The Gilchrist County Rotary Club heard about Gilchrist County Schools’ Career and Technical Education Programs and the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards at Monday’s meeting.
The Rotarians first heard from Lindsey Pearl, CTE Coordinator for Gilchrist County Schools.
Pearl distributed a Comprehensive Learning Needs Assessment to those in attendence.
The CLNA surveys the needs of parents, teachers, students and businesses to make sure Gilchrist County’s CTE programs are adequately preparing their students to join the local workforce, specifically in vocational fields.
Next, Jenny Lloyd from the Branford Rotary Club spoke to the group about RYLA.
Lloyd is the coordinator for the District 6940 RYLA Program.
District 6940 has about 50 clubs from ranging from here to Pensacola.
Lloyd said RYLA has about 80 kids a year along with 10 alumni. She said it is an intensive training program held every spring that lasts a weekend. She said the kids arrive on Thursday afternoon and are constantly going until Sunday afternoon.
At RYLA, Lloyd said they talk about communication, problem solving and learning personalities.
In one activity at RYLA, the kids have one hour to pack $10,000 meals, and “they knock it out every single time,” Lloyd said.
She said those meals are then donated to reserve sources in the district to be distributed during situations like hurricanes.
Lloyd talked to Sarah Murray, a senior at Trenton who attended RYLA as a sophomore.
Murray shared what she gained from RYLA and her favorite memories.