Conchita R. Khan
Attended RYLA 9800 as a participant in 2018 Master of Engineering student in University of Melbourne Why did you do RYLA? I was told about it by a friend who is a former participant. It was during the holidays; I didn’t have any plans. Also, I’m an international student, I’d never been camping in Melbourne before, and I enjoy meeting new people, so I thought, ‘Why not?!’ I did not know anything about Rotary clubs or RYLA and I honestly wasn’t expecting much from the program. But I was wrong – the program turned out to be much more than just a social event. I’m glad my friend got me involved. What did RYLA mean to you? My biggest takeaway from RYLA was empathy and compassion for others. In our day-to-day lives, it is difficult, and often inappropriate, to talk about certain issues like mental health or discrimination, but RYLA was a good platform for me to do that with other people in the same age group as myself. Listening to people describe their lives and their struggles with issues that I don’t normally face gave me a deeper appreciation for them. At the same time, it was liberating for me to be allowed to share my story and my perspective on things. These conversations I will hold dear forever, because you don’t get many chances to have them. How has RYLA helped you on the path you are on today? RYLA helped me mature into a better person. I’m much more considerate about other people’s struggles and not as quick to distance myself from those who have different opinions. I believe I’ve learned to respectfully disagree and work with people I don’t see eye to eye with. This helps me not only in my personal life, but professional life as well. I also had the fortune to meet the Governor of Rotary, Bronwyn Stephens, who then sponsored me to attend the Social Impact Forum and, a few months after that, the International Women’s Day Breakfast at the Crown. Moreover, a few months after RYLA ended, I was invited for dinner by my Rotary club to talk about my RYLA experience, where I met some amazing Rotarians. I’m looking forward to becoming involved with the Rotary club in some small capacity in the future. And last, but not least, I made some great friends at RYLA – friends I still catch up with every now and then. We have this unspoken understanding that we’re always there to lend each other a hand or an ear. It’s a support system that lasts a long time.
0 Comments
Daniel has volunteered as part of the RYLA team for 7 years since he attended RYLA as a participant in 2011. With many talents and skills in his belt Daniel has sort out past RYLArians to hear what the program was like for them as participants and active members of their communities. This has led to a series of interviews we will be posting here. This smiling face you see to the left is Daniel helping out the Management team on our RYLA Rotary Dinner Night. His trade mark up-beat attitude made him such a wonderful member of the RYLA team. As part of the first in a series of interviews with former RYLA participants, Daniel Paproth interviews Daniel Paproth. : ) Why did you do RYLA? To be completely honest – I was working for a man by the name of Rob Fava, a member of the Rotary Club of Werribee, who owns cardboard box manufacturing company BoxesToGo. It was my first job, so when he asked if I would be interested in attending RYLA, of course I said yes. Little did I know that it would be the most transformative week of my life – it is the best thing I have ever done. It set me on the path I am on today and I haven’t looked back since. I am so thankful Rob and his wife Lyn planted the seed! What did RYLA mean to you? I am still discovering the answer to that question even today, though it’s been eight years since I did the program as a participant. I don’t know where I would be without it, and I don’t like to think about it. RYLA represented the first time in my life where I was in an environment where I could truly be myself. As I’d spent the best part of 21 years not being myself for fear of judgement from peers, I actually had to learn who I was. RYLA was a week where I knew no one; that gave me the freedom to explore myself and find out who I really was. The program has given me so much over eight years. It has given me a wealth of personal development, trained me in crucial leadership skills, given me greater empathy, awareness, self-awareness, developed in me resilience and also given me an understanding of true community. It has also given me some of the very best friends in the world, many of whom I’m still in contact with on a regular basis. It has even allowed me to watch my partner and my sister in later years participate in the program, which gave me immense pride. How has RYLA helped you on the path you are on today? It’s a bit serendipitous, really. In my participant year in 2011 I met Jamin Heppell. We formed a great bond. He later went on to found The Man Cave, an emotional intelligence and preventative mental health organisation for boys and men. We kept in touch as the years went on, sometimes close, other times not. In 2017 we invited Jamin back to RYLA to deliver a speech and Q&A on his life experience, which introduced me to The Man Cave. In 2018, Jamin and his co-founder Hunter Johnson invited me to join the organisation as a trainee facilitator and I haven’t looked back. So for me, RYLA is the single most important thing that has ever happened to me. It has led me to live out my passion, helping boys and men explore more of their humanity – just like I did in 2011 on RYLA – working for an amazing organisation. It’s given me many amazing friendships. (And, had I not moved out to live with RYLA friends David Kinnersley and Claire Bryan in Brunswick, I would probably never have met the love of my life Emily, because she would have been outside of the 50km maximum radius on Tinder.) To think I nearly didn’t get on the bus that Sunday morning back in 2011… I shudder at the thought. |
AboutOne of the pillars of District 9800's RYLA program is Community. This blog will be an avenue for our RYLArians to contribute to the online RYLA community and share what they are doing to make change in their lives and the lives of others. Archives
October 2022
Categories |