Jules Borghouts

Name: Jules Borghouts
Participant Year: 2022
​Current Role: Facilitator

What are you doing at the moment in work/life?
Currently studying a bachelor of mechanical engineering and biochemistry, working at a bartender-for-hire events company, and trying to create my dream garden.
 
 
How did RYLA help you on your journey to where you are now?
I spent most of my adolescence trying to do the ‘right’ thing. Keeping my grades up, getting a decent first job, starting a savings account, starting the same science degree that both my parents and my sister also did. I didn’t really stop to think about what I actually wanted to do. Ryla helped me identify my own passions and priorities, which has helped me move through my life more deliberately and with more purpose.
 
What does RYLA mean to you?
RYLA to me is an opportunity to remove myself from the outside world for a week, and just focus on myself and the other people at the camp, to try to reflect on what matters to me and how I can continue pursuing my goals. It is also an incredible opportunity to practise the leadership and teamwork skills I learnt as a participant in a real world setting as a RYLA team member.
 
What would you say to someone who is thinking of applying for RYLA?
Do it. The program takes as much out of you as you’re willing to give it, which means it can completely change your life (as it has for most of team, since we keep coming back) but it can also just be a really odd week away you did as a young adult that put a bunch of random people on your social media feed for a few years. Neither of these experiences are any more or less valid than the other, and I think that either experience is a wholly positive one.