The local San Saba Rotary Club recently sponsored students to attend RYLA. RYLA - ROTARY YOUTH LEADERSHIP AWARD CONFERENCE is a wonderful opportunity for high school students to meet other high school students from across the state of Texas and share their past leadership experiences and learn more about leadership and service. The 2011 RYLA Conference was held over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend (Friday, January 14 - Monday, January 17, 2010) at the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch in New Braunfels, Texas. The RYLA concept is quite simple but very effective. Guest speakers make presentations and conduct “Hands On” workshops in leadership, trust, cooperation, communication, teamwork and other meaningful and topical subjects. After each talk, the students meet in small groups to discuss the topics and their views and share with the others in their group and the students have some pretty lively debates and discussions. San Saba High School was fortunate to have three students attend the RYLA Conference. Two students attended for the first time and one student attended for a second time as a camp counselor. SSHS Senior, Lauren Dawson attended RYLA as a camp counselor leading groups and facilitating leadership activities. Juniors, Heather Wilcox and Juan Ortega attended for the first time as representatives of San Saba High School. The San Saba Rotary Club is very active and interested in public education and the education of San Saba County Students. The Club annually sponsors the Rotary Honors Banquet recognizing the honor students from each of the county schools in San Saba County. Promoting Leadership and Service are two of the interests of this club as seen through their participation in RYLA. Heather and Juan attended a Rotary Meeting on January 19, 2012 to give club members an update on their trip. The two spoke to the group about the leadership activities they learned a great deal from, the students they met from other schools and other nations and told of the great experience they had enjoyed.