This week, we had the pleasure of hearing from two young women, whom we had sponsored on two Rotary youth programmes.
Charlie Fleury RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards)
Charlie comes from Naenae. She previously attended IYM in 2018, sponsored by our Club whilst still attending Naenae College. She is now in the workforce, cleaning windows. Not any ordinary windows but those requiring her to use her abseiling skills! She is very involved in the Scouting movement, is a Queen's Scout and leads a local Scout group. She has attended an Outward Bound Course at Anakiwa, and her ultimate ambition is to become an instructor at Outward Bound.
To this end, she found her attendance at RYLA most worthwhile. Developing leadership skills was a major aspect of the course, together with building teamwork. With 40 folks on the course, and divided into teams, there was a real competitive edge to all the games and tests they were set. The accommodation, two bed rooms, and the food provided were excellent. The leaders too, were excellent. Charlie was most appreciative of the contribution the club has made to sponsoring her, and was most enthusiastic about the personal development she had achieved, and the overall benefits of the course.
Rio Salisbury-Metcalf IYM (Innovative Young Minds)
Rio is a year 12 pupil at Hutt Valley High School, lives in Wainuomata, and has always had an overpowering interest in the sciences. She attended the on-line IYM course last year and was very keen to attend the residential course, this year in July. IYM is a one week course based at Silverstream Retreat. As well as lecture and team building exercises on site, the group visited a number of businesses in Wellington and the Hutt Valley. The goal for IYM is to inspire a new generation of female innovators and industry leaders in the STEMM sector (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Medical), where women are currently under-represented. Among the sites visited were Callaghan Institute, Fraser Engineering, Otago University, Parliament.
For the final graduation ceremony, the young women were asked to present an innovative way of helping prevent flooding and combating climate change. Small groups of 4 to 6 women presented some amazing ideas, all put together in only 5 hours, spread over the week. Rio thoroughly enjoyed the course, and took lots of inspiration from the leaders and the site visits. After one more year at HVHS, she intends to attend Otago University, doing a BSc, followed by a degree in medicine. Rio thanked the club most sincerely for their support, and was delighted at the benefits of the IYM course.