Know A Wayland Youth Leader? Rotary Nominations Closing Soon

WAYLAND, MA — Nominations for the 2023 Rotary Club of Weston and Wayland annual Risig Youth Leadership Award will close over the MLK Day weekend. The award highlights community service efforts of local second-year high school students, and comes with a trip to an annual youth leadership conference.

The local 2022 winners were:

• Jayanth Mani (Wayland High School)
• Jeffrey Asare-Danquah (Weston High School)
• Kailas Srinivasan (Wayland High School)
• Eliana Tillman Schwartz (Weston High School)
• Selena Liu (Wayland High School)
• Hannah Marill (Weston High School)
• Sam Brande (Wayland High School)
• Max Ding (Weston High School)
• Sophie Roman (Wayland High School)
• Katya Marchant (Weston High School)

Here's more from a Rotary Club news release:

For the sixth year, the Rotary Club of Weston and Wayland’s Rotary Youth Leadership Award program will recognize leading sophomores who invest themselves in “service above self, focusing on leadership and community service.”

Any student can be nominated by a member of the community through this very simple nomination form by October 27, 2022 and January 14, 2023.

“During the 2022-23 academic year, sophomores who live or study in Wayland or Weston will be recognized for their ability to embrace community service as a core value, just as Rotary Clubs around the world do,” said John Marchiony, who is the RYLA Co-Chair along with Mark Messina.

Since launching the Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) in 2017, the Rotary Club of Weston and Wayland has recognized sixty-four sophomores and has sponsored ten each year to attend the transformational RYLA Conference in June.

“The students we have met over the first four years of the RYLA program have made amazing contributions and have become outstanding collaborators,” Marchiony continued. “Individually and with the Rotary Interact Clubs at the high schools in Wayland and Weston, the students who have been nominated for the award have made tremendous impact. A highlight of our experience has been assisting with the students’ initiatives and welcoming them as volunteers on projects we have done.”

Selected students will be recognized at innovative online and in-person events.

Any student can be nominated by any member of the school community, including teachers, coaches, administrators, advisors, students or community leaders using the simple online nomination form. Outstanding students will be selected and recognized in October and February based on nominations received anytime before October 27 and January 15. If you have any questions, please contact us through westonwaylandrotary@gmail.com.