Early in June four year 10 Matamata College students headed to Glen Murray for a weekend Rotary Youth Programme of Enrichment, or RYPEN. 

RYPEN is designed to grow young people, providing them with the opportunity to work in teams with people they had never met before and learn some goal setting skills.

Students are generally selected by the year 10 dean who is asked to identify students ‘who’ve shown qualities of decency, courage, persistence, sincerity, leadership and application in everyday life, and who deserve further development and guidance’. Daisy Jones, Sarai Gold, Kaire de Goeij and Trinity Owen were selected for 2018 and while they did not know exactly what to expect they were excited to head off. Rotary Matamata sponsors most of the cost of the weekend, with a small amount paid by the student’s family, and transport the students to and from Lakewood Lodge.
Some of their highlights were; the lovely staff who made sure all the participants felt included. “If you were on your own one of them would always come over and chat. See if you were OK. They were so kind”, and the food. “The chef was great, he made lovely scones and the food was great”. What the girls seemed to appreciate most thought was the opportunity to meet motivated students their own age from outside Matamata. “Everyone was very mature and you didn’t have boys messing about and being silly”
 
Asked would you recommend the weekend to others the girls all agreed they would. 
 
RYPEN is held each year in May/June. Anyone interested should discuss with their year 10 dean, contact Matamata Rotary mmrotarysecretary@gmail.comor see the District RYPEN website https://rotary9930.org/page/youth-rypen