RYPEN SummerCamp

The Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment (RYPEN) SummerCamp is a 3-day residential experiential program for Year 10 students, delivered each February. Melanie leads the program end-to-end, from concept and curriculum through to budgeting, logistics, and on-the-ground delivery.

The program is designed to stretch young people beyond the familiar, building confidence, self-awareness, and the skills to work with people who think differently from them. It is experiential by design: participants learn by doing, reflecting, and collaborating rather than by sitting and listening.

Running a residential program for young people requires a different level of care and preparation than most professional events. Melanie manages the full project lifecycle, including stakeholder coordination with schools and Rotary, budget planning, program scheduling, facilitator briefing, and the pastoral responsibilities that come with a residential setting.

RYPEN reflects Melanie's conviction that the best time to teach systems thinking and creative problem-solving is before people's habits are fixed, and that investing in young people is one of the highest-leverage things a community can do.