Dana Ezzat, our guest speaker, is 21-years old and was born in Egypt. She came to Australia with her family 3 years ago and is currently studying psychology at Deakin University. Dana is also the Secretary of the Casey-Cardinia Rotaract Club.
Dana explained that being borne in Cairo with a Mediterranean culture, family is most important. She found the transition to Australia difficult, as she really missed the large family environment and felt somewhat isolated within the Australian culture.
Determined to overcome this feeling of isolation, Dana enrolled at Deakin University and began to socialise more. She also joined Rotaract where she met some very interesting people. Despite her excellent English, Dana struggled with communication due to the Australian accent and slang. As a result, she had a real fear of public speaking.
Last year, the Rotary Club of Berwick sponsored her for the RYLA 3-day camp aimed at 18-25 year olds. The objective is to teach participants about different leadership styles and to develop their interpersonal skills within a fun environment.
During the program, she made new and amazing friendships and took part in a range of adventure activities, some of which she even did blindfolded.
The speakers in the program were excellent. One particular speaker called Lisa talked about anxiety and a technique to overcome it.
The technique proved very useful to Dana when she was asked to prepare and deliver a speech at a 21st birthday party for her boyfriend Campbell. Using Lisa's technique, Dana delivered the speech to 120 people and received accolades afterwards for how good and confident she had been. This proved to be a major milestone for Dana.
She also advised that her boyfriend Campbell is also a former RYLA participant and is currently on the RYLA Committee. The Committee plans to extend the 3-day camp to 7 days. This will be good, because the 3-day program had been very condensed.
Dana concluded by thanking the Rotary Club of Berwick for providing her with the opportunity to participate in the life-changing RYLA program
