Youth Leadership
The Club actively supports Rotary Ireland's flagship competition.
The Youth Leadership Development Competition, run with the assistance of the European Parliament Office in Dublin, is one of Rotary's longest-running youth projects, an all-Ireland annual event aimed at helping young people prepare for their future careers it rewards young people with clear leadership potential based on their extra-curricular activities. It teaches interview skills, builds self-confidence and raises awareness of European Political and Policy issues. The winners are judged solely on their potential as leaders from over 2,000 applicants across Ireland. The Competition was paused by Rotary Ireland during Covid and the Club has not participated since then until this year.
Club Candidates - see menu right
The Club participates by inviting schools to nominate for interview students who will be 18 or younger by March of the competition year. They are asked to submit standard application forms, which illustrate their personal achievements to date, work and leadership experience and gave examples of their planning and organisational skills. Members interview these candidates at each school and select those to go forward to a Club final where one is selected for the area Regional Final (of which there are 8) when 3 are selected to travel resulting in 24 finalists. The Club thanks all members who give willingly of their time to carry out interviews. The competition would not be possible without their support.
The schools are all enthusiastic advocates of the competition and are well aware of the benefits to the students of both taking part and achieving success. We are particularly pleased that in recent years the Club's nominees (see here) have, in the main, won a coveted Euroscola place against finalists of the highest calibre.
We are always delighted to welcome back to the Club the nominees to hear their report.
2025 Club nominee was Alexander Eagan, Methodist College
The Zone 1 Final for the Youth Leadership Competition 2025 was hosted by the Rotary Club of Newtownabbey Tuesday 18 November. Congratulations are extended to Club nominee Alexander Eagan, Methodist College Belfast who has been offered a place on the Rotary-Ireland group to visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg and take part in the Euroscola Debate early in 2026.
We were delighted to welcome him back to the Club March 30 to report on his visit with the Youth Leadership Development team to visit the European Parliament (EP) in Strasburg and take part in a debate.
In a most impressive presentation Alex advised it was a brilliant experience with 20 young people from all over Ireland embarking on a week-long trip at the end of January. He found the experience surreal but incredibly exciting and enjoyable, they had a serious element but also had a lot of fun, made a lot of friends of all nationalities and he was especially pleased to have been able to practice his German speaking with the other Euroscolars. He particularly stressed that the competition may be based on leadership, but he believes it delivers much more by increasing confidence and interview skills which will greatly help with University and job applications as well as the general skillset gathered from such a week.
In his detailed report he highlighted the visit to Stormont, Leinster House and the European Parliament Office in Dublin. The European Parliament Debate topic was the European Green Deal and his group was selected to be against it (though he admitted that was not his personal view!). He highlighted the Irish group were very lucky to have 17 of them being chosen out of the 800 participants to speak for 1 minute during the debate. He particularly highlighted how awe inspiring it had been to walk into the Chamber and sit in the same seats as others have done.