Changing sports metaphors is needed here: Last Tuesday we went from a double-header to a hat trick! This is a long story: click Read More to read about Johanna Barbey on Camp RYLA and her upcoming exchange, Caidyn Schulz about RFHS Forensics, and Rufus Elging on bidding River Falls farewell. Bonus: Clicking Read More will bring up photos of the other 2 student speakers as well as Ted Marsh's guest, his former exchange student.
Johanna Barbey talked about her favorite parts of the Camp RYLA experience where the focus is on developing leadership and teamwork skills. Her team, Team Red Bulls, was a diverse group of about 12 students. The group got along very well, she said. Johanna went through the various team building exercises teachin lessons about cooperation and asking for help, They did rock wall climbing, made some care packages for homeless people for a Twin Cities organization.
Their teams big challenge was solving a problem in a fictional “RYLA High”. The various groups competed for best project with similar but not identical scenarios. Johanna thought that their group won because they did a good job of communicating and getting ideas from the team. She made some lasting friendships, has been to a musical and will be going to a graduation for two different friends she made at Camp RYLA
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Johanna said that she’d emphasize the fun aspects of being in the camp and not to worry about tasks being too challenging. She said that her school activities include 4H as ‘sunshine’ person, Wiley’s, in NHS, book clubs, Relay for Life planning committee.
Johanna's Part 2: She will be outbound to Austria next year. With both parents being German, she has something of a head start on the language and culture. She will live in the small town of Bolsdorf , population about 6000; she will go to school in a larger adjacent community. She has learned some German. Her town is not in the Alps but is in south Austria. Will have an 11 year old sister, and her (first) family has a cat & a dog. She will have 2 host families. Skiing is big in her family, and Johanna will learn to ski. Will be a junior in her high school.
FORENSICS
Alexander Miller is a co-coach of the RF Forensics Club (Rotarians might remember that a contribution from our club helped start forensics at RFHS. Forensics is a competitive public speaking program. Four RFHS students will be going to the national tournament in Des Moines in June. Club at RFHS has 40 members.
Caidyn Schulz had Covid as a freshman, and as a result as a sophomore joined forensics to overcome reluctance to speak in public. She described the process of these competitive tournaments. One skill that she leaned is coping with rejection since that is part of the process. Caidyn said that qualifying for the national tournament requires placing top 2 in a tournament locally. She has found that the best thing besides the speaking aspect is adding listening skills, which has helped Caidyn with her job at Target. Despite the competitive aspect of speaking, the atmosphere is very supportive, with lots of cheering each other on.
In response to a question, Caidyn said that UW LaCrosse is in her future, having just graduated.
Rufus did a great summary of his year in WI. He said that he will miss his host families and will bring back lots of memories. He will be going to a tractor pull this weekend Showing his outstanding sense of humor, Rufus said that this will make him a "certified redneck".
