In the ancestral environment, having too many leaders could lead to conflict and leave everyone worse off. This may be why most people aren’t natural leaders. Today, in the modern world, with its staggering variety of skills and fields of expertise, things are different. The world desperately needs better leaders — this is why CEOs get paid so much. But most people aren’t up to the task.

Addressing this became a goal of Rotary International, one of the world’s largest service organizations. The Rotary Club’s motto is “Service Above Self,” and its Interact Clubs offer students the opportunity to serve their communities while developing leadership skills. To further cultivate these skills in the most promising of Interact members, Rotary International started the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) program. Its aim is to create young leaders who are confident, ethical and unpolarized.

Recently, I had the opportunity to go to a RYLA camp for four days, along with four other students from Tehachapi-area schools — Ryan Swanson, Rubie Howard, Garrett Breen and Jakob Bakker.

RYLA was exciting, illuminating and fun. The guest speakers were dynamic and inspiring, especially retired basketball player Jim Brogan, an incredible motivational speaker whose genius is difficult to describe. While the ride to the camp was quiet, the ride back was lively, as we were all energized by the experience.

Everyone at RYLA is placed into color-coded teams. The famous 1950s social psychology “Robbers Cave” experiment shows that simply assigning teams is enough to spark inter-group conflict, but somehow, throughout the entire camp experience, no such conflict came up, aside from benign attempts to outdo each other on team cheers.

Indeed, everyone at Camp RYLA is profoundly kind. Movies often portray teenagers as rowdy, short-sighted hedonists who go around vandalizing things, but I never saw any such behavior at RYLA. It goes to show that Rotary International’s selection process is excellent and that these students are exceptional even before they set foot in RYLA.

So, if I had to choose the best part of RYLA, it would be the people. Not only are the students kind and reasonable, but the counselors and instructors are exceptional as well. I commend Rotary International for hosting this camp, and I hope they will continue to provide this life-changing opportunity to students in the future.

Warren Woolf is an incoming 12th-grade student at Valley Oaks Charter School.