RYLA Leadership
| Executive Director | Todd St. Vrain |
| Program Manager | Harmony Ma |
| Treasurer | David Dye |
| Operations / Administration | Steven Lindstrom, Harmony Ma, Todd St. Vrain |
| Alumni Coordinators | Karen Kam, Kevin Angeles |
| Marketing / Student Recruitment | Allen Ng, Karen Kam, Kevin Angeles, RYLA Alumni |
| Facilitator Recruitment | Josh Hafter, Gary White |
| Facilitator Training | Linda Birnbaum, Susan Call |
| Rotary Youth Protection Training | Frank Moremen, David Dye, Mary Bates |
| Youth Mental Health | Chris Miller, Robin Pence, Patty Bianco, Jenny Bates |
| Nurses | Liz Marks, Rich Swart |
| Housing | Mary Liu |
| Program | Christina Stroeh, Todd St. Vrain, Harmony Ma, David Dye, Josh Hafter, Karen Kam, Kevin Angeles, Art Kauffman |
| Swag / Supplies | Judy Johnson, Art Kauffman |
| Transportation | Kristine Balthazar, Frank Yoke, Mary Liu |
| Fundraising | Lynn Luckow, David Dye, Todd St. Vrain |
| Videography & Photography | RYLA Alumni |
| Impact Assessment | Todd St. Vrain, Harmony Ma, Karen Kam, Kevin Angeles |
Why Rotary Sponsors RYLA
Those Rotary Clubs supporting RYLA do so to advance ‘Service Above Self’ leadership and:
Demonstrate Rotary's respect and engagement of youth
Provide an effective, empowering training experience for young leaders
Encourage leadership of youth by youth
Recognize publicly young people who are rendering service to their communities
Youth are sponsored and all expenses are paid by more than 35 local Rotary clubs in District 5150 (Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties). For those selected to participate, this recognition offers the opportunity to build self-confidence, meet active leaders from 30+ high schools across the three counties, gain exposure to a variety of community issues, and learn valuable leadership skills.
The Rotary Club of San Francisco, the second oldest club in the world founded in 1908, started RYLA as a community project in 1985 with the support of its San Francisco Rotary Foundation. In 2013, the project was opened to the three counties and thousands of high school students from over 40 high schools have been supported to participate. The Rotary Club of San Francisco and its San Francisco Rotary Foundation remain the lead sponsors of RYLA.
“RYLA is one of the most significant and fastest growing programs of Rotary International.” |
“Each year thousands of young people take part in local RYLA programs worldwide.” |
What is Rotary?
Rotary International
In Chicago in 1905, a man named Paul Harris met with several business friends to talk about mutual business problems. He felt that talking about matters that concerned each of them would prove beneficial not only to themselves but to the community at large. The men began holding weekly meetings. They decided to "rotate" the meeting sites to their respective offices. Thus "Rotary" was born. Today, Rotary’s main objective is service, both locally and internationally. More than 1.2 million men and women comprise over 34,000 clubs throughout the world. In terms of time and money, Rotary is the largest independent giving organization in the world.
Local Rotary Clubs
In each of the 34,000+ local Rotary Clubs worldwide, Rotarians promote a wide range of community service projects. In addition to youth leadership development, Rotarians support many local and international service projects focused on improving seven aspects of the human condition:
Rotary and Youth
In support of youth development, Rotary promotes opportunities for youth in the following ways:
Interact is a service organization created and sponsored by Rotary clubs for youth ages 12-18. It has more than 12,300 clubs in 133 countries.
Rotaract is organized by Rotary clubs to promote leadership, professional development, and service among young adults ages 18-30. There are more than 8,000 clubs in 167 countries.
Rotary Youth Exchange offers students ages 15-19 the chance to travel abroad for cultural exchanges ranging from one week to a full academic year. Rotary clubs and districts sponsor and host more than 8,000 Youth Exchange students a year.