Front Royal, VA— On Saturday, October 17th, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Randolph-Macon Academy Middle School will be leading what is believed to be the first known Middle School Rotary Youth Leadership Activity (RYLA) worldwide. It will be a day-long event geared towards making service above self and leadership relevant to middle school students in the local area.
“The ultimate goal is to encourage and train other clubs to have their own middle school RYLAs, and to see this take off worldwide, for the betterment of middle school students around our globe,” said Michael Williams, who is the Director of Student Life at R-MA and the Services Committee Chair of the Rotary Club of Warren County. The Rotary Club sponsors the R-MA Middle School Interact Club, of which Williams is the advisor. Williams said that to his knowledge, only R-MA Middle School and Warren County Middle School have Middle School Interact Clubs within Rotary District 7570, which spans from Winchester, VA to Johnson City, Tennessee.
“Having sent several students to RYLA in the past, our Upper School has had significant experience in this area,” Williams stated. “Nonetheless, this is a major breakthrough for Rotary Middle School Interact worldwide, as well as within our own District. By leading the charge, the R-MA Middle School Interact Club is enhancing its own leadership and service abilities.”
The day will begin with the members of the two middle school Interact clubs participating in a service project: the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk going on in Front Royal that morning. The students will then go to the Northern Virginia 4-H Educational Center, where they will discover their personality types with Bob Meadows and hear from Beth Iden with the Liberian Orphan Education Project, which is based in Browntown.
For more information please contact Michael Williams at mwilliams@rma.edu.
Randolph-Macon Academy (R-MA), founded in 1892, is a college-preparatory, coeducational day and boarding school for students in grades 6 through 12. Students in grades 9-12 participate in R-MA’s 91st Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) and have the option to participate in a flight program. R-MA is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and is located in Front Royal, VA.