NORWICH – Although summer break began Monday for high school students, four Norwich juniors are preparing to attend the 36th annual Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) Conference from June 24 to June 29 after being interviewed by a committee and subsequently selected for the retreat.

Katie Doliver, Hannah Klockowski, Jacob Russell, and Ryan Sanford were selected by a committee consisting of staff at the Chenango United Way and leaders from various businesses across Norwich to attend the RYLA conference at SUNY Oneonta and fine tune their leadership skills.

Doliver, Klockowski, Russell, and Sanford are all members of the Norwich high school’s National Honor Society. As part of the RYLA selection process, each of the students were interviewed by a committee and asked various questions, like, ‘If you were an animal, what kind would you be?’

Russell said, “I pretty much just came up with it on the spot. I said, ‘A wolf, because I work well in packs.’” Sanford said he would be a barn owl. Doliver said she would be any bird with the gift of flight, and Klockowski said she would be a sea turtle.