Big West (Oregon & Vancouver): 

Big West Rotaract Conference is an annual event which brings young adults together from the West Coast of Canada and the United States for a weekend full of leadership training, networking, and inspirational presentations. I had the opportunity to attend the conference in Oregon in 2018 and Vancouver in 2019. The knowledge and connections I made at those conferences helped me be a leader in my Rotaract club and create a network of support that helped build the club. The leadership skills and confidence I have grown from those conferences have also been valuable for my educational and professional life outside of Rotaract. 

RYLA: 

RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. This event is a 4 day leadership camp for young adults which focuses on providing effective training experience for selected participants of this award who are seen as leaders or potential leaders in their community. Throughout the camp participants are encouraged to step outside their comfort zone, practice leadership and teamwork skills, and have fun. This was a really important event for me to attend after coming back from exchange and helped me continue to develop the confidence I built on my exchange year and reconnect and connect with people from the district. 

District Conference (5050, 5020, 1650): 

District Conferences are an annual event that Rotary Districts have around the world. I have been lucky to attend 4 conferences over 3 different districts since getting involved with Rotary. These conferences are similar to Big West Conferences but are intended for just clubs within the district and are generally more catered towards Rotarians, not Rotaract. I think these conferences offer me a great opportunity to network with professionals in my community and to practice my leadership and professionalism skills, as I am often helping with the Youth Exchange students that are attending the event. When in that role, I additionally see these events as a great practice to leading groups of youth.