effective as a teenager, about a mans life and his struggles, being motivated, and also about Grizzle Bears, GPS, and Tracking Systems.

• I would just like to say THANK YOU to Mrs. Giacobbo and the Rotary for given Graham and myself this awesome opportunity!