Kerrville Morning Rotary Sponsors Youth Leadership Development
for Ingram Tom Moore High School Rotary Interact Club
Ingram Tom Moore High School (ITM) juniors and Rotary Interact Club members, Joe Tally-Foos and Kenzie Kowalski recently participated in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) conference. Kerrville Morning Rotary sponsors the ITM Interact Club and was thrilled to underwrite the expenses for these two students to attend the leadership training. ITM Interact Club president, Gladys Chang was sponsored last year by Kerrville Morning Rotary to attend RYLA.
RYLA is a leadership development program for emerging leaders. Almost 200 participants from across Texas attended this year’s conference. Although the attendees are initially placed in groups with strangers, lasting friendships quickly emerge as they work through the conference sessions together. Over the four days of the conference, participants learned leadership fundamentals and ethics, built their communication and conflict management skills, learned ways to serve their communities, and increased their world understanding. When asked about the most important leadership skill they learned at RYLA, all three students noted that listening to others ranked the highest.
Nancy Riley, Morning Rotarian, has served as the ITM Interact Club liaison for over a decade and travels with the students to RYLA. "These young people are the leaders of tomorrow. They’re learning leadership fundamentals, ethics, communication skills, problem solving, and conflict management. We’re proud to sponsor them. We also express our gratitude to the administrators who have caught the vision and support our Interact Club," said Riley.
Photo:
Front row (l-r): ITM Interact Club members; juniors, Joe Tally-Foos and Kenzie Kowalski with senior and club president Gladys Chang. Back row (l-r): Dr. Bobby Templeton, Ingram ISD Superintendent; Mr. Jeff Kowalski, Ingram ISD Athletic Director; and Mr. Justin Crittenden, ITM Principal.