At our last meeting we welcomed 14 young guests at our youth focused night. Organised by the youth committee, many students from Swinburne were seated amongst the members, which worked well. At the end of the presentation, we were able to offer students information about RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award), Mock Interviews and Camberwell Rotaract.
Initially we were entertained by a talk from Ardie Martono who had recently attended the RYLA Camp.
Members particularly enjoyed the open expression of Ardie’s feelings and emotions as he evolved over the 5 or so days of RYLA with what were in the beginning random colleagues but by the end were close friends.
Ardie is an Indonesian, based in Melbourne, finishing a Computer Science degree at Monash. His connection to Rotary actually started when he was young: As a Rotary Youth Exchange Student in California in 2018–19, sponsored by RC Surabaja-Darmo and three Santa Rosa clubs. Ardie is Past President of the Rotaract e-Club of Global Alum, which is leading about 20 young professionals across 7 countries. Outside Rotary Ardie has taught piano, tutored, advised college students, and worked in hospitality while finishing his degree.
On this evening we welcomed 14 young guests, half of which were friends of Ardie’s from his RYLA experience and the other half were from our recently held Swinburne Uni expo. Many of the young guests had some history with Rotary and many wanted to continue some Rotary connection. The youth committee is following up with these guests to discuss their options for engaging with Rotary. The options include volunteering, attending a rotary event such as RYLA or joining the newly formed Camberwell Rotaract.
Members should be congratulated for welcoming the young guests so pleasantly.