A Club’s Role After Signing Up A Student(s)
THANK YOU for your club’s decision to sponsor a student(s) to attend the 2025 Missouri RYLA Academy!
By way of information, I wanted to let you know the protocol of how the sponsorship process moves forward from this point.
Now that your club has signed up the student(s) and paid the $600.00 sponsorship fee, I will be contacting the student and their family directly. The family will receive the registration link passcode so they can register their student with the personal information the academy requires.
Transportation:
The primary responsibility you have from this point is to touch base with the student a week or two before their session date to ensure they have their transportation needs covered to and from the academy. If the family cannot meet those needs, it is the responsibility of the sponsoring club to make arrangements.
If your club members transport a student, we strongly recommend that there be at least two adults in the car; be it a spouse, club member or another trustworthy adult. We cannot stress enough that it is in everyone’s best interest.
Before the conclusion of the academy, we teach and prepare the participants about giving a program to your club when they return home to your community.
After the Academy:
After they finish RYLA, you will receive a video text/postcard from your sponsored student(s) no later than mid-July 2025. That short video will contain some details of the takeaway and “ah ha” moments your student experienced. It is your opportunity to contact the student(s) directly and arrange with them to come and present to your club. They will be waiting to hear from you and super excited to share with you in person what they experienced! We encourage you to have them to your meeting before the new school year begins, as many of them are extremely busy and missing part of a school day can present a challenge.
Observe and let us know:
Our program wants to know “the rest of the story!” Please let us know where your student’s service journey goes! We want to know how or if they serve with your club, in their schools and communities. They walk away from RYLA with equipped with the tools to conceptualize, develop and implement service projects and we want to follow where their individual service opportunities take them.
If you have any questions regarding the academy or student’s registration, please contact me.
Miki McKee Koelsch, Director of Administration
314.422.7894