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RYLA Experience - Sean Lucey

On Wed 24th June 2026, members heard from Sean Lucey about his RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) Experience. Sean was nominated by his “Fantastic 7th grade maths teacher” and was sponsored by us to attend.

Sean is currently working as a classroom assistant at Phoenix P-12 Community College – the school that he attended up Year 12 and he's now studying teaching.

The RYLA program in Rotary District 9780 is a 6-day intensive development camp held at Kangaroobie (near Princetown along the Great Ocean Road). Sean arrived at Kangaroobie along with the Ballarat East nominee (Alan) - The beauty of the setting was amazing.

With the knowledge of “What happens in RYLA stays at RYLA”, we listened to Sean reflect on the essence of how it greatly changed people - New & different or old and unknown. The experiences of becoming a leader and leading - what does a leader look like? Sean’s greatest take away was a change in mindset, a leader is a person who is looked to for guidance.

Sean recounted the groundwork laid of features and characteristics of a true leader and that leading requires goal setting. Sean said that RYLA was the best experience he’d ever had.

Q&A

How has it changed your outlook on what you plan to do? With my teaching, I used to feel that as long as I can make it to the end of my career, but I now know that a teacher is a true leader and makes a significant impact on his/her pupils.

How should we talk about RYLA for future candidates? RYLA is an experience that you will see in the attendees. A lot of fun group outdoor activities but an incredible amount was learnt.

Leadership - what type do you see yourself becoming? Leadership styles are many and varied – A really good leader reads the situation and can adapt to it.