Rotary rewards leadership

The Del Mar Rotary sponsored 15 Torrey Pines and Cathedral Catholic students at the recent Rotary Youth Leadership Awards camp.

Called RYLA, the all-expenses paid, Rotary district camp helped high school juniors develop leadership skills with activities and guest speakers on this year’s theme “Knowledge is Power.”

The students said they learned not to be afraid of their goals, to be confident in the classroom, that they will miss 100 percent of the shots they don’t take and that adversity can mean opportunity.

“I was one of the best weekends of my life,” said Samantha Fabiano from Torrey Pines. “It was truly amazing. We learned the power of knowledge and what we can do to make a difference where we live.”

Joining Fabiano from Torrey Pines were Caylee Ashwell, Robbie Rodriguez, Nathan Neely, Nicole Wypychowski, Joy Chang Liu, Caroline Yu and Rachneet Sethi.

Cathedral’s scholars were Brett Young, Chris Honeycutt, Elanie Mamaril, Hillary Hull and Audrey Ellis.

Returning seniors from last year were Tara Mullally of Torrey Pines and Lisa Schmitt of Cathedral. The girls served as leaders during the weekend, helping inspire a group of 300 students from all over the county.

“We gave out more high fives than humanly possible,” Schmitt joked.